Shopping Malls Go Smoke-Free in the Valley

Keith Kiley smokes, but he’s resigned to a life under an ever-increasing number of smoking bans. The 57-year-old-maintenance worker spent Wednesday painstakingly applying clear plastic stickers depicting a burning cigarette with a line drawn through it to the shimmering glass doors of The Promenade at Woodland Hills.

The Promenade was one of six San Fernando Valley shopping malls to ban smoking Wednesday. Officials said they were responding to concerns about the dangers of secondhand smoke and a surge in complaints from their nonsmoking patrons.

“It’s escalated to the point where public opinion is so in favor of smoke-free environments that we’ve gone ahead and created them,” said Kimberly D. Solomon, manager of The Promenade at Woodland Hills.

Smoking bans were put in force Wednesday at Fallbrook Mall in Canoga Park, Northridge Fashion Center, Panorama Mall in Panorama City, Topanga Plaza in Woodland Hills and the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Sue Podany, president of the American Heart Assn.’s West Valley Chapter, praised the bans, saying besides making for cleaner air, they would heighten public awareness of the dangers of smoking.

Mall officials said they intend to enforce the ban with friendly reminders from security staff that smoking is not allowed. But that’s not all: offenders will also receive business card-size reminders to not smoke and pieces of sugarless hard candy.

But public reaction to the new rule was mixed.

Kiley, a lifelong smoker, actually didn’t seem to mind.

“It’s a marvelous idea,” Kiley said of the ban. “I’ve been trying to quit for years, so anything that will help--that’s great.”

But one Sherman Oaks mall patron begged to differ. “It sucks,” said lunchtime mall-goer Cresta Cramer, who was enjoying a smoke when she came across the sign prohibiting the activity in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. “You should be able to smoke if you want. I mean, I have a lunch hour too!”

Cramer, a Sun Valley resident who works in a nearby building, said she would probably find a new place to eat because of the ban.

“Personally, I think they’re going to lose business,” said John Mattingly, 19, of Van Nuys, who was shopping with his mother Wednesday at Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Mattingly said he will honor the ban because “I didn’t want to get kicked out,” but added that he’ll try to avoid the mall in the future.

“I’ll probably find a mall that me and my friends can kick back at, smoke, and watch the ladies,” the teen-ager said between drags.