So after my search to find all of the bars that are breaking the law the other night, I noticed and spoke to the bartenders about trends caused by this smoking ban. I typically go to neighborhood bars, but also went to a few bigger ones and noticed similar things.

I'll give the example of Snake & Jake's because that was the bar with the biggest problem:

Before the the smoking ban was enacted, S&J's used to be packed inside on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. When I went the other night, all of those people that used to be inside were standing on the sidewalk and in the street. There were two fights in front of resident's houses, one knocking down a wrought iron fence. Outside of the front door, it was loud because drunk people were yelling constantly, smoke everywhere, broken bottles and cigarette butts covering the ground, and someone pulled their car up and was playing music.

I spoke to one of the bartenders, and he said they had been getting complaints pretty much every night about the noise. The door guy was having an even harder time because he had to check ID's every time someone stepped outside to smoke and wanted to come back inside. This was hard because there were probably 30-40 people outside the door. He said the fights were happening more often because people had more room to get rowdy.

Another thing I noticed was that the non-smokers had now come outside to hang out with their friends who were smoking. Yeah, that happened. The hour and a half while I was there, there were no more than 10 people inside the bar at any time. Keep in mind that there were 30-40 people standing right outside the door. The bartenders would take turns coming outside and hanging out with everyone there.

I went to a bigger bar on Magazine earlier in the night, and noticed the same thing....but worse. More trash on the street, people almost getting hit by cars every couple of minutes, more fights, people passed out on the sidewalk, throw up on the sidewalk, etc. They also said that their sales had decreased because people just werent in the bar and didn't think about getting another drink or taking another shot. The people ended up leaving sooner because they were closer to their cars by being outside. One of the bartenders said that non-smokers did not go out as much, stay out as late, or spend as much on drinks as smokers. Inside of this bar had about 15 people, and again around 30 people were outside right on a busy street.

All of these trends were seen at each of the 5 bars I went that night. One bar, which usually had about 90% smokers, barely had anyone in it. The lights were even on inside. It was pathetic, and made me feel like shite that bars I had been going to for 15 years were hurting because of the decisions of a few communists.

So for all of you smoking ban supporters and people saying it works so well in other cities

. You are ruining the essence of what America is about, and you have hurt small businesses all over the city that have been open for 50+ years.