Say what you will about our smokers, but once a ban goes into effect, they tend to obey it, no matter how much they have complained about it ahead of time. Smokers in Austin, though, at least the bar-hopping kind, seem to have a more "I'll stop when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers" approach:
Ten bars sued over the ban shortly after it took effect last September. Lawyers Marc Levin and Riggs have argued that rules about how bar managers should enforce the ban are unclear and that the city is unfairly punishing bar owners for patrons who smoke rather than punishing the actual smokers.
Assistant City Attorney Lynn Carter has said the city only asks bar owners to take reasonable steps to enforce the ban, such as posting no-smoking signs and asking patrons who light up to stop. And Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Director David Lurie has said bar owners are held responsible because they create an atmosphere that is either conducive or not conducive to smoking.
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Two bar owners I've spoken to have vowed to charge some nominal "membership fee" in order to circumvent the ban by becoming a "private club".
I think there are probably other stipulations they are overlooking but I really didn't know enough about the definition "private club"...
Yes, that is the attitude in Austin, the die-hards are afraid that if they ban smoking, the music crowd will decline sharply, ... and after all, that is really Austin's downtown bread and butter.