I got a call yesterday from someone in city government who told me that quite a few restaurant owners in Fort Wayne are not very happy right now.
First, they get hit with the county's proposed anti-smoking measure; it's a lot tougher than the existing Fort Wayne ordinance, so if it passed and the city took no action, the county ordinance would take effect, meaning restaurants that shelled out big bucks for enclosed smoking areas have wasted their money. Now, they're being treated to a riverfront development proposal that would let new restaurants in the designated area get new liquor licenses for peanuts instead of the $50,000 to $100,000 existing restaurants have had to shell out for licenses.
"They feel like they're being targeted for everything," my caller said.
I doubt restaurant owners would organize and do anything drastic like boycotting the city for a week, although that might be interesting to see ("Do all your own cooking for a week and see how you like it!"). But I wouldn't be surprised if a restaurant owner or two just threw in the towel.
