UCLA's college newspaper editorializes against campus smoking bans, plus 2 people speak out against Bloomberg's park/beach/pdstrn. plaza ban

Still hoping as this new year proceeds, I can get back in the groove of regularly updating this blog again ever so often, even if not each week.

Anyway, for anyone who missed this story(and probably not many), the NYC city council selfishly passed a total park smoking ban for something like 1700 parks and beaches in New York City, and for pedestrian plazas like Times Square. No question to me that this will be impossible to enforce citywide, and that the city will waste so much money installing unnecessary 'no smoking' signs citywide, for a law that's not needed to begin with. Do the 36 fools who voted for this ban really expect this will be successfully enforced at ALL NYC parks? Not to mention, the 36 council members on NYC's council should apologize and confess this isn't about health, but just another sneaky way to collect fine revenue from smokers visiting NYC? No question it is that, just like how many cities and suburbs install red-light cameras as a way to collect revenue from unsuspecting drivers who aren't aware of where they are placed.....

http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/02/ismoking_ban_for_college_compuses_less_productive_than_intendedi
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=12832434 (Whoopi Goldberg speaks out against the NYC park ban, on The View)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtQ5v8JyCwU (radio talk show host Allen Hunt speaks out against ban)
http://www.allenhuntshow.com/ (this is his regular show's site, though you can only listen to his clip speaking out against this ban on Youtube, as of currently)

Bloomberg(erm, Gloomturd) seeking expand NYC's '03 smoking ban to outdoor parks/beaches, marinas, boardwalks, + pedestrian plazas like Times Square

Haha, I'd love to see the NYPD 100% successfully enforce a ban in BOTH ALL AREAS of Central Park and the outdoor (and now car-free, thanks to Gloomturd, and saw this change in summer 2009 myself) pedestrian plaza of Times Square. Both places are so big outside(trust me, I visited both places on my trip there last summer, along w/some smoker-friendly places like the tobacco bar Circa Tabac, one of the ONLY indoor businesses totally exempted, and grandfathered in, by the 2003 city ban), that it'd be all but impossible to enforce an outdoor ban everywhere. I did not get around to visiting the Coney Island boardwalk, but from the few online pics I've seen of it, that's another great place where it'd be nearly impossible to enforce a complete outdoor ban.

Boy, do I really hope enough city council members show some backbone, and oppose this proposal being pushed by both Gloomturd and the primary person who introduced this bill, City Councilwoman Gail Brower. There are a few other council members who have also signed on as co-sponsors besides Brower, but I'm not sure of all the names ATM. (will post everyone's name on the NYC council later, once I find out who they all currently are) For now, this proposal doesn't include banning outdoor smoking on regular sidewalks outside of pedestrian plazas like Times Square, or for any restaurants and bars that allow smoking on an outdoor patio. Doesn't change outdoor smoking restrictions for private businesses, private organizations like college campuses(mostly thinking here about the fact Iowa and Arkansas BOTH at least do impose some sort of statewide outdoor campus smoking ban for either all public colleges, or also include private colleges in such a law(like Iowa does)), or for any other private business or organization within NYC.

http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/bill-proposes-smoking-ban-outdoor-areas-of-nyc
http://gothamist.com/2010/09/17/smokers_not_so_eager_to_comply_with.php
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/nyc-will-pursue-smoking-ban-in-parks-beaches/article1708387/
http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/sep/15/smoking-ban-include-parks-and-beaches/ (I'm gonna take a wild guess just from reading this article, that NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is one of the co-sponsors to Brower's insane bill to ban outdoor smoking)
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bloomberg_blunders_his_way_through_6eMJYxYP2NTXYHqVPzVyXO (lmao, Gloomturd can't even say names correctly of those he's appointed to lead other city departments :) )

West Hollywood, CA outdoor ban proposal, looks like the final version will be modeled after LA's ordinance

But I did find the debate in West Hollywood, CA on an outdoor smoking ban interesting, since it must be one of the very few communities in the LA area that hasn't fallen to the outdoor smoking ban nonsense that's spread everywhere in that state. I have a bad feeling they probably will fall to some sort of outdoor smoking ban anyway, since I recall reading(believe in the first article below) that 4 of 5 city council members(and including their mayor, not surprisingly) had stated they were in favor of some sort of outdoor ban for places serving food. (meaning the restaurants would be screwed over, if they wanted to permit smoking anywhere outside) Plus, one of the articles said that 'West Hollywood had made a commitment to mirror whatever outdoor smoking restrictions LA passes, blah blah blah.'

The very first article definitely had this quote in it, interestingly admitting the outdoor ban was NOT about health, from the former West Hollywood mayor:
"So too, the author of the ordinance, then-Mayor Abbe Land, candidly acknowledged the nanny state accusations’ veracity. “This is about changing peoples’ behavior,” said Ms. Land.

“Part of this is to encourage people not to smoke. That’s the goal, not to find a billion places for smokers to be. Candidly, I would that we didn’t have smoking in the outdoor areas of nightclubs and bars,” said Abbe Land."

http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=5315
http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=5304

This is the best article to read, and it totally debunks outdoor bans. Plus, it states why the Athens-Clarke County, GA government(and where my aunt and uncle happen to live) wisely rejected an outdoor patio smoking ban in late 2009(although they shouldn't have banned smoking in bars there in the first place 5 years ago!):
http://www.wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=4332