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Thursday
March 11, 2010 Since 1922 |
Low pants draw ire at council meeting
By Kari Griffin
Baytown Sun Published July 25, 2008 The applause heard in the packed Baytown City Council Chamber Thursday after Reverend Gregory Griffin’s speech left little doubt – residents hate baggy pants.
But do they despise them enough to support an ordinance banning this fashion sported by teens and young adults?
“I have a concern,” Griffin began when he reached the podium. “It’s the sagging pants that our youth and sometimes adults wear with the intent to show their undergarments.”
Maybe, Griffin said, citizens can get a law passed that could put an end to jeans hanging “down to the hip bones.”
On the KWWJ talk show Griffin hosts five days a week, he took 30 calls in 30 minutes from folks with an opinion on the topic, and only four of them were against this type of ordinance.
The online poll available at the radio station’s website showed that 79 percent of poll participants were in favor of an ordinance banning baggy jeans.
“It’s disgusting,” Griffin said. “Families can’t go out and enjoy themselves.”
You can’t reason with these teens, he added. Pleas for them to pull their pants up fall on deaf ears.
“If you do talk to them you’ll get a good cussing out,” Griffin said.
An ordinance with “some teeth in it,” be it a $500 fine or community service could be the only way to get the youth to listen.
But there’s another, bigger issue Griffin would like to address with this ordinance.
The fact is, he said, no employer, black or white, is going to hire someone who can’t dress appropriately.
“Get them to understand. Let’s help these boys help themselves. Let us help them to get their lives together,” Griffin said. “Tell them to pull their pants up. I don’t want to see it, you don’t want to see it.”
It’s time for these teens to get it together, he said.
Baytown resident Tom Cottar couldn’t agree more with Griffin’s sentiments.
The baggy pants are disgusting, he said.
“It’s a defiance issue,” Cottar said.
But Cottar believes it’s not up to the city to control what the teens are wearing, it’s up to their parents or guardians.
“I don’t want to see it become a civil issue,” Cottar said. “People reserve the right to remain stupid. That’s their right.”
Cottar said he’d hate to see police spend their time babysitting when they could be serving the city and more serious issues.
Making it illegal for teens to wear these clothes won’t legislate their morality, Cottar said.
“Ordinances can’t change people,” Cottar said.
Council members didn’t comment on Griffin’s proposal, but a number of them have expressed a desire to hear more about how this ordinance would work, how would people measure the sag-factor that would warrant a citation, and who would actually be enforcing this ordinance if it was proposed and passed. Until they knew more, they said, they couldn’t say whether or not they would support it. And while the Council members agreed on their dislike of the baggy pants style, most did not see the city creating an ordinance to end it anytime soon.
Griffin is hoping if enough people come together on the baggy pants issue, something can be accomplished.
“Put it on the ballot in November. Let’s vote on it,” Griffin said.
Certain requirements would have to be met, (including a number of acquired signatures), to get this item on a ballot, and Council members have said they hope baggy pants are not an issue voters will be forced to weigh in on at the polls, but city manager Garry Brumback did not discount the possibility of seeing a baggy pants proposition on the ballot.
The Baytown City Council meets every other Thursday at 6:30 p.m., in the Council Chamber of Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market St.
The meeting will be rebroadcast at 1:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays on Municipal Channel 16 for cable subscribers living in Baytown city limits.
The baggy pants poll is available at www.kwwj.org/home. Anyone interested in supporting Griffin’s cause can e-mail him at kwwj1360(at)yahoo.com.
Baytown Sun Published July 25, 2008 The applause heard in the packed Baytown City Council Chamber Thursday after Reverend Gregory Griffin’s speech left little doubt – residents hate baggy pants.
But do they despise them enough to support an ordinance banning this fashion sported by teens and young adults?
“I have a concern,” Griffin began when he reached the podium. “It’s the sagging pants that our youth and sometimes adults wear with the intent to show their undergarments.”
Maybe, Griffin said, citizens can get a law passed that could put an end to jeans hanging “down to the hip bones.”
On the KWWJ talk show Griffin hosts five days a week, he took 30 calls in 30 minutes from folks with an opinion on the topic, and only four of them were against this type of ordinance.
The online poll available at the radio station’s website showed that 79 percent of poll participants were in favor of an ordinance banning baggy jeans.
“It’s disgusting,” Griffin said. “Families can’t go out and enjoy themselves.”
You can’t reason with these teens, he added. Pleas for them to pull their pants up fall on deaf ears.
“If you do talk to them you’ll get a good cussing out,” Griffin said.
An ordinance with “some teeth in it,” be it a $500 fine or community service could be the only way to get the youth to listen.
But there’s another, bigger issue Griffin would like to address with this ordinance.
The fact is, he said, no employer, black or white, is going to hire someone who can’t dress appropriately.
“Get them to understand. Let’s help these boys help themselves. Let us help them to get their lives together,” Griffin said. “Tell them to pull their pants up. I don’t want to see it, you don’t want to see it.”
It’s time for these teens to get it together, he said.
Baytown resident Tom Cottar couldn’t agree more with Griffin’s sentiments.
The baggy pants are disgusting, he said.
“It’s a defiance issue,” Cottar said.
But Cottar believes it’s not up to the city to control what the teens are wearing, it’s up to their parents or guardians.
“I don’t want to see it become a civil issue,” Cottar said. “People reserve the right to remain stupid. That’s their right.”
Cottar said he’d hate to see police spend their time babysitting when they could be serving the city and more serious issues.
Making it illegal for teens to wear these clothes won’t legislate their morality, Cottar said.
“Ordinances can’t change people,” Cottar said.
Council members didn’t comment on Griffin’s proposal, but a number of them have expressed a desire to hear more about how this ordinance would work, how would people measure the sag-factor that would warrant a citation, and who would actually be enforcing this ordinance if it was proposed and passed. Until they knew more, they said, they couldn’t say whether or not they would support it. And while the Council members agreed on their dislike of the baggy pants style, most did not see the city creating an ordinance to end it anytime soon.
Griffin is hoping if enough people come together on the baggy pants issue, something can be accomplished.
“Put it on the ballot in November. Let’s vote on it,” Griffin said.
Certain requirements would have to be met, (including a number of acquired signatures), to get this item on a ballot, and Council members have said they hope baggy pants are not an issue voters will be forced to weigh in on at the polls, but city manager Garry Brumback did not discount the possibility of seeing a baggy pants proposition on the ballot.
The Baytown City Council meets every other Thursday at 6:30 p.m., in the Council Chamber of Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market St.
The meeting will be rebroadcast at 1:30 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays on Municipal Channel 16 for cable subscribers living in Baytown city limits.
The baggy pants poll is available at www.kwwj.org/home. Anyone interested in supporting Griffin’s cause can e-mail him at kwwj1360(at)yahoo.com.