Regional Report: LONG BEACH : Merchants Clearing Away the Smoke

The reddish glow of cigarettes went out in Long Beach restaurants, bowling alleys and employee lunchrooms this week as the city’s toughest no-smoking law to date went into effect.

The ordinance became effective Tuesday morning as City Council members validated last week’s citywide election in which voters approved the anti-smoking law by more than 2 to 1.

Throughout the city, restaurateurs put up no-smoking signs and swept ashtrays off tables--marking the end of a three-year battle to eliminate smoking in public areas and workplaces.

“The voters spoke loud and clear. The ordinance passed by a healthy margin in every single district,” said Councilman Evan Anderson Braude, who introduced the anti-smoking proposal.

The new law prohibits smoking in any eatery or workplace, including attached bars, hair salons, bowling alleys, health-care facilities and business offices. Puffing is limited to a third of the seating area in separate bars that do not share a ventilation system with a restaurant, and in a third of the patio area of restaurants.

The law does not cover any buildings under control of another governmental body. But agencies that are exempt, such as the Veterans Administration or school district, have no-smoking policies or expect to implement similar restrictions within the year.

Since 1991, the council has been trying to enact a no-smoking policy in public areas, but has twice came up against well-financed campaigns by the tobacco industry.

Over the past three years, council members have repeatedly warned businesses that nonsmoking was the wave of the future and stricter laws were inevitable. Still, some restaurateurs are bristling under the law, or seeking ways to dodge it.

In the Americana Restaurant--a downtown haven for retirees who linger for hours over a bottomless cup of coffee and endless cigarettes--customers and employees spoke angrily about their constitutional rights.

Cigarettes are not illegal, waitress Loretta Miller said while she had a lunchtime burger 24 hours before the no-smoking law took effect. Three chain-smoking customers, seated at the table with Miller, grunted their agreement.

“To take away (smoking) is to take away our freedom of choice, constitutional rights,” Miller declared. “This doesn’t feel like the United States anymore.”

In Belmont Heights, Aimee Jarrels, owner and manager of the Reno Room bar, which features a neon sign out front proclaiming “Open at 6 a.m,” said she hasn’t decided how to react.

“I have a hard time believing they will have the money or manpower to enforce it,” Jarrels said.

The Health Department won’t be sending out officers to check for compliance, Ross said. But if citizens complain about a certain eatery, the law does have teeth: Scofflaw business owners will be referred to the city prosecutor and could be charged with a misdemeanor.

The first offense carries a minimum $50 fine, with penalties being raised incrementally for subsequent violations, Ross said.

Some businesses that opposed the ordinance when it was introduced have since accepted--even embraced--their nonsmoking fate. Management of one of downtown’s fancier restaurants, L’Opera, was cheerful this week as the smoke cleared.

“At first we were opposing it,” said Sonia Woodruff, one of L’Opera’s managers. “We have a large Italian and Japanese clientele and we worried that a ban would change their minds about coming here. But we’re a well-established restaurant and I feel it won’t change our clientele.”