There's always a loophole: Most NYC bar and restaurant owners were against the smoking ban, not because of any health concerns, but because they were going to lose tons of money. Turns out, you lose enough, you can get a waiver. As the article explains, the City has the power to grant waivers to the ban to those businesses that have lost too much...ah...business. The rub is that there's no formal process for applying for or granting the waivers. Moreover, there's no requirement that the waivers actually be granted or even considered. Yes, this is a typical bureaucratic snafu, but it certainly gives some hope. Of course, I imagine there's already draft legislation in place to close that loophole or make it basically impossible to get through.