Editorial: Smoking ban in City Plaza tampers with civil liberties

Most college-aged students were probably exposed to a healthy dose of the “Just Say No” program in elementary school so, our generation would seem to be geared towards staying smoke-free. Unfortunately, people seem to have an unhealthy bias against those who do like to smoke and the recent legislation passed by the Chico City Council banning smoking in City Plaza is an example of that bias.

The plaza may be city property, but it is a public place. Making smoking illegal is akin to making it illegal to talk loudly, or fining the kids who push all the buttons in an elevator. Sure, these things are annoying and ruin your day — for all of 30 seconds — but it’s not like you can’t just move away, or switch to another elevator. The same goes for smoking in the plaza.

The plaza isn’t exactly a smoker’s haven, so why is it important for the city to ban smoking there? Since the number of people on the grounds increase during events such as the Thursday Night Market or the Friday Night Concerts, it’s normal to expect a larger crowd will include some smokers, but they are certainly within their rights to light up in public places, at public events.

The new rule is an infringement on the civil rights of those who choose to smoke. It should never have gone on the books in the first place.

Both Mayor Ann Schwab and Council member Larry Wahl excused themselves from the vote Tuesday night, claiming personal conflicts of interest. Before Wahl left, he asked those present to think about where smokers banned from the plaza would go, instead. Wahl probably meant to imply the smokers would be more prevalent on the downtown sidewalks if the law passed.

It’s a fair point. Smokers have to cross the street instead of walking through or sitting and enjoying City Plaza. Chico barely has enough police officers to patrol the streets of this city for people committing serious crimes. Are we really going to be wasting a foot patrol officer on something as pointless as catching smokers in City Plaza?

Secondhand smoke can cause cancer, yes, but we have never encountered enough smoke at City Plaza to make it a serious problem.

This is a petty decision, snuck in under the radar by special-interest groups and the Chico City Council, designed to simply remove those people who do something some people don’t like. Discriminating against smokers should be the same as discriminating against any other group. Apparently it’s OK to treat smokers like second-class citizens, just not anyone else.

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1 comments

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Thu Oct 29 2009 18:31

Dumb, dumb, dumb. Guarantee the liberties of one at the expense of another?

No.

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