Someone in my family is a health professional, and in a careless moment, they let slip this closely held medical statistic:

Non-smokers eventually die too.

My sources tell me that the Park Tavern in Bloomington closed their doors within the last 48 hours. I will need to get confirmation, but I got the info from a good source.

Park Tavern was a locally-owned small businesses, supporting the community. VFW and American Legions are ready to start closing. While the big corporate bar-and-grills can absorb some loses, there mom-and-pop locations are going to close up soon. Which will drive what little business is left into the corporate machine pubs.

Meanwhile, those same locally owned pubs are the SAME ones that produce tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars for local civic organizations via pull tabs. Businesses like Park Tavern would sponsor Little League teams...and pull tabs would pay for the maintenance of the fields.

Kiss that good-bye. When these brats' parents, who were all gung-ho on the bans, find out they have to actually PAY for the costs of their teams....I'll laugh at them.

And cry as the businesses fail....one by one.

And you people laugh when you people (like me) say that the next step is to ban tobacco use in your private residence.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/142/5417172.html

The frog is boiling.

Mitch--

It's really all about authenticity, you see. Volvo liberals feel better about themselves when they can "get down with the little man" in his favorite blue-collar, R&B-blasting, smoke-filled haunt. Oh, excuse me--scratch "smoke-filled."

Thank's for the heads-up Dave.

I noted yesterday that Weigum had set her sights on apartment dwellers, and now I can use her own words to back it up.

Talk about a gift!

RE:
"I noted yesterday that Weigum had set her sights on apartment dwellers"

Strangely, some of the chronic smokers I know have expressed to me that they wish the State would simply outlaw possession of tobacco altogether. When I ask them why they say that, they say it would just be simpler for them to conduct their day. They wouldn't have to worry about where they could smoke and where they were forbidden.

I don't want to see the laws go that far, though I completely support the ban. Minnesotans are tired of having their favored public spaces hijacked by this unhealthy and anachronisitic practice called smoking.

Swung by the Bloomington Park Tavern after soccer last night...closed.

I'm a mental doofus on many things, not the least of which is law, but I'm curious about something. If a bar or bars can conclusively prove that they had to close up shop due to decreased patronage in the wake of the smoking ban, could they sue the government entity that put the ban in place for damages of some sort?

Again, I hate being such a hyprocrite about this: I disagree with the ban, but man it was nice going into Ol' Mexico the last time and not having my clothes reek like a barn fire upon leaving.

Pinkmonkeybird:

I love that one. Your idiot smoking pals want government to come in and force them to stop smoking. I can hear it:

"Oh, please Mister Legislator! Save me from myself because I am too weak to stop smoking! Please, take away everybody else's liberties to save me from myself!"

Thanks. I needed a laugh.

Also, its nice to see you have such a complete hatred of private property rights. We all know that bar owners are too stupid to know their business and be able to determine which legal activities occur on their premises. I guess the next step, to cut down on obesity, we'll be banning fried food in bars? How about demanding that bars and resturants only serve dishes made with organic produce, to escape the instant-death of those pesticides?

Let's go....start drafting legislation. I'm sure you are smiling, as you watch all those bars and resturants go out of business. I'm sure you love boarding up all those American Legions and VFWs. Your veterans, who fought for your freedom to be an idiot, appreciate you destroying their clubs.

Okay guys, lay off The Bird and the Lady from Merriam Park.

Bob from the American Lung Association of Minnesota speaking. As I told the Pioneer Press some time ago, that the first time a smokefree bar closes anywhere in Hennepin or Ramsey County closes after March 31, you pro-smoke types would cry wolf....and here we are.

You know, bars and restaurants did close BEFORE March 31...How do explain all of the applications for new liquor licenses in both counties, and the many places that are adding seating? Did you note that the April 2005 employment report for MN showed the 2nd highest category of new jobs was in the hospitality industry?

Does that sound like an industry on the ropes to you?

As for the Legions and VFWs, I have stated repeatedly that I (former Army, 1st Armored Division)want everyone to patronize their local smokefree service club.

I hate to be blunt, but it's the smokers -- not us nonsmokers -- who have stuck it to any veteran clubs that might have seen a (temporary) decline in attendence. I guess they care more about their smokes than they care about their club, and the community it serves.

Let's see what the taxman says about bar and restaurant income at the end of the year. Until then, you guys are just blowing smoke.

As you were.

Bob...I've been to Park Tavern for years in Bloomington. I noticed the decline, post smoking ban. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....its a duck.

Speaking of blowing smoke, I particularly gag when I listen to the new radio commercials, which claim second hand smoke leads to over 35,000 deaths per year. Too many studies show nothing of the sort.

Go over to Rockford and ask the bar owner on the Hennepin county side of the line about what's happened to his business. You and your cronies don't care what you do to a private business owner....in your search for your Holy Grail.

And I don't smoke.

Er, Lung, your fly is open.

Mary Wildmo, the owner of both the Tav. on Grand and (evidently) the Glockespeil was one of your few vocal supporters from the hospitality industry.

Are we to believe that her change of heart came about through sudden and unexplained attack of vindictiveness?

What is evidenced, to any rational observer, is that despite claims to the contrary, the majority of regular patrons in the establishments you've targeted either smoke or don't care if others do.

Where is the flood of new patrons that were promised? Where are all of those opressed clean-air and beer lovers?

Even the vast majority of waitresses and waiters I've talked to are against this intrusion.

