Calabasas, the City of Shining Air

The municipal government of Calabasas, California knows what's best for you.

As the nation's most draconian anti-smoking legislation [pdf] so aptly sums up,

NOW THEREFORE, it is the intent of the City Council in enacting this ordinance, to provide for the public health, safety, and welfare by discouraging the inherently dangerous behavior of tobacco use near non-tobacco users; by protecting children from exposure to smoking and tobacco; by reducing the potential for children to associate smoking and tobacco with a healthy lifestyle; by protecting the public from smoking and tobacco-related litter and pollution; and by affirming and promoting the family-friendly atmosphere of the City’s public places.

Good intentions? Maybe--if you discount the "stunt" angle. (See below.) Maddeningly, the ordinance allows "Private Enforcers" to step in and threaten litigation whenever some miscreant toker (or hapless out-of-towner) ignores signage and dares to drag. (Think Gomer Pyle shouting "Citizen's Arrest!")

And then there's the ordinance's poorly thought-out provision:

(b) No person, Employer, Business, or Nonprofit Entity shall allow the placement or maintenance of a receptacle for Smoking waste in an area under his, her, or its legal or de facto control in which smoking is prohibited by this chapter or other law.

So, if you trudge in from the rain, having finished your cigarette in the alley, since it's verboten near an entrance, and are about to throw the smoldering butt into an ashtray instead of just tossing it aside, which is also verboten.... Don't! 'Cause there isn't one, 'cause having one handy is against the law.

For the "stunt" angle, at least as parlayed in various letters to the editor, check out the new sign that proudly announces "CLEAN AIR CALABASAS: a smoke-free city.*" What's under the asterisk? Strain your eyes to read "smoking allowed in designated areas."

Cough, cough, sigh.