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12/10/08 Just taking
control of us?
Today, our city council voted 10-5 to make bars and
pool halls safe for everyone to go out and spend hours consuming booze in a
smoke free environment. A few blocks from my home, there is an entire
shopping center of illegal dance halls, sex clubs and pool halls. Even
worse, that same low life party center is just a few blocks north of a brand new
middle school. We don't have the DPD manpower to close down these illegal
operations, but someone is going to be out there to ticket people for lighting
up in a bar?
We have so many laws in this city that are never enforced, even when citizens
do all the work for the police and the city.
There are houses in my
neighborhood (and probably yours, as well) where the residents (usually tenants)
over-park their house. They block the sidewalk with their vehicles --
breaking city ordinances. They park facing the wrong direction -- breaking
city ordinances. They make it almost impossible for a regular size vehicle
to get down the street, much less an ambulance or fire truck. No one makes
them follow city ordinances because we don't have the manpower or the will to do
so. The sheer number of cars parked at a single residence makes it obvious
the house is being used as multi-family housing, but no one enforces the city's
occupancy ordinances, to the detriment of my neighborhood and probably yours,
too. |
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12/12 Bob Hosea:
I submit the council members themselves have contempt for
the laws they pass. They pass them for show, not to be enforced.
They know damn well what they are doing.
If not, they are too stupid,
too dishonest, to be re-elected. But this
is Dallas, with a school district that has
not roared for Hinojosa?s resignation or
outright firing. What can I say?
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That low life party center I mentioned earlier has bars operating as dance halls
without a permit to be a dance hall in an area where the zoning prohibits dance
halls. Still, they remain open and the illegal operators keep making lots
of money while they violate city ordinances.
It's the Dallas way. We can't enforce quality of life laws already on the
books, so we pass new regs that will never be enforced. Do you really
believe the city will have people hanging out in rogue bars or illegal dance
halls issuing tickets to smokers when there's no one to enforce existing laws
that would shut down these illegal businesses right now?
It's been a little hard for me to get fired up about the stupid stuff going on
in this town since the November elections. I live in a county and city
that re-elected Lupe Valdez as Sheriff. Things are not going to get better
regardless of what I say. People who ought to know better, apparently
don't. Businesses like Woodard Paint & Body, who try to do the right thing
and offer good paying jobs to Dallas residents, get run out of town by our city
council. |
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12/12 Rad Field:
Are citizens to call "911" any
time they observe a smoking violation?
Since this is a new "hot" law,
I wonder if a call
to "911" will draw a code 3 Priority 1 response? Will
this be a "two man" call? This will definitely go down in Dallas history
as a further warning to citizens to observe the "poop" law, the
"shopping cart" law, and the "water on the sidewalk" law. |
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This new expanded smoking ban makes no sense to me, but then I can't believe
Democrats re-elected Lupe Valdez.
We have smoke free restaurants where you can hang around and have a drink.
I like to eat my food and only smell cooking aroma, but a restaurant is not a
bar. There are legitimate health reasons to regulate food preparation and
presentation. People have to eat. People do not have to drink
alcohol. People do not have to hang out in a bar or pool hall. Those
are recreation choices.
This new ordinance will make it illegal to smoke within 15 feet of the door to a
building. Who is going to enforce this ordinance? Will the manager
of my office building need to have a security guard on duty to monitor smokers
near the doors?
You can't expect smokers to follow rules.
Smokers are as dumb as stupid Dallas voters. They don't use common sense.
There are signs outside my building telling people where they can't smoke, but
the smokers just lean up against the signs while they light up.
Hey, the Messiah smokes! He promises not to light up in the White House,
but who's going to tell him to put it out if he changes his mind? All
these control freaks who've been pushing for smoking bans in bars and pool halls
are the same people who voted for our chain-smoking president-elect.
Control freaks are usually hypocrites. |
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12/11 James
Graham:
We lost the war, but won
some valuable concessions from the way the ordinance was originally
written. Restaurant/bar smoking patios, cigar bars, tobacco
shops, city parks and sidewalks, hotel rooms and cars with anyone
under 18 in them are exempted but
were included in the original ordinance.
It was a sad day for the free
enterprise system and another victory for
socialism in this country.
Dallas has
10 closed minded C students on its city council,
who rushed to judgment ignoring dozens of
business owners and employees, free enterprise advocates, medical
research and economic findings which all pleaded that the expanded
smoking ban was risky and wrong at anytime, but especially in
today's perilous economic times.
Nevertheless,
9 council members,
prodded along by the mayor, abandoned
common sense in favor of Nanny hats and political correctness. It
was gratifying to see some city council members (Rasansky, Kadane,
Atkins, Hill and Salazar) have the intellect and courage to stand up
for what is right, actually analyze the data, ask the right
questions and not be taken in by the junk science used by the
socialists to justify taking personal and property rights.
Thank you,
Council Members Rasansky, Kadane, Atkins, Hill and Salazar. I
encourage DallasArena.com readers to send
these fine folks an email of appreciation.
You have not lost if you
continue to fight. I encourage you
to continue the fight for freedom and against creeping socialism in
this city and country.
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I am proud of my councilman, Steve Salazar, for voting against the expanded
smoking ordinance. He knows how thin our police and city staff are spread
already. He hears our complaints about code enforcement. He knows
the neighborhoods in his district are plagued with burglaries and car break-ins,
like the rest of Dallas. Having a police officer waste his time ticketing
smokers rather than patrolling District 6 neighborhoods makes no sense, and
Councilman Salazar voted with common sense. The other council members who
voted for common sense were Tennell Atkins, Vonciel Hill, Sheffie Kadane and
Mitchell Rasansky.
If we had everything in this town in good working order, it might not be so
silly for the council to have wasted all this time and energy on expanding the
current smoking bans. If all the rogue bars in Northwest Dallas were
closed down or at least forced to operate legally, it would still seem silly to
worry about patrons smoking in a bar.
When you pass laws that cannot be enforced, you create an atmosphere of contempt
for law.
sb
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