Los Angeles may restrict outdoor smoking

[cboy4]

:popcorn:

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

[cboy4]

1. As a non-smoker who cannot stand the smell of tobacco,

I've always looked at California's strict no smoking inside business establishments, including bars, as a nice compromise.

It's one of the best things about living here .. you can go out and not come home reeking of smokes.

I have to say, however, that banning outdoor smoking probably is going a bit too far.

The selfish part of me would like it so I'm not forced to inhale second hand smoke anywhere.

But the practical part of me recognizes that people are addicted to tobacco and need a place to light up.

[MajorChode]

9. Not only that but...

I seriously doubt smokers are going to make the outside air quality in LA any worse. That's kind of like pissing on a forest fire.

[cboy4]

25. Well, I'm not really sure air quality is the issue.

[Yes We Did]

31. For very selfish reasons...

I wish they'd do it here. It makes it so much harder to "keep quitting" when you have to see people smoking everywhere.

But, I'm just being selfish.

[Donnachaidh]

2. Hey Councilman Smith -- are you gonna ban CARS too?

Considering the FACT that LA has air pollution from cars so thick at times you need to CHEW in order to inhale, this legislation is a JOKE.

Yet another politician that is hanging his hat on a side issue, rather than deal with the REAL issues, like businesses going under, raging unemployment, the homeless, the list can go on and on.

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

28. actually it's already happening

There is a law-- I wish I could remember where-- that parents with children were forbidden from smoking in the car with their kids. I wish I could remember where it was.

[SoCalDem]

3. Many of our local restaurants used the outdoor patios to SAVE

their businesses when the complete indoor ban arrived. It was a way to KEEP all their customers.... Many already had the ourdoor areas, and many MORE built outdoor areas..

It always tickles me when they come up with more and more draconian "rules" against the smokers and keep making them pay more and more taxes at the same time.. It's a very passive aggressive thing to do... "stop smoking..no don't stop just yet..keep paying us higher taxes so we won't have to raise taxes on the "decent people"...no wait you should stop because it's not good for you..no wait we need the money... no smoking outdoors at restaurants..but wait.. we still need for you to patronize the restaurants..no wait you should stop.."

Politicians should just go ahead and make tobacco use ILLEGAL...but they won't do that because they need to tobacco lobby money, and they need the sin tax they charge, and the "study-people" need their perennial whipping boy to blame all the ills of the world on.... and they know that they would be creating a black market that would be impossible to tax...

such a dilemma...

[Fumesucker]

4. Actually the reasons for not making tobacco illegal are a bit more subtle than that

As soon as tobacco is made as illegal as other recreational drugs save alcohol there will arise a violent black market in tobacco products, showing the public that it is not the drugs but the illegality that drives violence in the drug trade.

[ixion]

5. "One day we'll be an absolutely smoke-free world"

uh, yeah, right. keep on drinking that kool-aid® :eyes:

[SoCalDem]

6. and we'll all have our very own unicorn :)..n/t

[ixion]

7. woohoo!! I've always wanted my own Unicorn...

and a few forest sprites to keep me company. :rofl: :hi:

[Winterblues]

10. "The patrons are really demanding it," LaBonge said

:shrug: Eventually the people will get this. Smokers are getting less and less every year and their arguments just don't stand up.

[ixion]

11. if history is any guide, they will not

human beings have been using drugs for thousands of years, and all the stupid anti-human legislation/prohibition crap in the world is not going to stop them.

[Winterblues]

17. I didn't see anything that said they wanted to make cigarettes illegal

Yes people have used and will continue to use drugs, just not in Public. I want to see just as much indignation about not being able to light up marijuana in public or hell drink and drive for that matter..If it is all about the individual and screw everyone else why not just demand that yopu be allowed to piss any place you want as well. Doesn't really matter what others may think about it right??? Hell I know there is a polluted site someplace you can use as an example of why you should be able to pollute as well...:shrug:

[Bake]

15. Argue with this.

You can take my cigarettes when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.

Bake

[NeedleCast]

16. That's the same argument the people that supported alcohol prohibition made

How'd that turn out?

