One of the biggest whacks upside the head of the local blogging\/trivia community this past year was the Met Council’s ruling that bars that’d established “smoking patios” outside their premises had to pay fees on that extra square footage as if it was indoor, year-round revenue-generating space.\u00a0 This has forced Twin Cities’ bars to shut down the practice of having special patios for smokers, especially cigar buffs.<\/p>\n
Of course, it’s been a bigger whack upside the head for the bar owners themselves.\u00a0 Already on the ropes from the smoking ban, the extra smack to their summer revenue (summer is already a slow time for most bars) has pushed many Twin Cites establishments up to and in some cases over the edge.<\/p>\n
And in a rare move for a bureaucracy, the Met Council seems to be considering responding to the pressure from bar owners and their patrons.\u00a0 There’ll be a hearing this coming Tuesday afternoon to reconsider the fee structure.\u00a0 I’m not sure if there’s time to salvage the summer (or if the provision will be lifted in time to set up a patio for the MOB party)…<\/p>\n
…but I am <\/em>sure that the region’s anti-smoking gestapo will take a break from whinging about the “orchestration” of town-hall meeting outrage over healthcare to organize plenty of people to come to the meeting to bitch about secondhand smoke.<\/p>\n This is where you come in.<\/p>\n Bureaucrats take phone calls seriously.\u00a0 They – the smart ones, anyway – know that every phone call represents 100 people who didn’t call them.\u00a0 One call represents 100 like-minded people; it’s public relations truism.<\/p>\n And so it’d be great if you could take a moment to contact the members of the Met Council.\u00a0\u00a0 Here they are<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0 Please take a moment and leave them polite, reasoned messages <\/em>asking them to reconsider their policy; it’s killing bars, putting people out of work, and playing into the hands of chain restaurants and establishments.\u00a0 Phone is better than email, but either is vastly better than letting the other guys have the stage to themselves.<\/p>\n