Philadelphia Smoking Ban? Check Out San Francisco's

Starting July 1, 2005, San Francisco's smoking ban in public buildings has been extended to city owned property, including outdoor property such as parks, recreational areas, and gardens owned by the city. As I stated in a previous post, after visiting NYC and seeing the effect that a smoking ban in public buildings such as bars and clubs had, which appeared to have little impact on business, I changed my mind and stated I am in favor of such a ban in Philadelphia as well. I am not so sure that I would favor a ban as rigid as San Francisco's, however. One of the major reasons for the ban in all city-owned property is because of the trash left behind by smokers. Maybe if smokers would learn to disgard their cigarette butts properly, this ban would never have been invoked. How many times have you driven on the road and seen people in the car in front of you toss out butts in the street? Disgusting, isn't it? But, like NYC's ban, on a recent visit to San Francisco, the smoking ban in the few bars and clubs I visited did not seem to have any impact on business; the places were filled, wall to wall with customers.