[The2ndWheel]

12. See, I would've said he was

hitting La Bonge too much.

[madinmaryland]

8. Well, cboy, that would be one thing that we can agree on!

It the people create smoke screens right outside building doors, and right outside restuarants, where smoke can waft right in that really annoy me.

[Bake]

13. Oh goodie!! Another smoking thread!!

:popcorn:

Bake

[NeedleCast]

14. Ironic and Stupid

One of the cities with the worst air pollution in the world is getting all pissy-pants because of a few seconds of exposure to cigarette smoke. This makes me laugh...in that sort of manic way people laugh when what they really want is to see people like Greig Smith die in a fire.

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

Right, because here in the US, people are more than ever convinced that their lives should not be inconvinienced in any way. That everyone has a right to never see, hear or smell anything that might be offensive to them. If people are this put out by OUTDOOR cigarette smoke, they really should be doing everything in their power to leave LA in the first place.

[argonchloride]

18. Why go partway? Just make getting sick or dying illegal.

:eyes:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

19. Give me a fucking break

This is insane.

I am a non smoker. Never have smoked. But my husband is a smoker and though I hate it, I love him. He should be able to step outside and engage in his habit.

Let's ban all cars too.... How about just white cars. Insane.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. White Cars. Yeah, Ban Them

Ours are black, black, and grey. So, i say we ban the white cars. Great idea!

Hey, it makes as much sense as banning a legal activity in a situation of absolute dilution!
GAC

[QueenOfCalifornia]

20. Also...

The city of Del Mar, here in San Diego County did the same thing - banned outdoor smoking in town - Can't smoke on a patio by a restaurant/bar or even while walking down the sidewalk.

Guess what it did to the restaurant biz?

It killed it. Oh sure, tourists and some locals still go out to eat there but there is a huge difference - People who have a smoker in the family do not drive to Del Mar to eat out or go for cocktails. The bars curled up and died except for a couple of tourist traps.

[NeedleCast]

21. Again, Ironic

Because you know there are plenty of people out there who supported smoking bans complaining that their favorite restaurants are closed.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

23. I have always felt

that banning smoking in an outdoor, public area is insane.

[NeedleCast]

24. I'm right there with you

but logic isn't going to stop the ban brigade from doing what it loves to do...ban more things!

[QueenOfCalifornia]

26. It's

more of the same old shit from the people who want to protect us all from ourselves.

I think that they should ban all dogs. That's right.... I hate them all... No one should have them as pets. We can start with this insurgent who lives on my couch:

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

27. why not get it over with and just ban smoking all together?

[taught_me_patience]

29. I like this move

It sucks going to Cheesecake in Marina Del Rey, dine on the patio and enjoy the marina, only to have a smoker light up next to you and ruin the entire meal. LA is a city where many can enjoy outdoor dining. It shouldn't be reserved for smokers only.

[cboy4]

30. Yea, I totally hear ya! -- But I'm trying to compromise with

my feelings about banning outdoor smoking.

You have to put these addicts somewhere .. but in a perfect world, I'd love to be able to breathe fresh air while I eat my dessert at the Cheesecake Factory!

[Yes We Did]

32. They still make that lemon cheesecake?

With the lemon pie filling on top? Haven't had that in years. mmmm......

[cboy4]

33. You know, I'm not sure! But it's a crime if they don't!!

:9

[Ani Yun Wiya]

35. Why not have your meal indoors.

After all, indoor restaurants are "reserved" for non smokers, right ?

[Piperay]

34. Well theres nothing I hate worse than

walking into a cloud of smelly smoke ... cough, cough. :smoke: :yoiks::+

[cboy4]

37. Even though I don't smoke *anything* (HA), I'd much

rather be around a bunch of people smoking pot than tobacco.

I just cannot stand the smell of cigarettes, even though I do my best to put up with my asshole, I mean, wonderful friends!!

[Waiting For Everyman]

36. In 1970 LA was the freest place I had ever seen.

It's pathetic how prissy it has become, and how fast.

But it WILL be funny, when all smoking is banned as some envision, to see the utter PANIC about state tax revenues that will cause. You think it's bad now? Keep going the same way.