Do-Gooders Strike Again
Smoking Ban Snuffs Out White Salmon Watering Hole
By Dan Richardson, 4-19-06
Tyranny of the majority was a threshold concern for the nation's founders. White Salmon residents Mike and Donna Zitur know something about that: The Ziturs have closed the Elkhorn Bar & Grill, a mainstay on Jewett Blvd., citing a statewide ban on smoking in public places. The ban was the result of Initiative 901, which voters approved last year."The first day after I-901 took effect, we were down $500 from a normal day," Mike Zitur told the White Salmon Enterprise. "We were about $10,000 down in revenue each month. ... This is what can happen when voters use their right to vote to take other people's rights away."
The Elkhorn's closure is the second Jewett Blvd. change in recent weeks. Also in the news: A new owner, from Portland, plans to erect a two-story mixed-use building on the empty lot of the former Wallace Theater and the next-door building at 121 E. Jewett. The building would cover over an empty lot eyesore in town, but could also endanger another longtime small business: The Creamery. [End of article]
While I am not seeking to diminish the reporting of this important story, it seems that many others in the press feel an obligation to shield their readers from the bad results caused by laws that they believe to be in the "public’s best interests".
If this kind of story is reported enough, others in the press will simply find four or five businesses that have benefited from the smoking ban, I am sure there are some, giving their readers the impression that overall the loss of some small businesses are worth it in the interest of public health.
Of course there have been no such reports of improvements in public health, or reductions in healthcare costs in states like California and New York, since their smoking bans were enacted. This is likely due to the fact that thousands of people were not actually dying, or getting sick, due to second hand smoke exposure, and most studies on second hand smoke show that it has little if any impact on individuals who are exposed to it.
See http://www.socialsmokers.org/ets_study_tables.html
Jonathan Pinard, Executive Director
New York Coalition of Social Smokers
http://www.socialsmokers.org
The story is sadder than that. These guys bought a restaurant with lottery winnings, along with the building it was housed in.
They didn't know how to manage a restaurant and were in the process of loosing it, along with the property because they forfitted the building to finance the restaurant.
The smoking ban only afforded them a graceful (as possible) excuse for loosing a fortune. One now works at Walmart, the other at a used car lot. Sad, and true.
Good try though trying to blame "the many".
By the way, Mr. Pinard is an idiot.
My father, a waiter, died from second hand smoke from working in a restaurant. It's documented.
I'd love to sit you in a smoke chamber and exhale.