Whether you choose to admit it or not, the evidence is mounting that this ban is an unwanted, unwarrented disaster.

Good luck with the apartment thing.

Tell it to the Marines, Bob. You and your handmaids stuck it to the veteran's clubs; go polish your halo somewhere else: Your dog don't hunt. Whose hospitality were you talking about anyway?

Is that when local taverns and hometown bars upstate go out of business because you and the mommie-nannies are offended by those who consume a legal product subsidized and taxed by local, state and Federal Governments? Screaming and crying infants are terribly annoying and bad for our digestion too. Shall we likewise declare this a national health crisis and demand the banning of infants from private dining venues?

And, oh-- about those new jobs in the hospitality industry. Do you think Applebee's or Ground Round will compensate the family for its business failure and keep the old place going? Or do ya think they'll just put up another processed, boiling-bag feedbin, pave over the drainfield, and put in a parking lot?

Whyn'tcha come see? There's no waiting for seating and the air inside smells clean, like disinfectant. You can talk to all the new help standing around too. Ask 'em what they make in tips for a burger an' a beer these days, see what they say.

Dismissed.

Mr. Lung,

There is ample evidence to suggest that smoking bans hurt the hospitality industry in the long run. The question is do we want to trade that for reduction in public smoking? I say no, because there isn't a study that shows that 2nd hand smoke actually causes cancer at rates higher than the margin of error. The sources you gave me from your website all use the WHO or EPA studies, which are basically bunk. The only interesting studies you have are correlational studies about the reduction of asthma related problems. Unfortunately, I doubt people would willingly support oppressive government tactics to reduce asthma cases.

Mr. Lung,

There is ample evidence to suggest that smoking bans hurt the hospitality industry in the long run. The question is do we want to trade that for reduction in public smoking? I say no, because there isn't a study that shows that 2nd hand smoke actually causes cancer at rates higher than the margin of error. The sources you gave me from your website all use the WHO or EPA studies, which are basically bunk. The only interesting studies you have are correlational studies about the reduction of asthma related problems. Unfortunately, I doubt people would willingly support oppressive government tactics to reduce asthma cases.

Who distorts the truth more...Bob or Jeannie? Tough one. Each and every day I hear another heartbreaking story about the damage the smoking ban has caused to my fellow bar owners and staff. The first day of the smoking ban I had thirty smoke haters (including the ALA) in for happy hour, I have not seen them since. These party animals ate half price appetizers and toasted the fresh air with their ice tea and water. It appears they are anti alcohol too. One tipped my bartender a buck and told him "don't worry if Stub and Herb's goes out of business, God will take care of you." That sure made my bartender feel better.

Bar owners in Anoka, Scott and Dakota Counties call to thank me for many new customers. They also thank me for the well trained staff who have moved on with the customers...right back into a bar that allows smoking. So much for employees health. The same "smokey" bar that was proved in our very own St. Louis Park study (2004) to test at 150 times BELOW OSHA safety limits for second hand smoke. Remember OSHA, they regulate the workplace.

I hear stories about bars having laid off 1, 3, 7, 20 and 25 employees (yes, I can name them). Bar owners estimate in just the first month Minneapolis has lost 614 jobs and over a million dollars in revenues. No one can tell us how those revenues will be replaced. In just the first month we have proved the smoke haters lied on all counts and the bar owners were proved right. Just ask Glockenspiel, poster child for the smoke haters, claiming all those non smokers will be rushing through her doors. Oh yeah, she now has a waiver to allow smoking just to keep her doors open.

There were twenty five new applications for liquor licenses in Minneapolis in the first 5 months of 2005, all restaurants. Five new restaurants, in a city that takes pride in our "night life" is pathetically low. Bar expansion permits, which totaled 23 to date with EVERY ONE attributed to replacing lost customers thanks to the smoking ban.

Bob, twisted his numbers yet again, saying the hospitality industry was up in April. Numbers in that area which include leisure (think resorts and the nice warm weather we had in April) but the Department of Employment and Economic Developement cleary stated: bars and restaurants were weaker than is typical for this time of year. Again attributed to the smoking ban.

No matter how Bob tries to deny it, the owner of Park Tavern closed because of the smoking ban, others are now closed for lunch, some will be closing for good in the near future. These business owners did not suddenly turn stupid or lazy, through no fault of their own their customers were forced to patronize other establishments, causing lost sales and lost jobs. In some cases closed businesses.

Glockenspiel, the poster child favoring the smoking ban, was so sure that all those non-smoking customers would rush through her door, has now gotten a waiver just to remain in business. Foolish bar owners should be careful what they wish for it just might come true.

I encourage everyone to join the boycott against the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. The money they spend trying to buy smoking bans should be spent on real health issues.

I work in a bar/resturant outside of the Henn Cty limits. Let me tell you. My hours have increased in order to accomodate the mass of persons coming in because we allow smoking. Business is great!

I feel that these decisions should be left up to the bar owners.

I would like to see a ban on the idiots that voted this POS legislation into law. In my area revenues are down 15-25% at most of the places were I have asked the staff. And the people working at these places have had a large drop in their income (mainly tips). Once again, misguided government policy to please a few special interest groups just screws the people it was supposed to help (remember how it was supposed to protect the employees from the dreaded second hand smoke?). And I know my Legion post won't be making many donations this year because that source of income has dried up. Next time one of our Hennepin County commissioners is up for election, vote them out of office.