UPDATE: The council voted 8-1 to send to the Parks and Recreation Commission a councilwoman's proposal to ban cigarette smoking in Long Beach's small parks.
We told you here that the Long Beach City Council Tuesday night may take the first steps in letting voters decide if medical marijuana should be taxed. (UPDATE: They did!)
Toking was not all that's on the panel's mind: smoking was also up for discussion.
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Specifically, a ban on cigarette smoking in small Long Beach parks was before the council.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram has the scoop.
Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, who represents the 2nd District, will asked her colleagues to support drafting an
ordinance that would enact such a prohibition.
Of Long Beach's 152 parks, 51 are less than 1 acre in size, 22 are 1-3 acres
and 14 are 3-5 acres, according to a list supplied by Lowenthal, who would like to see the ban applied to parks at least 3 acres or smaller but says she is also open to other suggestions.
Like, “Put this proposal in your pipe and smoke it, Suja!”?
Probably not.
Lowenthal says she came up with the idea when visiting a small park in the city with children and being overcome by the smell of non-wacky tobaccy.
She is not suggesting bans for large parks like 815-acre El Dorado, where pieces of Costa Mesa's Sammy Herr were recently found. Bigger parks–which, unlike the teensy eensy ones, tend to have rings, swings and jungle gyms–are already subject to state law prohibiting lighting up within 25 feet of any playground or
sandbox area.
UPDATE: It is now up to the Parks and Recreation Commission to craft an ordinance that will be sent back to the council for final approval.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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