Bar owners sue to end smoking ban

10:31 AM CDT on Monday, September 19, 2005

By LEE MCGUIRE / KVUE News

A group of Austin bar owners has filed a lawsuit to put an end to the city's new smoking ordinance. They say business is down as much as 50 percent since it took effect two weeks ago.

They also say the ordinance is hard to enforce and even threatens things like barbecues and fireplaces.

Bill Hardee of the Warehouse Saloon and Billiards was one of 19 bar owners and waitstaff to file the lawsuit Friday against the city of Austin. They cite two dozen reasons why the ordinance should be thrown out.

Among them: it's vague. Plaintiffs say the ban on combustible substances could even include barbecue pits.

But around town the ordinance has been a hit with a lot of people, including Denise Higdon.

"Normally I want to take a shower before I go to bed because I smell like smoke," she said. "This morning I got up, my clothes didn't smell like smoke and what I realized is nobody smokes."

Back at the pool hall, that doesn't mean much.

"It's almost unimaginable that after 22 years with one stroke of a pen that we have been reduced to this," Hardee said.

Some bar owners in that suit say their business dropped as much as 50 percent in the last two weeks alone.

No one from the American Cancer Society, which pushed for the ban, was available Friday, but earlier a spokesman said any immediate drop in business is often made up eventually as new people go out because bars are no longer filled with smoke.