Finding a place to light up in Santa Monica got a lot harder in 2007, but it’s not like anyone abided by the law anyway.
After the City Council banned smoking in most public places in late 2006, the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees passed a similar measure for the college campus, restricting smoke to areas within 25 feet of a window or doorway. In September, just months after the ban was passed, it didn’t appear as though the students were paying attention, even though more than 62 percent of the voting student body decided in favor of the ban.
While staying low key for most of 2007, the smoking ban resurfaced with a bang earlier this month with the City Council directed attorneys to draft a law that would make businesses and their employees liable for knowingly allowing their customers to light up in the outdoor dining areas. The direction came unanimously by the City Council on Dec. 11.
“For that, I am extremely pleased with the responsible manner in which the city handled this issue.” — said then-Mayor Richard Bloom in September
“This was a very contentious issue for a number of reasons,”
The motion came after residents complained to the City Council that there was still a large number of customers smoking in the outdoor dining areas more than a year after the smoking ban went into effect on Nov. 23, 2006.
The ban could also be expanded as the council also requested at the same meeting that smoking be prohibited on the grounds of the Santa Monica Library and apartments and condos, which would give Santa Monica one of the strictest antismoking regulations in the country.
“This is criminalizing a non-criminal activity,” Bruce Cameron, a Santa Monica resident, said earlier this month about banning smoking in apartments. “They’ve gone into the restaurants and the bars and they are coming into your house pretty damn soon.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.