Lewisville's New TIPS Line
972-219-8477 (TIPS)

Who's in LV Jail?

ON THIS PAGE:
08-20-2007:  Talk about a smoking ban.

Voting Poll:  Give your opinion

09-10-2007:  Council postpones vote about ban

02-04-2008:  Council votes NO to citizen referendum vote

12-20-2009:  An update on this issue.

08-20-2007
The Lewisville council is talking about banning smoking in Lewisville.  Is this good?  Bad?  Is it the right thing to do?

I hate smoking.  I loathe it tremendously.  I think it is rude for smokers to force me to breath their smoke (it's really tainted bad breath if you think about that they exhale it).

The City Council has the power to ban all smoking in Lewisville public areas, stores, restaurants, etc...  It is what most of the Council wants to do.  The idea was suggested that it be put on the ballot.  Lathan Watts was the only one that really spoke against putting it on the ballot due to the expense during the meeting tonight.

Though the Council has the power to ban smoking, I believe it to be the wrong thing to do at this level. (If Texas did this State wide then that will make it fair to all the businesses).   Businesses (specifically restaurants) in Lewisville may have in their business model that their patrons are able to smoke.  To make them non-smoking places may put them out of business because these patrons will go to the next community down the road to smoke.  The City Council should not be the catalyst for them going into debt.  Citizens should decide the success of a business with the money they spend.  If they do not want to smell smoke, then they will not go there and the business will fail if they do not cater to their patrons.

There are some restaurants in Lewisville that are non-smoking and I commend those places for their efforts.  There are some like Denny's near Hwy 3040 that have a glass enclosed area for smokers.  Nice effort but they need more negative ventilation to be sure smoke doesn't leave the room. 
     Then there are places like Bennigan's that has a bar at the entrance.  You have to go through the smoke to get to a pseudo non smoking area divided by a railing.  This is a smoking restaurant period.  I do not go there because of the smoke.  [update  - they have gone out of business.]
     IHOP on I35 and Main street is smoke free and I go there.  I have told the Managers at IHOP by the mall that their place stinks because of smoking and have not been in there since.  [update - Both IHOPs are now non smoking - and I have gone back.]

I think that citizens that are complaining about smoking should take a stand and tell business owners that they will not go back again until they make it smoke free.  Walk in, tell them, and Walk Out!  This is also known as "Put your money where your mouth is!".  If you do not like the smoke and still go to that establishment anyway, then you are not sending a clear message.

I do think that the Council should put this on the ballot if there is going to be a ban for Lewisville (updated viewpoint).  If it did go to the ballot, I do think that it would pass.  The council could make that decision on their own but again I do not think that they should make a ban.

Now, if a Texas wide smoking ban goes into affect then all these businesses will be on the same playing field.

Also, if smokers have to go outside to smoke, then they should not be doing so anywhere near the entrance.  They should also be downwind of the people going into the establishment.

That's how I see it.

John Gorena

Voting Poll: Please vote only once.
 

02-04-2008: Council votes NO to citizen referendum vote
     Since the council has not made a decision to ban or not ban smoking in Lewisville, the issue was to allow the citizens to give input as a referendum vote at the next election.  Several Councilmen mentioned that this decision should be made by the elected representatives on the City Council and that a vote from the Citizens is not needed.

     The Council voted this evening on Denying the Citizens of Lewisville to vote on this ban at the next election as a non-binding referendum.  This would have meant nothing but input from the citizens to the council on what the citizens wanted.  Since it means nothing but input that all of you can do at the Council meetings anyway, to not put it on the ballot saves the City some money for not putting it on the state ballot.

IT DID NOT PASS: 1:4

FOR:

12-20-2009:  An update on this issue - It's been two years.
 

In the last year or so, Dallas has gone non smoking (passed in January and went into effect April 2009) as well as several other cities.  Though some business owners have complained that they are losing money because of the Dallas ordinance, I have not heard of any that attribute non smoking as a reason a business has gone out of business - yet.  HOWEVER, you will find articles on both sides of this issue.  See The Examiner Article (or the PDF Version) which has some information about the economics.  I just had hoped that the 3/4 of the population that does not smoke would have made more of an impact to make places non smoking.  An example in my article above was about IHOP which both locations are now non smoking.

I still think that if there is going to be a ban, that the ban should be on the ballot.  At the time I wrote the article above, I thought that the State legislature would have passed a non smoking law this year (2009 Legislature) but it did not.  I still think that the city council should put it on the ballot than make the decision alone.

Being that these businesses are privately owned AND that smoking is still a legal thing to do, I still believe that these business owners have rights too.  They are citizens just like the smokers who use their establishments.  I think it is up to us as individuals to let the owners know what we want.  Have you told the business owners that you want them to ban smoking at their place of business?