Blog 5: Regulating Smoke

     When you think of Texas, barbecue flashes in your head more often than not. As one of Texas icons, barbecue is a major attraction for all food lovers across the world. Recently, some Austin residents have filed complaints regarding the invasion of smoke lingering in their house produced by these barbecue joints. The original article was reported on KXAN on April 2, 2015, but just recently Austin City Council members form to plan possible solutions on Thursday, July 30, 2015. The article can be located here: http://kxan.com/2015/04/02/city-looks-to-regulate-bbq-smoke/
     Granting myself a title of food connoisseur, there is nothing more that I love than just large plate of slow cooked barbecue meat. Some residents living near these barbecue joints are having issues, "I can no longer open windows, the smoke seeps in from the attic" stated by resident Bruce Hughes. Smoke inviting itself to just about everywhere it can, it's a tough task to keep the area well ventilated, limiting the residents options for a solution.
     The solution is in progress and follows the guidelines of regulating amount of smoke expelled by these barbecue joints within 100 feet of residential areas. This is a tough task because residential areas are located nearly everywhere across the City of Austin. If the city creates a tough restriction, which in turn it punishes these food joints for "excessive" smoke, this could deter the icon of Austin as food central. It will take both sides to find a mutual agreement so that the great state of Texas can continue to grace everyone with its mouth-watering barbecue.