City council didn't do bars any favor

The city of Champaign recently leveled the playing field for the bars in the city. I think they will find, on Jan. 1, when the statewide smoking ban takes effect, that they hurt the bars far more than they helped them.

For the next six and a half months the bars that complained of lost revenue and returned to smoking will be losing customers – not the smoking customers, but the nonsmoking customers. Many of the bars have decided to remain smoke-free and work toward developing a nonsmoking clientele while the bars that have decided to return to smoking will be slowly losing those customers.