Last week, Protect Fayetteville — a group against the proposed Civil Rights Protection Act, ordinance 5781 — held a “public” rally at University Baptist Church. The “public” is in quotes because Fayetteville Alderman John LaTour made an announcement at a City Council meeting inviting the public to the rally to hear the opposition’s perspective, yet known members of For Fayetteville — the group in favor of the ordinance — were shown the door.
More than 200 people showed up for the “rally against religious persecution.” Oregon couple Aaron and Melissa Klein, who are owners of an Oregon bakery called Sweet Cakes by Melissa, came to speak about how they denied a lesbian couple a wedding cake because they did not agree with their lifestyle in January 2013. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said that was a violation of the Oregon Equality Act of 2007 and made the couple pay $135,000 for reparations.
This is an important to time to bring up that as of Tuesday, more than 400 business owners in Fayetteville had signed cards announcing their support of the passage of the civil rights ordinance.
A couple members of For Fayetteville showed up to hear the perspective and were shown the door by force from a few security guards.
Local pastor Lowell Grisham, who is an advocate for For Fayetteville, was able to attend. He reported on his Facebook page that the rally included language comparing the ordinance passing to Adolf Hitler’s ruling of Nazi Germany.
Wow.
REZONING NEAR CLEVELAND STREET DENIED
The Fayetteville City Council denied a rezoning effort north of Cleveland Street near the UofA on Tuesday. Not too soon either, as it had been debated for months.
The request came from Paul Jeske, whose family has owned the 4 acres of land north of Cleveland for decades. The plan was to build a brand new cluster of 54 homes for single-families, two-families, and three families. Not too dissimilar from the swanky homes in south Fayetteville off Martin Luther King Blvd., the designs showed cottage looking homes with rear access driveways.
In order to accomplish this, Jeske requested to rezone the area into a downtown general zoning district. The zoning allows for a variety of residential and commercial uses. Neighbors expressed concern that, even if only residential structures were built, the zoning still allows for other uses, and if the development project fell through, it could open a new can of worms.
If all of those old homes, some of them gorgeous, get replaced with shiny new homes that would be at least a little bit sad. But, it shall remain the same as it ever was thanks to the unanimous City Council decision.
DREW BARRYMORE GRACES UA SORORITY
Last week Drew Barrymore, Hollywood’s always chill sweetheart, surprised the ladies of Kappa Kappa Gamma with a heavy handed marketing attempt to promote her cosmetic and eyewear Flower Beauty line. So cool!
Barrymore spoke with about a dozen local sorority girls, while answering questions about the line and giving beauty tips. Walmart was there to take photos and videos of the whole thing, too.
So yeah, she did some guerrilla marketing and got Walmart in on the whole thing. Makin’ it happen, Drew! Can anyone confirm she actually has a house in Bentonville? Wouldn’t that be interesting…
