Posted at 7:58 a.m., Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tough smoking ban advances in S.F. Bay area city
Associated Press
BELMONT, Calif. — A San Francisco Bay area city at the center of a heated debate over smokers' rights has moved one step closer to adopting one of the nation's toughest anti-smoking laws.At a meeting Tuesday night, the Belmont City Council asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would ban smoking in all apartments, townhouses and condos. The proposed ordinance also would prohibit smoking in parks, stadiums, shopping malls and places staffed by volunteers.
The council, however, backed away from an earlier plan that would have banned smoking on streets and sidewalks in the upscale city of 26,000, about 22 miles south of San Francisco.
Councilman Dave Warden said the ordinance would be complaint-driven.
"It should not be about police going around being the smoke police," Warden said. "I do not want to stop everyone from smoking. I want to give people the ability to stop secondhand smoke from getting into their lungs."
The proposal has sparked an outcry from opponents who accused the city of going too far and discriminating against renters who could not afford to buy homes. But all but one of the 16 people who spoke at Tuesday's meeting supported the ban.
Across the bay, the Oakland City Council also was scheduled to debate a smoking ban Tuesday, but postponed the discussion until June 26. Oakland's proposed ordinance would ban smoking in new apartment buildings and in "service lines" such as bus shelters, ATMs and movie ticket windows.
