I created this AI graphic that helps illustrate why I’m so in favor of smoke-free bar patios in San Francisco. Hundreds of other California cities have already enacted this ordinance, including Oakland and San Jose, the two other large cities in the Bay Area. Why is SF so far behind when it has been so progressive on worker health and the comfort of tourists who bring untold billions to the city? The few bars whining about how poor they’ll be belies empirical evidence over many decades that patronage only increases when an establishment goes smokefree. More importantly, what about the right to breathe fresh air in a public space without having to disclose one’s medical conditions to justify that right? Do the people of San Francisco not remember health crises that they helped bring to the world’s attention? Tobacco-related illness is the MOST preventable cause of death in the world. How does that casually get dismissed as an opportunity to monetize? Even if businesses had to shave off a little bit of profit, which has never been proven to have happened, I think the health of staff and patrons should always be paramount. I currently choose not to avoid bar patios because I cannot get fresh air from a stuffy bar if I’m forced to inhale poison from any number of people who smoke in these confined spaces, albeit “outdoors” in an urban setting directly beneath apartment windows.