ALERT: Evanston, Illinois, City Council meeting on Monday, October 28th

[mostlyclassics]

At the last Evanston City Council meeting on October 14th, a proposed ordinance adding e-cigarettes and all vaping hardware and e-liquids to the tobacco-prohibition ordinance was on the agenda. Nine of us vapers showed up to testify against passage of this proposed ordinance. One of the testifiers was there to testify about another proposed ordinance and didn't even know this was on the agenda!

The result was that the City Council held over the vote until the next meeting.

Bear in mind that Evanston City Council meetings were the main reason that the State of Illinois passed the Open Meetings Act. The Evanston City Council used to call council meetings to order, declare everything on the agenda to be matters to be discussed and voted on confidentially "in chamber," then adjourn the regular council meeting and vote in secret, thereby totally stifling all public testimony at City Council meetings.

Now, their tactic is simply to hold over — and hold over and over — controversial proposed ordinances until those who object eventually stop showing up to speak out against them.

"Well, it's just Evanston — one Chicago suburb," I hear you say. Sadly, much of what Evanston does is eventually mirrored by the other suburbs up the North Shore, and eventually throughout the entire Chicago metropolitan area. Therefore, I encourage every vaper, especially from Evanston, but also from the City of Chicago and all Chicago suburbs to attend this important Evanston City Council meeting.

The City Council meeting starts at roughly 7:30 PM, or immediately after a bunch of committee meetings. I'd show up by 7:15 PM. Be sure to sign in before you enter the City Council chamber! If you don't, you won't be permitted to speak. The address is 2100 Ridge Road, second floor. There's plenty of free parking to the west of the building.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mostlyclassics]

Just a bump to remind vapers in Northeast Illinois to show up at the Evanston City Council meeting on Monday, October 28th. All the particulars are in message #1 in this thread.

Aldermen, as with elected officials in general, do respond to numbers. So the more vapers we have in the Evanston City Council meeting on Monday, the better the chance we have of defeating this nanny-state ordinance.

See you there!

 

[JulesXsmokr]

Good Luck and can you tell us how many folks showed up that were for the agenda???
I have been to a meeting and no one showed up to speak "for" the agenda...
Where are they getting the orders from to even pursue such agendas.??????????

 

[Jumpin' In...]

Can someone give us an update on what happened at the October 28, 2013 Evanston City Council meeting?

 

[mostlyclassics]

We lost.

The vote was 8-1 for adding e-cigarettes to the City of Evanston's smoking ban. If I read the ordinance right (it's very poorly written and ambiguous), it is now illegal even for vapers to share e-liquids without buying a $500.00 yearly license from the city.

Something happened between the October 14th and the October 28th City Council meeting. On the 14th, I got the vibes the alderoids were at least prepared to listen. And, after all of us had spoken, I had the impression that the vote would be close. On the 28th, I got the sense that they had brought crosses and cloves of garlic to ward off us vapers. Also, on the 28th, while two of us vapers spoke, two ANTZs also testified.

Now, going forward, where does this leave my family and me?

My wife did manage to quit analog cigarettes years ago, but just barely, and still desperately misses them. Since she quit cold-turkey (no e-cigarettes back then), she's ballooned by more than 100 pounds and now has serious and intractible health problems due to her weight. These may result in her premature death. She's tried repeatedly to lose the weight, but it won't stay off. She's also had deleterious personality changes. By contrast, since I quit analog cigarettes by using e-cigarettes as a replacement, I've had no problem losing and keeping off 40 pounds (doctor's orders), and my health has improved to the point that it's really good for a 65 year old. My doctor is also overjoyed with my improved health. While idiocyncratic, this recitation with minor variations has been told thousands of times here on ECF.

As a result of this new ordinance, my wife and I instantly resolved to not spend money where we — especially me! — are not welcome. Over the past five years or so, we've spent somewhere in the vicinity of $15,000-$16,000 per year within Evanston. Last night, after the City Council vote, we resolved to spend as much of that five-figure amount outside of Evanston as we can. By carefully planning purchasing, we think we can whittle that $15,000-$16,000 per annum down to a couple of hundred without adding significantly to our gasoline consumption.

I'm not callling for vapers to boycott Evanston. But I want each and every one of you to remember, before you plunk down one red cent for products or services within the City of Evanston, that you vapers have been declared exactly as unwelcome as cigarette smokers by the Evanston City Council.