Ray Parker Jr. -- Starbucks consumer -- a bit cautious about overarching anti-smoking legislation in shitty SFV town he lives in

Smokers wary of California community's pioneering ban
By Bob Pool
Los Angeles Times

CALABASAS, Calif. — As a pioneering public-smoking ban went into effect in Calabasas on Friday, enforcement came from a higher authority: Mother Nature.

A pouring rainstorm snuffed out renegade smokers' cigarettes and sent the smokers scurrying for cover as security guards began issuing warnings at the town's main shopping center.

"You could get a $500 citation," one advised Danielle Wakely as she sat at an outside table at the Calabasas Commons mall and puffed on a Marlboro.

A moment earlier, shopper Erit Litvak had bummed a cigarette and a light from Wakely. She listened to the guard's warning agape. "I'm putting it out," Litvak exclaimed. "Am I in trouble?"

Calabasas, an upscale suburb perched on the western edge of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, was generating international attention for what appears to be the United States' first ban on smoking in all outdoor public spaces where people can be exposed to secondhand smoke. Violators of the new law can be fined up to $500.

As Friday wore on, smokers were playing a cat-and-mouse game with mall security. Cupping their cigarettes in their hands and hiding them under patio tables, they flipped them to the outdoor mall's damp sidewalks when guards approached.

While many anti-smoking forces have cheered Calabasas as it adopted its new municipal ordinance, the effort has met with a mixed reaction within the city's 13.2-square-mile area.

Rain was pouring outside City Hall as Mayor Barry Groveman offered assurances that enforcement of what he diplomatically called the "secondhand-smoke control ordinance" would be phased in gently. He had just finished fielding inquiries about the new law from reporters in Australia and Spain.

"We're making it acceptable to ask what has been an uncomfortable question until now: 'Would you please put that cigarette out?' " Groveman said. "We're putting the force of law behind it."

He noted that the city is trying to accommodate those who just "must" light up. The new ordinance allows property owners to apply to set up "designated smoking areas" outside businesses and offices. These must be at least 20 feet from the doors, walking paths or other areas where nonsmokers might be. So far, only two such areas exist, outside a Calabasas Road electronics firm and behind City Hall itself.

San Francisco prohibits smoking in parks, and Los Angeles and Malibu last year cracked down on the habit on more than 40 miles of beaches.

In November, Washington voters approved a ban on smoking inside any public place or workplace and within 25 feet of doorways or windows that open.

Calabasas' new rules exempt residences, backyards, balconies and patios to the point that they are directly adjacent to common areas, laundry rooms or apartment-complex walkways.

Implementation of the new law was something of a fluke, one of those involved in proposing it said Friday.

Calabasas High School graduate Margo Arnold, 19, said she was only asking for some sort of outdoor smoking controls for the Calabasas Commons mall when she stood up during the public comments portion of a City Council meeting in June.

She and boyfriend Matt Segal, also 19, were forced to change tables when they dined outside the Mi Piace restaurant because of chain-smokers.

Musician and composer Ray Parker Jr., best known for the "Ghostbusters!" theme song, paused as he walked into the mall's Starbucks. He was curious about how his city's new law would be enforced.

"I don't smoke, and I'm happy you can go where there's no cigarettes. I choke out here when people are smoking. But you don't have to shoot them for it," Parker said.

(Material from Reuters and The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.)