Intermediate 
It is no longer legal to smoke a cigarette inside a bar in the worlds drinking capital, New Orleans, Louisiana. Many other cities have banned indoor smoking but New Orleans is different  it attracts tourists with a let the good times roll attitude. An indoor smoking ban in New Orleans could have unique consequences.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans city government has begun trying to turn down the volume a bit. With the support of neighbourhood groups, the city has begun policing bars and nightclubs more strictly, while, at the same time,  ghting to implement a new noise ordinance.
This is just the wrong time for something like this, complains bar-owner William Walker, who hates the anti-smoking law. Forcing people outside the bar to smoke is going to increase the tension thats already there.
Many of New Orleanss best bars and live music venues are in quiet residential neighbourhoods. This neighbourly coexistence is a big part of what makes New Orleans different and charming. But, recently, this unique social contract has become unacceptable for some people and the fate of New Orleanss musical personality feels at risk.
Martha Wood lives beside a loud bar that hosts live music. I bought the house partly because of the bar so I wont ever complain about the noise, says Wood, who also manages a live-music bar. This bar became one of New Orleanss  rst ever bars legally banned from serving drinks to go, after a series of noise issues in 2013  including complaints about the loud smokers outside.
The Maple Leaf club went smoke-free voluntarily in 2014. The same happened at another club where artists had been demanding smoke-free nights. A lot of the performance venues were already starting to show that consideration to performers so I wish the city would have just let that happen instead of forcing the ban into every corner bar that doesnt host music, says Zalia BeVille, manager of the All Ways Lounge.
Luckily, All Ways has an outdoor patio, unlike Lost Love Lounge, whose owner, Geoff Douville, loves the ban  hed previously felt forced to live with smoke to keep his bar going. Theres no way I could have banned smoking in my bar without a ban throughout the whole city, says Douville. People act like I have that choice, as a business owner. But, if I make that rule, customers walk down the block to a bar with smoking.
Many small business owners also fear smoke- free revenue loss. Smoker Neil Timms owns an English pub and met the smoking ban before, in England. Back home in England, every pub I knew closed within a year of the smoking ban, remembers Timms of the UKs ban, begun in 2007. He doesnt want his pub to close so hes spending money to build a patio.
But Douville feels the ban could be a great business opportunity. There are lots of people who would enjoy coming out to our bar, with our food, but would never come because they didnt want to smell like smoke for the next seven days  were now an option for all those people. Nor does Douville worry about noise complaints: No court is going to say a bar is a nuisance after the city has rati ed a smoking ban that requires you to go outside! he says.
Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, who introduced the ban, disagrees: The responsibility is on the bar-owner to keep their customers respectful outside as well, she says. The owners and bartenders need to tell them to go and have a smoke but be respectful to their communities. The idea that we cant have clean air because it will cause noise problems is ridiculous. We can have clean air without noise problems  I think its about communication and creating partnerships between the communities and the businesses.
Cantrell recognizes that the city is different. How is New Orleans different from the rest of the country? New Orleans is known as a place where you can relax and have fun, she says. New Orleans needs to stand up and say We care about our people. The most vulnerable people who are working in smoky conditions are the backbone of our hospitality industry, which drives the economy in the state of Louisiana.
Many were worried that the police would not have time to enforce the ban. So the health department   will handle bar warnings and  nes. Bar customers are encouraged to  ll out a form or call 311 and to include photographs of illegal smoking. For this reason alone, Neil Timms says hell comply with the ban: I dont want someone to be sitting in the corner smoking and someone takes a photo and gets beaten up.
Unworried, Geoff Douville says that hes used to noise complaints by now. You will see: the nosy neighbours who complain about the noise now are going to be the same ones who wanted the smoking ban. In the end, Douville shares Cantrells optimism. Of course theyre going to complain, he accepts. But it doesnt mean theyre going to win.