Change needed in Glendale apartment smoking laws

Would the members of the Glendale City Council wake up on May 14 and recognize the need for a multi-unit residential amendment to Glendale’s Fresh Air Ordinance — one that will protect the city’s nonsmoking apartment/condo tenants from inter-unit drifting secondhand cigarette smoke.

How about requiring, say, 80% of all apartment units in the city —100% of contiguous ones—upon being vacated by their current tenants, being designated as permanent non-smoking ones.

I know all too well how bad it can be, both from my own past experiences and from the tenacious, ongoing side effects that tend to linger long after the offending in-unit smoker or smokers have either belatedly quit the pernicious habit, moved away or, not surprisingly, died.

Currently, postings of large, no-smoking signs on the exterior walls of Glendale apartment buildings abound, even while there are smaller, “smoking and non-smoking units” signs also posted. The crazy, incongruous thing is, too often all of the latter are diagramed as smoking units. However, such a change as recommended above would bring a zephyr like, “home, sweet-smelling home,” fresh-air breeze flowing into Glendale’s increasingly numerous multiple-unit apartment homes.

Harvey Pearson
Los Feliz