Mission StatementArticles & Opinions
In chronological order:
- Petition Effort Under Way for Smoking Ban Opponents
- The Great Unknown
- Out-of-Towners' Reactions to New Smoking Ban Mixed
- Smoke Clears
- Fayetteville: Aldermen Vote to Ban Smoking in Restaurants
- Times Editorial: Pass the Ban
- Free Choice Fayetteville to Hold Voter Registration
- Ordinance Update
- Times Editorial: Poll Problems
- Letters to the Editor
Petition Effort Under Way for Smoking Ban Opponents
BY ADAM WALLWORTH Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Friday, September 19, 2003
Fayetteville residents will soon have the opportunity to sign a petition that would force a referendum on whether to repeal the smoking ban recently approved by the City Council, the manager of the effort to repeal the ordinance said Thursday.
The Great Unknown
BY SARAH TERRY Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2003
Despite months of debate about the economic effects that a smoking ban could have on the city, a local economist and two Fayetteville aldermen on opposing sides of the issue say only time will tell what a ban will mean for the city in the long term.
Out-of-Towners' Reactions to New Smoking Ban Mixed
BY DREW TERRY Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2003
The Razorback faithful once again converged in Fayetteville Saturday, after travelling to the University of Arkansas' 2003 season opener against the University of Tulsa.
Smoke Clears
BY SARAH TERRY Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2003
The Fayetteville City Council became the first governing body in the state of Arkansas to ban smoking in public places, including restaurants, when it approved the hotly contested ordinance late Tuesday night.
Fayetteville: Aldermen Vote to Ban Smoking in Restaurants
BY BRAD BRANAN
Posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2003
FAYETTEVILLE - The Fayetteville City Council approved a smoking ban in most public buildings late Tuesday night.
Times Editorial: Pass the Ban
Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Monday, September 1, 2003
The Fayetteville City Council should forego efforts to send the proposed restaurant smoking ban to the ballot and avoid any further delays on the matter by taking an up-or-down vote on the ordinance at its meeting Tuesday. All of the facts and arguments have been presented, and prolonging the debate further will only amount to obstruction and divisiveness. It's time for a decision. There are already indications that if the discussion over restaurant smoking continues, it will only devolve into an emotional cadre of slogan-happy rhetoric. Already both sides have exhausted a tired array of one-liners that boil the debate down to a least common denominator. The health arguments have been made, as have the less-convincing arguments about private property regulation. It's time for the City Council to decide whether to abate the deadly secondhand smoke that now pollutes the community's restaurants.
Free Choice Fayetteville to Hold Voter Registration
BY ADAM WALLWORTH Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Residents of Fayetteville could end up making the decision about the proposed ban on smoking and the Committee for a Free Choice Fayetteville wants to make sure the vote is representational, a member said Tuesday. "It's a given as far as I'm concerned," Rick Schweik said about the possibility of the City Council referring to the people the decision over the proposed ordinance that would ban smoking in restaurants and places of employment.
Ordinance Update
BY SARAH TERRY Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Fayetteville's City Attorney has presented a version of the proposed smoking ordinance that may be the one members of the City Council vote on at Tuesday's meeting.
Times Editorial: Poll Problems
Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2003
We often use the word democracy as a lofty term, a noble concept that epitomizes western political thought and represents all that is right with regard to equality, fairness and justice. Our great nation operates as a representative democracy, where every adult's vote contributes to who gets to say what in the decisions that affect our lives. But the direct styles of democracies — the endless ballot initiative that can result when a particular issue is abdicated by the people's representatives and handed over to the voters — have their drawbacks. And the comments made by officials familiar with political science and past referenda in municipalities certainly illustrate how expensive and unstable such an option can be. For whatever reason, the Great Smoking Debate of 2003 in Fayetteville has sparked some serious emotion-laden feelings in locals.
Letters to the Editor
Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2003
I do not have a personal interest in the smoke-free Fayetteville debate. I am not a restaurant owner or regular smoker. When at a restaurant, when asked where I would like to be seated I have no preference, I choose the least crowded area. My interest is in our ever-diminishing freedoms.