Local Ban takes effect... Inside your condo/apartment!

[doctorcue]

:mad:

What next???

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/12/MN1BS4NJH.DTL&tsp=1

(09-12) 12:30 PDT BELMONT - The Belmont City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting smoking in multiunit housing, a measure hailed by supporters as a landmark ban that will give residents relief from second-hand smoke drifting into their apartments and condominiums.

"It's to give people who are intolerant of second-hand smoke a chance to say, 'Please stop - you're violating the city's ordinance,' in the same way that if your neighbor has a loud rock band, you can say, 'Please stop,' " City Councilman Dave Warden said today.

The council passed the measure Tuesday night by a vote of 3-2. The ordinance also bans smoking in outdoor public places such as parks and stadiums, and in "service lines" such as those at ATMs.

Belmont's ordinance would be the first in the United States to ban smoking in multiunit housing, Warden said. The council must still approve it on a second reading Sept. 25; if it does so, as expected, the law will take effect Oct. 25.

The ban will be "complaint driven," meaning residents whose units are getting second-hand smoke can call police. Police would then ask the residents who are smoking to stop.

Repeated violation of the ordinance could lead to fines of $100 or more. But Warden and Mayor Coralin Feierbach, who also voted for the ban, predicted that voluntary compliance would be more likely than police enforcement, and that relatively few people would actually notify authorities.

"Someone has to complain," Feierbach said. "Really, probably most people will not complain."

:BS

[Budprince]

Dang! Time to buy a house! :tu

[Syekick]

I wonder if incense and perfume can quality? Instant migranes for my wife. Foul air is foul air in my opinion if you want to play the health card.:2

[tedski]

Good luck enforcing it ... :mad:

[gromit]

I feel for the cops that have to go deal with those calls.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
(attributed to Ben Franklin but he admitted borrowing it)

[uncballzer]

I wonder if incense and perfume can quality? Instant migranes for my wife. Foul air is foul air in my opinion if you want to play the health card.:2

Agreed; there goes another civil right.

[Darrell]

It's not their damn house, they need to mind their own business. :hn

[jjefrey]

hopefully it wont stand up to the lawsuits that are being filed to challenge it.

Just another example of the government trying to control our lives.

[BigFrankMD]

hopefully it wont stand up to the lawsuits that are being filed to challenge it.

Just another example of the government trying to control our lives.:tpd:

[smokinpoke]

I feel for the cops that have to go deal with those calls.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
(attributed to Ben Franklin but he admitted borrowing it)

:tpd: Not like they have enough to deal with as to get a 6:00 pm call to a house where the boys are herfing. Because some self righteous weenie doesn't like the sweet scent of a few stogies.

I hate ordinances like this.

[BigVito]

no rock bands or smoking indoors? I agree time to move or buy a house.

[Teninx]

"I'm not smoking, officer. I've just got all these tobacco incense sticks."


Anyone in 'multi-unit housing' has now and always had the remedy of civil action against a neighbor who infringes on thier right of quiet enjoyment. This ordinance will go the way of an anti-smoking measure passed by a Colorado town prohibiting smoking anywhere in city limits.

[12stones]

It's a shame, because this sets precedent for the future when government wants to stop people from doing things in their own homes. I wish people would get a clue.

[boonedoggle]

terrorists, I tell ya.

[ss396]

another example of how california hates freedom, just hates it and wants the government to control everything except illegal immigration. i couldn't live there.

[Ace$nyper]

Are you kidding?

What next? I can't watch Tv because the people next door might hear a foot ball game?

This sickens me.

[Tristan]

If the founding fathers were alive and saw this shit going on these people would be hanging by the neck. :hn :2

[SvilleKid]

I'll have to do some searching, but it seems to me I've seen a news article in the last 12-18 months where another identical type ban was struck down by the courts as un-constitutional, since it specifically singled out one class of owners. I would not expect this ban to hold anymore water, and would expect a quick challenge if it passes the second reading.

Good luck, hopefully the "feel-good do-gooders" will wise up and quit trying to tell everyone else how to run their lives.

[IrishCorona]

Jesus......

They already put people in Jail with Murderers and evil doers in Genreal for smoking Weed, Next we're gonna have our Condo Dwelling Herfing brothers going away in the Paddy Wagon.........WTF???

If you can smell your Neighbors smoke, wow that's one craptastic constructed APartment/Condo.

[c2000]

As far a smoking goes,,any thing is possible as far as these politicians jumping on the bandwagon..They think there are no boundaries to what they can pass because there are no people protesting on the other side of the issue.. Politicians will always deal with easy issues,,nonsense issues in most cases while real problems are ignored..Then when real issues like the state that the nations bridges are in surfaces,,well they didn't know anything about anything..

Jerry in Minnesota.

[Teninx]

This ordinance is practically unenforcable. Unless the police and prosecutors can find a judge who would issue a search warrant based on a neighbor's complaint, the police couldn't enter a home to secure the evidence. I suppose they could try "I smell tobacco" as a circumstance to enter without a warrant, but I doubt that would hold up.

[garilla]

...I suppose they could try "I smell tobacco" as a circumstance to enter without a warrant, but I doubt that would hold up.

Isn't that how they would justify a warrant and busting down your door if they smelled weed or perhaps a chemical smell similar to those scents found in meth manufacturing?

Yes, this is a question posed to those in the know. I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.

- Garilla

[Teninx]

Isn't that how they would justify a warrant and busting down your door if they smelled weed or perhaps a chemical smell similar to those scents found in meth manufacturing?

Yes, this is a question posed to those in the know. I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.

- Garilla

I may be deluded by supposing that our civil rights are still intact, but I really can't see a prosecutor filing for a search warrant based on a neighbor's complaint of tobacco odor in a nearby apartment, or a judge granting such a warrant. Nor do I see the police kicking down a door for a warantless search (exigent circumstances) based on the odor of tobacco in an apartment. Tobacco is legal. While smoking it in an apartment unit may be contrary the local ordinance, posession and consumption is not a crime. There's where the weed/meth lab analogy is different.

[bpegler]

When the Federal government finally places a ban on all tobacco products, we will have only ourselves to blame. Just watch the '08 elections and see what the Nanny State has in store for us. Our Nation tried this route in the 1920s, ended up banning alcohol, and creating organized crime all in one brilliant stroke.

[SmokeyJoe]

It is truly a sad day in the battle for personal freedoms... :hn

[Arizona]

Bring a SWAT team with you fellas, cuz this is the Alamo!

[ScottishSmoker]

Another example of Democrats who think that they should "help you control" every aspect of your private life....this is what happens when we allow uneducated people vote...plus, has anyone really died from secondhand smoke?

[c2000]

, has anyone really died from secondhand smoke?


Well a few years ago the anti tobacco alliance said it was 9000 a year but that did not sound alarming enough so they upped it to 49,000 a year, bartenders and waitstaff were dying by the thousands and Minnesota took a stand against the evil tobacco and in two weeks the state will be totally smoke free.. with this taken care of we can now work on banning the Shrine Circus from Mpls because they are inhumane to their animals.. Ohhhhhhhhhh we will get to the collapsing bridges in due time..


Jerry (No circus) in Minnesota.

[Bob]

Welcome to the "BRAVE NEW WORLD" and the "real" 1984!

[hova45]

wtf is this world coming to where in your own property you can't smoke, if its a Condo its yours and if it is an apartment you are paying to use it and do what you wish. whats next marshall law