Mar 27, 2008

Ordinance aims to snuff out sidewalk smoking

Berkeley council bans habit in commercial areas

By Doug Oakley / Daily News Staff Writer

Berkeley smokers will have fewer places to puff now that the city council has banned smoking on sidewalks in all commercial areas.

The council unanimously passed the ordinance, which goes into effect on May 22, at its meeting Tuesday night.

The ordinance carries fines of up to $100 for a first offense and $500 for a third offense in one year, said Lauren Lempert, a senior management analyst for the city.

It also bans smoking in parks and recreation areas; near ATMs, bus stops and taxi- cab stands; within 25 feet of doorways and windows of buildings open to the public; and within 50 feet of buildings used for health care, child care or senior centers.

The measure replaces a no-smoking law passed Dec. 11 that was part of Mayor Tom Bates' Public Commons for Everyone initiative. That law banned smoking on sections of 16 streets in commercial areas.

The city decided to expand the smoking ban after police complained it was too difficult to keep track of where smoking was outlawed and where it was not.

Lempert said the city originally decided not to ban smoking on all commercial sidewalks because it conflicted with a health department campaign urging people to smoke outside, rather than inside where others are affected by secondhand smoke.

In the end, the city decided that it wouldn't hurt those people who go outside to smoke to walk a few extra blocks to a non-commercial area.

"We felt (the new ordinance) is more supportive of public health goals of the city overall," Lempert said. "You have to balance all kinds of needs and interests."

About 10 percent of Berkeley's population, or 11,000 people, smoke, according to the Berkeley Health Status Report. City officials hope the new law cuts that number.

"It is known that by expanding restrictions, it reduces the number of people who smoke," Lempert said.

One area that will be hit hard by the new ordinance is the sidewalk in front of Berkeley City College on Center Street, Lempert said.

"Even though it's outdoors, nonsmokers who work down here go all the way around the block because you practically choke going down that corridor," Lempert said.

A couple of blocks away, Danielle Hays, 16, and her friend Shalane Hawkes, 17, were enjoying a smoke outside the East Bay Media Center on Addison Street.

The two like to hang out on Telegraph Avenue for shopping, and will find the new law a pain.

"I guess we'll have to go smoke where there are no stores," Hays said.



E-mail Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.