Belmont, CA Bans Smoking

I see little evidence in this world of the so-called goodness of God. On the contrary, it seems to me that, on the strength of His daily acts, He must be set down a most stupid, cruel and villainous fellow. H. L. Mencken


The city of Belmont, CA is considering a ban on smoking in; apartments, parks, and other public places. The proponents complain about the dangers of second hand smoke.

Why bother with something that is not a problem? How many people do you see smoking on their apartment deck, when another apartment neighbor is outside on their deck? Drive by all the apartments in Belmont and it will take you hours of driving before you see someone smoking on their apartment balcony, and many more hours of driving before you see someone on a nearby balcony exposed to second hand smoke.

The same with parks. Spend some time in a city park in Belmont, CA looking for someone who is smoking, and, someone nearby who is breathing their second hand smoke. You will spend days there before you see such, unless there is a drunken picnic going on.

It is a non issue. The desire to do good is the desire to rule others. These same people who want to improve health should ban cats. After all, many people are allergic to cats. Maybe they will want to ban pollen because it causes allergic reaction to millions of people. If these good Samaritans really want to improve health, many of them should be banned from food because they are obese!

Next these good Samaritans will want to ban dogs because some people are "terrified" of dogs. Barking dogs also disturb people's sleep, making people dangerous when driving and affecting their health from lack of sleep.

Update-September 16, 2010. MENLO PARK, Calif.—The city of Menlo Park is poised to tighten restrictions on smokers. The city council unanimously approved a new law on Tuesday that would ban smoking in common areas of apartment and condominium buildings, parks and picnic areas.

Common areas of apartment buildings are private properties.  If a tenant does not like someone smoking around the apartment swimming pool then complain to the owner.   Now the government can tell the owner she cannot to smoke on her private property? It would be appropriate for the homeowners association to prohibit smoking in the common areas because they are the owners, but it is inappropriate for the government to tell you that. The big differences is the homeowners associations cannot throw you in jail. A small city government can.

Charles Tolleson