Usually when a customer is unhappy with a business or it's employees, it doesn't make the local news unless something more serious is involved.
So now we have this situation last Saturday night which involved an anti-rights person (who obviously knew that as a high profile personality she would be walking into a hostile environment), and a pro-rights activist and it makes the front page of the News-Gazette. No matter which party is correct, this is a "he said" "she said" situation which cannot be judged or reported on objectively. I really have to side with Tom Sellers...you can't pay for a Class A liquor license and the associated expenses of operating a bar by running it as if it were a fast food place. It takes a lot of Sprite sales to make your daily nut. And again, this is private property, and the owner has the right to refuse service to anyone (but he didn't). And if someone doesn't like the service or environment they have every right not to patronize the business.
The CPPFT people still can't quite grasp that private property concept.
(EDITED by IP: Full text of article removed and replaced by link.)
I totally agree with you. I don't understand why it made the paper either. My hats off to Tom Sellers for standing up for his business. I wish more of the bar owners were doing the same thing.
It made the paper because this particular reporter loves writing articles that are cribbed from CPPFT press releases. He's done four just in the past two weeks or so.
shoddy reporting, shoddy editor work
It is odd that Monson bylines so many stories publicizing the anti-rights faction, especially when the N-G's published opinion opposed the ban. The scent of conspiracy grows stronger...although I will defer that argument until there are more concrete facts.
In the meantime, keep on truckin'.
Wow. This site is starting to sink low -- and fast -- after its impressive triumph of last week.
I don't think much of the wroN-G, but this is a story that deserved its coverage and placement.
Also, reprinting the entire article here, rather than linking to it, is somewhat classless as well.
"Also, reprinting the entire article here, rather than linking to it, is somewhat classless as well."
True - I've edited the post to correct that.
Sorry. I thought the reference was enough...and that the story would stay here a bit longer.
I don't understand why you think this is front page news, please elaborate. I will also argue that the act of reprinting was not classless. There is no such thing. Everyone has a class. Lower, middle, untouchable, etc. It may, however, show lack of style. Of course, in this case it didn't.
Oh...what was the tremendous triumph last week?
Her letter was insignificant enough without a front-page follow-up. Is the expression "attention *****" too harsh here?
(EDITED by IP: Yes, the expression was too harsh, and I should have edited it out earlier.)
Rosales should spend more time working on his house and get back west of Wright Street, He's lived in Urbana so long he's starting to act like one of the beret and sunglass crowd, " I saw that in a post and can't resits using it" Tom Sellers can do what ever he wants in his own bar, Maybe the City should concentrate on the real crime in Champaign, like the crack dealers and thugs, Oh wait then the Police would have to give up the campus bar raids. Bar raids =Big Buck$ Crack Dealers=probation no buck$ or maybe the Mayor could just yell "Hootie Ho" and the underage drinking will go away!
My god Tom Sellers stared at someone!! I've known Tom for 30 years. He stares at everyone! Ha Ha !
He's baaaaack. Matt Varble's post on Pirok's blog:
Mattvarbl wrote:
Apparently one of our supporters (of CU Smokefree) was verbally harassed and berated and yelled and screamed at by the owner of Memphis on Main (due to being identified as a supporter of the Smoking Ban) on Saturday February 17 th and the owner allegedly then took her pictures and said they would post them on their internet site and make fun of her. The Champaign Police were called to the establishment and they made them destroy the pictures, but no criminal charges were filed. I believe she will appear before City Council to describe what happened publicly and we have already gone to the press to disclose this incident.
This again reaffirms the prior discussion we had been having about hostile behavior driving customers away from businesses downtown as opposed to the smoking ban causing a drop in business. Now Memphis on Main will get allot of bad press for their ignorant and terrible behavior which I believe will certainly hurt their business as now I wouldn't even consider going there at all (nor would I go to the Blind Pig anymore).
There's goes Matt again. He uses the terms "apparently, and allegedly," then backs up and changes to "reaffirms," as if Manrique's claims were fact. Just like his claims about ETS. There was no arrest, warning, or any kind of disciplinary action against MOM. The bar takes pictures for their website regularly. So Matt, were you there? Did you witness this incident? Or are the only things you know are what you read in the newspapers?
I don't usually have prohibitions on subjects of discussion, but I'd rather not have any discussions about Varble on here, as I don't allow him to visit or reply on here. You should reply to him on Ken's blog or elsewhere.
I took this step to preserve some sort of order on here, and to keep him from threatening to sue me again if someone said something negative about him in comments.
I edited a comment above, and I should have done it sooner. Sorry.