A proposed city ordinance would effectively ban smoking in outdoor bar and restaurant spaces — one of the last remaining places in the city where lighting up is even remotely tolerated. Establishments like Zeitgeist, the beloved Mission dive bar famous for its sprawling beer garden (and, yes, its smokers), and the SF Eagle in SoMa are pushing back hard against the proposal.

Let's be clear: nobody's arguing that cigarettes are good for you. But at a certain point, you have to ask what exactly San Francisco's supervisors think their job is. We have open-air drug markets operating with near-impunity, property crime that goes largely uninvestigated, and a city budget that would make a Pentagon accountant blush. And the priority is... making sure nobody takes a drag on a Camel at an outdoor patio?

As one local put it perfectly: "Progressivism is the haunting feeling that somewhere, someone may be having fun in an unapproved way."

Another resident offered the more concise version: "It wouldn't be San Francisco if it wasn't banning something every year."

The hypocrisy is staggering. This is a city that pioneered cannabis lounges and has taken an explicitly hands-off approach to far more dangerous substances consumed openly on its sidewalks. But a legal tobacco product, used by consenting adults at an outdoor establishment they voluntarily chose to patronize? That's where we draw the line.

The nanny-state impulse here isn't just annoying — it's economically destructive. Bars like Zeitgeist aren't just cultural landmarks; they're small businesses operating on razor-thin margins in one of the most expensive cities on Earth. Eliminating a key part of their customer experience could mean real revenue losses.

If you don't want to be around smoke, don't go to a bar with a smoking patio. That's called freedom. It's supposed to be the thing San Francisco is famous for.