2008 Woodie Awards
Illini Media
WPGU
buzz
Illio
TechnographCity council to consider smoking ban
Urbana's effort to pass ban met with support, opposition
By Tatyana Safronova
Posted: 3/9/06 Section: News
Rami Abdallah, a 21-year-old student in LAS, stood smoking in front of the Illini Union when he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. On the pack, he had written the date when he planned to quit smoking.
"(I) realized it's a health issue," he said.
The Urbana City Council will hear the arguments against smoking during a public forum on March 9. The council is using the forum to decide whether to create an ordinance, which will ban smoking in public places.
An estimated 35,052 nonsmokers die from coronary heart disease each year as a result of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, according to the American Heart Association.
Champaign Mayor Gerald Schweighart said that he doesn't expect Urbana to pass the ordinance without Champaign because an ordinance will hurt local businesses, like bars.
Last year, the Champaign City Council voted against an ordinance that would have banned smoking in indoor public places in a five to four vote. Schweighart said that when Champaign held a public hearing on smoking, mostly Urbana residents came to voice their opinions on the issue.
"I think they're going overboard with some of these ordinances," he said.
Sitting in the smoking area of Café Paradiso, 701 S. Lincoln Ave., Stephen Swords, an Urbana resident, said smokers have been dealing with anti-smoking legislation for 10 years.
"It's not necessarily other people's business … what other people do," he said, adding that individual businesses should be able to decide whether to ban smoking in their own establishments. Swords said he believes that a smoking ordinance in Urbana is "inevitable" because the city doesn't have as much money invested in bar life as Champaign does.
The Canopy Club, 708 S. Goodwin Ave., which has a bar and allows smoking, will host a smoke-free concert on March 12. Mike Armintrout, a manager at the club, said that it is not uncommon for artists to occasionally request smoke-free environments, and the Canopy honors those requests.
"(I) realized it's a health issue," he said.
The Urbana City Council will hear the arguments against smoking during a public forum on March 9. The council is using the forum to decide whether to create an ordinance, which will ban smoking in public places.
An estimated 35,052 nonsmokers die from coronary heart disease each year as a result of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, according to the American Heart Association.
Champaign Mayor Gerald Schweighart said that he doesn't expect Urbana to pass the ordinance without Champaign because an ordinance will hurt local businesses, like bars.
Last year, the Champaign City Council voted against an ordinance that would have banned smoking in indoor public places in a five to four vote. Schweighart said that when Champaign held a public hearing on smoking, mostly Urbana residents came to voice their opinions on the issue.
"I think they're going overboard with some of these ordinances," he said.
Sitting in the smoking area of Café Paradiso, 701 S. Lincoln Ave., Stephen Swords, an Urbana resident, said smokers have been dealing with anti-smoking legislation for 10 years.
"It's not necessarily other people's business … what other people do," he said, adding that individual businesses should be able to decide whether to ban smoking in their own establishments. Swords said he believes that a smoking ordinance in Urbana is "inevitable" because the city doesn't have as much money invested in bar life as Champaign does.
The Canopy Club, 708 S. Goodwin Ave., which has a bar and allows smoking, will host a smoke-free concert on March 12. Mike Armintrout, a manager at the club, said that it is not uncommon for artists to occasionally request smoke-free environments, and the Canopy honors those requests.
The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.
The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.
If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.