The Problem Is the Ban!

Dear Editor,
   Federal Judge Sparks and even Christopher Gray seem unconvinced that the drop in bar business is due to the smoking ban ["TCB," Music, Oct. 21]. What my colleagues notice is that many bars with patios have enjoyed increased business beginning Sept. 1. Most indoor bars have lost sales and most earnings. Indoor bars are observing no meaningful increase in new nonsmoking clientele to offset the loss of smokers. This particular smoking ban doesn't reduce smoking in Austin; it merely puts in motion dynamics to push dozens of small entertainment businesses into failure.
   In the eight weeks since the ban took effect we observe that smokers are merely relocating to bars with outside patios, or not going out at all. This was a law motivated by political correctness that is hurting small businesses without any appreciable reduction in smoking.