In the town of Rolla, there is an abundance of culture if one knows where to look. Culture has widely influenced the town, with much of the culture being attributed to Missouri S&T and the kind of tolerance that college has inherently. It is part of Rolla’s appeal, and is what sets it apart from your average Missouri town. With establishments like World Wide Foods, Rolla gives off a vibe that more than just fast food restaurants and cheesy American diners line the streets, but that a bit of originality comes from here as well.
The former owners of World Wide Foods, and current owners of the Mediterranean Cafe and Hookah Lounge, Muthanna Aldahhan and Jamil Altar, wish to open an indoor hookah and smoking lounge that also sells smoking products along with coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. The lounge they own is currently set outdoors. The indoor lounge would be a place for consenting adults to smoke, and the premises would be advertised as a “hookah lounge”, which means that the only reason to go there would be to smoke, whereas a restaurant or bar would have people who may not smoke and may not want smoke around them. This makes this establishment an exception that the city should recognize, as the smoking ordinance was made to protect non-smokers, not to prevent smokers from smoking.
In the most recent city council meeting, the council voted not to make an exception in the smoking ban for the hookah lounge. This wouldn’t be such a big problem, except statements like the one by Lindgren were made;
“I don’t know why we’d want to change our ordinance for a fad; this is a fad. It just needs to be allowed to die,” Lindgren said.
This is a blatantly ignorant statement that was not refuted by anyone on the council. The fact is that hookah may be a fad to a few college students, but in reality, hookah smoking is a 500 year old part of middle eastern heritage and culture. It is used as a part of social gatherings, and is used to bring people together. It is not a “fad”, and is not going to just disappear, especially since Rolla is a college town and will indubitably continue to be culturally diverse, the citizens need to acknowledge this fact.
The reason why this issue must be re-addressed is because it’s not just a smoking issue. It’s a rights issue. Can the council just deny a business it’s right to the American Dream, just because it’s illegal to smoke indoors in Rolla? Or how about the smoker’s right to smoke comfortably around their friends? Just because the act is dangerous to the user, that doesn’t mean they can’t have their own building away from everyone else. This establishment would actually help the community with the tax dollars and people it would bring in.
“I believe we actually have hurt these small businesses”, city council member Steven Leonard said. “We have one business that’s reverted back to its previous owner, we have one business that has since closed. Can that all be attributed to the smoking ordinance? No, of course not. Is it partially responsible? Those owners tell me that its partially responsible, and because its their business, and they’re experts in their own business, I would have a tendency to believe them. I think our smoking ordinance is overreaching and we should make an exception…”
The motion of allowing a narrow exception of the smoking ban for indoor hookah lounges as long as the sales remain 60% tobacco and food is not prepared on the premises failed by a 9 to 2 vote.
Many more statements were made, but none directly pertaining to the idea of an establishment for smokers.
“We’re not telling people they can’t smoke. We are telling them there’s not a business they can gather at and smoke, but we’re not telling them they can’t smoke. We’ve gone through the effort to make this a healthy community. So why take a step back from that?” said council member Don Morris.
