HUNTINGTON BEACH

The City Council Downtown Committee thinks the time has come to kick butts on Main Street. “If you sit there and watch, you’d be amazed at how many people are just putting out cigarette butts on sidewalks,” said Diane Baker, president of the Huntington Beach Visitor and Conference Bureau, at the July 23 meeting. To discourage smokers from littering, the committee discussed placing ashtrays around light poles. Discarded cigarette butts don’t just spoil downtown’s ambience, they also threaten the nearby ocean, Baker said. When the streets are washed, the butts float into the gutters connected to storm drains, which spill out to the ocean, she said.