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San Francisco Bars Smoking in Its Parks
=your home is next
ap ^
| Tue, Jan 25, 2005
| Adam Tanner
Posted on 01/25/2005 5:57:44 PM PST by Flavius
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Legislators in San Francisco city voted to ban smoking in public parks on Tuesday, becoming the first major American city to embrace such an expansive ban on tobacco use.
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"This is the first one that includes all the parks and recreational centers in a county," said Michela Alioto-Pier, a city legislator who sponsored the proposed ban. It needs the approval of Mayor Gavin Newsom to become law.
Several smaller California cities have already prohibited smoking in city parks, including Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, as well as the central Californian city of Fresno. A few cities outside California have limited smoking bans in local parks.
"It is a danger to our small children and not a particularly good example for them either," Alioto-Pier said in an interview. Parks are "an area unfortunately where there is a lot of litter and cigarette butts make up four times as much litter as any thing else out there. It is a detriment to the environment. It takes 10-12 years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade, and the toxins go into the ground water."
State legislators are also considering banning smoking along California's fabled beaches, although Los Angeles and other areas have already barred smoking at piers and beaches.
The city legislature voted 8-3 to approve the ban.
Banning smoking in parks still falls short of a new prohibition in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which last month banned smoking everywhere in public.
Asked if San Francisco might one day move in that direction, Alioto-Pier said: "I think that if any city in the country is a city to ban smoking on sidewalks and stoops it would probably be San Francisco, but we will just have to wait and see."
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bayarea; bombcalifornia; govwatch; hooray; nannystate; niconazis; nodirtybutts; nomorestench; pufflist; sanfrancisco; smoking; smokingbans
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dont smoke, but this is so scary
1
posted on
01/25/2005 5:57:44 PM PST
by
Flavius
To: Flavius
Just a matter of time before its caffeine, sugar, fat...
2
posted on
01/25/2005 6:00:34 PM PST
by
Dekan
To: Dekan
3
posted on
01/25/2005 6:01:08 PM PST
by
Flavius
("... we should reconnoitre assiduosly... " Vegetius)
To: SheLion; Gabz
4
posted on
01/25/2005 6:02:25 PM PST
by
exnavychick
(There's too much youth; how about a fountain of smart?)
To: Flavius
You don't want to know what is legal in San Francisco Parks.
To: Flavius
First it was no drinking, then no smoking. What's next? No gambling?
6
posted on
01/25/2005 6:03:31 PM PST
by
BikerNYC
To: Flavius
"It was so cold two dogs were stuck to the same fire hydrant."
- Johnny Carson 1925-2005
7
posted on
01/25/2005 6:04:32 PM PST
by
Tall_Texan
(Let's REALLY Split The Country! (http://righteverytime3.blogspot.com))
To: Flavius; mhx; charwel; dcbayarea; rogue yam; ßuddaßudd; risk; sasquatch; Gal.5:1; albee; ...
I don't smoke either... but SF is playing God in a major way. I can only hope that this will help facilitate a backlash against these insane liberal policies. A LOT of people smoke in SF too...
I'd be surprised if this covers pot smoke too, since in SF, it is practically encouraged. There's a place in Golden Gate Park called "Hippie Hill." It ALWAYS wreaks of pot. I'd bet that this will not affect that place.
8
posted on
01/25/2005 6:04:53 PM PST
by
Citizen James
(Well done is better than well said. - B. Franklin)
To: Flavius
They let bums defecate in public, but smoking is banned? (I don't smoke either)
To: Flavius
10
posted on
01/25/2005 6:06:55 PM PST
by
Eurotwit
To: Flavius
So it's now safe for the kiddoes to play in SF parks?
11
posted on
01/25/2005 6:07:47 PM PST
by
elli1
To: Flavius
What if you have a prescription for marijuana?
12
posted on
01/25/2005 6:08:36 PM PST
by
umgud
To: Flavius
I've already banned smoking in my home.
You bunch of drama queens.
This is so scary
Not as scary as dying a slow painful death from a disease that you could have easily prevented.
To: Dekan
The government is going to mandate that you live until 90, and then Social Security will really be in trouble.
14
posted on
01/25/2005 6:10:27 PM PST
by
Dog Gone
To: Flavius
San Francisco is also the city that is going to tax the evil plastic grocery bags.
In Ohio, anti-smoking advocates today came out for a 75 cent increase on a pack of cigarettes.
A thought occurred to me today. If these nuts have the time to go after smoking (again),evil plastic bags and other assorted trivial things then life in America must be pretty good.
To: zert_28
All those taxes paid by the smokers (I'm one) and no representation! Where is it going to stop? Cigarettes are not illegal, damn it!
16
posted on
01/25/2005 6:21:27 PM PST
by
Road Warrior ‘04
(Kill 'em til they're dead! Then, kill 'em again!)
To: Bushbacker1
I'm a smoker too so I feel your pain.
Actually, I optimistic. I think that people will get fed up with this nanny state nonsense and there will be a backlash against these busybody's health Nazis who like to tell everyone how to live their lives.
To: Flavius
Smokers are to liberals as Jews are to Nazis. It's only a matter of time before it is criminalized, to be followed shortly thereafter by "zero-tolerance" policies which know no lawful bounds.
18
posted on
01/25/2005 6:28:31 PM PST
by
thoughtomator
(Favorite Dish: Spotted Owl Teriyaki)
To: thoughtomator
Liberals will want to legalize drugs and outlaw cigarettes.
Now that's logical. /sarcasm off.
To: Flavius
Asked if San Francisco might one day move in that direction, Alioto-Pier said: "I think that if any city in the country is a city to ban smoking on sidewalks and stoops it would probably be San Francisco, but we will just have to wait and see." San Francisco MORAL DILEMMA:
What to do...If the Homeless is smoking a cigarette while publicly crapping on the sidewalk?
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