Local merchants fired up over the idea of smoke-free outdoor dining areas
With the smoking ban on Santa Monica beaches and the pier expected to take effect next month, many local merchants and residents are concerned about where smoking will be outlawed next.
Other California cities like Davis and Berkeley have made it illegal to smoke at all public events, outdoor restaurant areas, in lines for everything from movie theaters to ATM machines — even within 20 feet of any smoke-free area — meaning nearly any sidewalk in a commercial area is off limits. Last year, the Santa Monica City Council banned smoking in all parks in Santa Monica.
City Councilman Mike Feinstein, who voted against the ban at the beach and pier, said last month he was interested in banning smoking in outdoor restaurant areas. Finding support from other council members may not be difficult, as most of them are outspoken against cigarettes. Only one other council member — Pam O’Connor — voted against the beach ban.
The ban — which also outlaws smoking at public waiting areas, like bus stops — can carry a $750 fine. It must still be voted on by the City Council at what’s called a “second reading” before it becomes law.
Several business owners on the pier, who didn’t realize the ban includes outdoor eating areas, plan to fight it.
In the meantime, merchants elsewhere in Santa Monica are worried about where the smoking ban will be targeted in the future. When asked by business leaders last month about the Third Street Promenade, Mayor Richard Bloom, a leading proponent of the beach and pier ban, assured them it was not “on the radar.”
Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky, who researched smoking bans in other cities before drafting the ordinance for Santa Monica, said there’s been no discussion about banning smoking specifically on the Promenade, but added the concept isn’t as far fetched as it may seem. He pointed to a ban in some cities that prohibits smoking within 20 feet of all smoke-free areas — including retail stores and restaurants — that could effectively make it illegal to smoke anywhere on the pedestrian thoroughfare.
California is at the forefront of anti-smoking legislation. Perhaps the fiercest bans exist in Davis, Berkeley, Palo Alto and San Ramon, where smoking is illegal within 20 feet of any smoke-free area. For Santa Monica that would mean stores, restaurants, offices, parks and government buildings.
By law, outdoor dining areas are smoke-free in Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, San Ramon, Laguna Hills, Los Gatos and Dublin. Smoking also is prohibited in non-public waiting areas — like ATM and movie theater lines — in Davis, Palo Alto, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Goleta, Carpinteria, Buellton and Dublin. Davis and Berkeley also have upped to 75 percent the number of rooms that must be set aside as smoke-free in every hotel. State law requires 35 percent, Radinsky said.
Kathy Dodson, president and CEO of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, said business owners have been contacting her with their concerns that the ban could spread. If it does, tourism could take a slide and if that happens, local merchants would feel the brunt of it.
“Everyone is concerned about it,” she said. “They’re worried about it being expanded everywhere.”
For the moment, anti-smoking activists said they are only focused on the beach and pier. But, they added, it’s unfair and unhealthy to subject people to unwanted second-hand smoke anywhere.
201,“Cigarettes don’t fit in a perfect world,” said Robert Berger, director of “Communities Organized Against Smoking and its Trash,” one of the key groups behind the beach and pier ban. “But it’s a matter of personal choice and if people choose to continue to smoke, they have that prerogative — but do it in places where it’s not going to be an imposition on the rest of us.”
“Cigarettes don’t fit in a perfect world.” — — ROBERT BERGER Director, COAST
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 16, 2004. Read the original PDF.