SAN DIEGO, LOS ANGELES, SAN JOSE, SAN FRANCISCO, and SACRAMENTO

Bar owners throughout the state joined together today to voice their outrage about the negative effects of the statewide smoking ban on their businesses. Faced with lost revenues, customer dissatisfaction and costly enforcement policies, many bar owners are struggling just to stay afloat, but vow to continue to fight.

“This law is impacting everyone,” said Danny George, owner of the Middle East Connection in Burbank. “Some bar owners are seeing their revenues drop drastically because they are complying with the law. Others are being fined and being assessed fees because customers have been reported to be smoking in their establishments. Still others are laying off employees in an attempt to reestablish their businesses in order to fall under one of the law’s exemptions.

Killup continued: “I think it’s about time legislators examined what’s happening to real people who run real bars and actually are forced to deal with this law. We cannot continue to rely on academics’ projections such as those by Stanton Glantz which have no foundation in reality. If Glantz was doing real research, he would be visiting our bars. We can show him what’s really happening in California.”

“‘It’s running people out of here,’ said (Terry) Schaner, a bartender for 13 years at the Antlers (in Pinole.) ‘It’s probably cost me about $150, $200 a week in tips,’ he said — about half of his income.”

“‘I’d love to see the law repealed …. It might bring my business back,’ said Craig Holman, owner of Pickwick Pub in Woodland Hills, where business reportedly has dropped about 40 percent since the ban took effect Jan. 1.”

“Lawson (Claudia Lawson of Claudia’s Bar and Grill in Antelope Valley) said business at her Palmdale Boulevard bar has dropped 35 percent since the law took effect.”

“According to the California Licensed Beverage Association, business has dropped as much as 85 percent at many California bars since the prohibition took effect.”

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