Standing Astride History, Yelling Stop
By Mitch Berg
The small north ‘burb of Spring Lake Park stands up and is counted against a statewide smoking ban:
To the delight of some and the embarrassment of others, the City Council last week voted 4-1 in favor of a resolution that said the city “is opposed to a statewide smoking ban without exceptions recognizing the personal and property rights of all individuals.”
Mayor Bob Nelson and City Council members Jeanne Mason, Bill Loesch and Dale Dahl voted for the resolution.
“This is a small city, with about 7,000 people. If we lose a couple bars, we have to transfer that to the taxpayers,” Nelson said. “We don’t have any way to recoup money like that. If we lose a business, we have to raise property taxes.”I’m an auxiliary member at the VFW — they go all over the world to fight for freedom and they come back and can’t even have a cigarette in their own club,” he said.
There might be hope out there.
Granted, not much of it is at the state capitol.
March 14th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
This last weekend we were in Minneapolis and went to listen to Gaelic Storm at the Fine Line Cafe-I have to admit (though I hate to!) that it was wonderful not having to go home stinkin’ like smoke. However, one drawback I noticed is that the sidewalks are REALLY littered with cigarette butts more than ever…maybe it’s just that cruddy time of the year, but man, downtown was awash in trash. It was also interesting to wend our way through all the “young adults” that populate Block E after 12…lots of interesting sights to see as we walked back to our hotel….fast. Then we decided since we made it that far alive, we might as well go on over to The Local for one more. More non-smoking! It’s nice, but I still think it should be up to the business owner.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I do wish Bill Loesh was voting in Saint Paul instead of Spring Lake Park, but not all wishes come true.