or escape from New York
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign to take and keep the cars of people suspected of being even one sip over the drunk driving arrest threshold is having a chilling effect on the city's restaurant and bar sales.
As we reported earlier, Giuliani warned Manhattan diners who had "even one drink" to call a cab or risk losing their cars. Several other jurisdictions quickly followed suit. As a result, many responsible social drinkers are staying home - and the bars and restaurants are losing business.
"It's another nail in the coffin," said Bill Leuderman, president of the Suffolk County (NY) Restaurant and Tavern Association. "This, the smoking laws, and now they're trying to push the legal limit to .08. I think some people want to go back to Prohibition."
At least it's stopping drunk drivers... or is it?
While the drop in business is no surprise, don't expect any reduction in drunk driving fatalities. Laws that target social drinkers don't have much effect on chronic alcohol abusers - the root cause of the drunk driving problem. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the effect of the state's lower drunk driving arrest threshold "was primarily limited to individuals who generally restrict their alcohol consumption before driving anyway."
Remember the last thing New York City did to hurt sales?
Immediately after New York City banned smoking in restaurants in 1996, sales dropped 20%. Of the 67% of restaurants reporting a sales decline, 45% had to lay off employees.
