Other Crap

Mayor Blomberg makes up silly non-facts to justify smoking ban. You have to love the report. His commission claims that restaurant and bar business is up 8.7% in 2003 over 2002, thus the ban is good for business. A couple of things wrong with that (1) bars, clubs, and restaurants are three separate businesses, and you can't lump them together into a monolithic industry and say "the industry" is healthy. Lindy's cheesecake sales have nothing to do with the tavern industry. (2) of course business is up over 2002. The entire economy of NYC was devastated in 2002. Is the ban really having a major impact? Impossible to say without (1) a longer timeline of data (2) data separated into much more specific categories, and (3) a comparative look at the rebound of NYC commerce in general. (If your industry is up 8%, that could be brilliant if the city around you is down 63%, or it could be dismal if the city is up 612%.)