Proposed Smoking Ban Ignites Council Controversy

by Peter DelVecchio

If what currently appears to be a majority of the West Hollywood City Council has its way, lighting up with a cocktail on the patio at Micky’s or the Abbey, or over dinner streetside at the French Market Place or Basix, will soon be just a memory. Working its way through the city’s legislative machinery is an ordinance that would ban smoking on the outdoor premises at bars, clubs and restaurants throughout the city.

In a phone interview with Frontiers in L.A. magazine, Councilmember John Duran said he thinks the ordinance is a bad idea, for three general reasons. First, he believes it runs across the grain of West Hollywood’s defining ethos. “West Hollywood was founded on the belief that individuals make decisions about their personal behavior ... We’re not a big brother sort of government trying to regulate and legislate social behavior.”

Mayor Abbe Land, a proponent of the ban, countered in a phone interview that “West Hollywood is certainly a place where we talk about lots of different freedoms and I don’t think this in any way is about this. This is about a public health issue.”

Duran also opposes the ordinance because he believes it would threaten the economic lifeblood of West Hollywood, a “community that is financially dependent upon its nightlife,” from “Boystown and all the gay bars along Santa Monica Boulevard [to] the Sunset Strip.” Duran fears local and international patrons will go elsewhere if they cannot smoke in West Hollywood.

Land said no one wants to harm the city’s economy. Pointing to a pending Los Angeles ordinance, she said, “We talked about looking at how we could phase this in so if Los Angeles is doing something, we’re doing it together to make sure regionally it won’t much matter where you go, you’re going to come up with the same laws.” People would adjust to the outdoor ban as they did indoor ones, Land said, and would not abandon West Hollywood—“There aren’t many Micky’s [or] the Abbey and the Silver Spoon” elsewhere.

Duran fears the L.A. ordinance will exempt over-18 establishments and the West Hollywood ban might not, and that L.A. will not enforce its ban.

Finally, Duran questions the timing of the ordinance. “The council is proposing this in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression when every business owner that ... I talked to is suffering ... To suddenly hit them with this broadside ... is just crazy. It’s like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

The timing of the ordinance “is a fair thing to discuss,” Land said. “We with the task force [which will study the ban] and city council can talk about—When do we want to do it? Do we phase it in? Is there a different timeline?”

The public will be able to weigh in on the ordinance when it comes up for hearing in March or April.

What’s your opinion on the West Hollywood City Council’s plan to ban smoking?

“As a non-smoking resident of West Hollywood ... I am completely 100 percent opposed to it.”

—Michael Steven Paul Nelson

“As a former smoker, the harder you make it for people to smoke, the less likely they will. That is a good thing.”

—Jeffrey B. Towns

“I don’t smoke but that is ridiculous. I think West Hollywood should ban stupidity, attitude and rudeness instead.”

—Glen Hanson

What’s your opinion? Let us know! - facebook.com/frontiersmagazine