Los Angeles may restrict outdoor smoking [View All]

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Lighting up on patios and other areas near restaurants could be illegal by summer if the City Council acts



By Maeve Reston
January 8, 2009


Lighting up on the outdoor patios of cafes and coffee shops may soon be a thing of the past in Los Angeles. The city's arts and parks committee took a first step Wednesday toward a new ban on smoking on restaurant patios or within 10 feet of any outdoor establishment that serves food or beverages.

Bars with outdoor areas and other over-18 venues would be exempt.

If the full City Council approves the law, the measure could be in place this summer after a six-month grace period allowing businesses to adjust to the new rules.

Though questions remain about what the penalties would be and how the proposed law would be enforced, Councilman Tom LaBonge, chairman of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee, said it was getting easier to enforce the smoking bans because of cooperation by restaurant owners.

"The patrons are really demanding it," LaBonge said after his committee directed city lawyers to draft the ordinance Wednesday. "One day we'll be an absolutely smoke-free world as we move forward, but people still enjoy it, so we're still allowing it."

The measure's sponsor, Councilman Greig Smith, said he wrote the legislation after noticing that California's ban on smoking inside restaurants was driving smokers just outside the establishments' doors, exposing children and other patrons to secondhand smoke as they entered the venue or waited for tables.

"We needed to do something about it," Smith said.

More----------------> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smoking8-2009jan08,0,761112.story