Strange Unexpected Consequences
Back in 2006 when the smoking ban passed in Ohio, there were many people who claimed that lots of bars would go out of business because smokers would stop attending them. I haven't seen any evidence one way or another as to whether that has happened in the intervening four years, but there has been one unexpected consequence that nobody mentioned back then: every eatery around is building a patio.
For example, let's take the one mile stretch of Madison near my house and work our way from east to west.
We were at Sullivan's Irish Pub last Sunday because my fraternity brother Frank and his fiance Theresa were in town. We got all of 20 minutes notice that he'd be there, but when a good friend is in from Seattle and he's less than a mile from your house you go. It's been about more than three years since I was there, and in the meantime they've built a fabulously large outdoor patio with a ton of seating. They even have a fireplace for chilly autumn nights.
Last summer Angelo's Pizza built a nice patio in the front of their restaurant. I doubt it had much to do with the smoking ban because I'm pretty sure they didn't allow smoking pre-ban anyway, but it's a very nice patio.
I honestly can't recall if El Tango Taqueria ever allowed smoking pre-ban, but last summer they built a small patio with room for 3 or 4 tables. Their dining room is small, so this probably added 30% to their available seating.
The Mars Bar is pretty standard neighborhood bar. Two summers ago they expanded a large covered patio behind the Mar, and last summer they added a smaller uncovered patio in front of the bar.
When the ban passed Buckeye Beer Engine already had a large patio that wrapped around two sides of the bar, but last summer they extended it around to the third side of the building (it went from a L shape to a U shape).
That's five different places in a one mile stretch that have added patios. Now, I'm not sure if you can even legally smoke on a patio (people certainly do) and this all happened a few years after the ban, so I can't draw a straight "ban passed patio opened" conclusion, but if I built patios for a living in a state that was trying to pass the ban I might kick some money to their campaign fund. After all, it seems unlikely that all these places simultaneously decided that a patio might increase business.
For example, let's take the one mile stretch of Madison near my house and work our way from east to west.
We were at Sullivan's Irish Pub last Sunday because my fraternity brother Frank and his fiance Theresa were in town. We got all of 20 minutes notice that he'd be there, but when a good friend is in from Seattle and he's less than a mile from your house you go. It's been about more than three years since I was there, and in the meantime they've built a fabulously large outdoor patio with a ton of seating. They even have a fireplace for chilly autumn nights.
Last summer Angelo's Pizza built a nice patio in the front of their restaurant. I doubt it had much to do with the smoking ban because I'm pretty sure they didn't allow smoking pre-ban anyway, but it's a very nice patio.
I honestly can't recall if El Tango Taqueria ever allowed smoking pre-ban, but last summer they built a small patio with room for 3 or 4 tables. Their dining room is small, so this probably added 30% to their available seating.
The Mars Bar is pretty standard neighborhood bar. Two summers ago they expanded a large covered patio behind the Mar, and last summer they added a smaller uncovered patio in front of the bar.
When the ban passed Buckeye Beer Engine already had a large patio that wrapped around two sides of the bar, but last summer they extended it around to the third side of the building (it went from a L shape to a U shape).
That's five different places in a one mile stretch that have added patios. Now, I'm not sure if you can even legally smoke on a patio (people certainly do) and this all happened a few years after the ban, so I can't draw a straight "ban passed patio opened" conclusion, but if I built patios for a living in a state that was trying to pass the ban I might kick some money to their campaign fund. After all, it seems unlikely that all these places simultaneously decided that a patio might increase business.