By Mark Memmott

No more free Wi-Fi at the local beanery?

You might want to switch to decaf before you read this story in today's Wall Street Journal:

Amid the economic downturn, there are fewer places in New York to plug in computers. As idle workers fill coffee-shop tables — nursing a single cup, if that, and surfing the Web for hours — and as shop owners struggle to stay in business, a decade-old love affair between coffee shops and laptop-wielding customers is fading. In some places, customers just get cold looks, but in a growing number of small coffee shops, firm restrictions on laptop use have been imposed and electric outlets have been locked. The laptop backlash may predate the recession, but the recession clearly has accelerated it.

One place, says the Journal, bans laptops during the mid-day hours unless you're "eating and typing at the same time."

Scout says this will never happen in Vancouver. Gawker wonders where all the bloggers will go.

How about a little crowd-sourcing? Have you seen this happening in your town? Tell us in the comments thread.

via www.npr.org

Well, I have always made it a practice to eat and tip if I stay a long time at Starbucks. I tell the folks that I am paying my rent. It has never been expected.Leave it to New York to mandate it.