No Smoking

Local merchants will work with city officials to draft an ordinance to restrict smoking in public workplaces, according to a plan approved by the City Council. Mayor Ric Loya, Councilman William P. Cunningham, City Atty. Steven N. Skolnik, members of the Chamber of Commerce and other representatives from the business community will form a committee to write the ordinance for council consideration.

The nonsmokers have again succeeded with their wrath of vengeance. They succeeded by having laws passed that forbid smoking in city, county, state and federal buildings. They had laws passed that forbid smoking on airplanes. They persuaded companies to have no-smoking offices and office buildings. They had laws passed that forbid smoking on airplanes. They pass laws that continuously increase the tax on cigarettes, making us spend more per pack. Now they pass a law forbidding smoking in restaurants (Valley Commentary, Aug. 15)

Restaurateur Tom Marino will admit, reluctantly, that he benefited from Bellflower's short-lived smoking ban. He discovered that he liked his eatery without the haze of burning tobacco. So, he kept the no-smoking signs at Marino's Italian Restaurant even after Bellflower's law was repealed in May, 1992. But Marino doesn't like the idea of city-imposed restrictions on smoking in restaurants. He didn't like it for Bellflower, and he doesn't think it would be a good idea for Long Beach.

Prompted by no-smoking ordinances in neighboring communities, the Thousand Oaks City Council on Wednesday directed staff to draft a law that would prohibit people from lighting up in public places or at work. Although some members expressed concern that such a ban would drive smokers--and their dollars--out of Thousand Oaks restaurants and shops, the council unanimously voted to hold public hearings on a no-smoking ordinance.

Garbed in animal skins, feather skirts and ceremonial headgear, the troupe of seven American Indian dancers banged drums, beat sticks and chanted songs Sunday to get their message across to the audience at Oxnard's Plaza Park. "Tobacco is bad," said Tony Romero, the 71-year-old Chumash leader of the group, summarizing the entire message of El Gran Apagon (the Great Stomp-Out), a smoke-out aimed at minority families and youths held throughout the day.

It's smoker Gus Palyvos' version of the All-American breakfast: A cup of black coffee and a couple of True cigarettes savored over the morning paper. But the 54-year-old Del Mar racetrack worker got a rude awakening Monday when Jenny, his favorite waitress in his chosen cafe, met him at the door of Marge's Country Kitchen in Solana Beach. "Sorry, Gus," she said. "You can't smoke here from today on. It's the law now."

Despite children parading with signs and testimony from parents, youngsters and health experts on the threats posed by smoking, the Bellflower City Council has repealed Southern California's toughest no-smoking ordinance 14 months after it took effect. Mayor John Ansdell failed in a last-minute attempt Monday night to require nonsmoking and smoking areas in restaurants.

The Bellflower City Council has repealed Southern California's toughest no-smoking ordinance, 14 months after the measure took effect. The ordinance, which will go off the books in 30 days, prohibits smoking in restaurants and most buildings with public access. A last-minute attempt by Mayor John Ansdell to require nonsmoking and smoking areas in restaurants failed to gain support.

Paul Berkman had an unusual New Year's resolution this year: to ban smoking at one of his two restaurants. It's ironic, because the restaurants--both named Rutabegorz--started out years ago as coffeehouses, the sort of quaint little places where people drank coffee, discussed the war and, says Berkman, smoked up a storm. "I had three months of sleepless nights before actually making the change," he says.