Anonymous
Source: City of Santa Barbara
To educate the public about the City’s smoking law, smoke-free signage is currently being installed along sidewalks in commercial areas and parking structures. Smoking is defined to include cigarettes, electronic smoking or “vaping,” andcannabis.
In the Downtown area, the signage will be posted at every block of State Street and side streets, replacing half of the current skateboard enforcement signage. Altogether, the signage plan includes approximately 350 locations in all commercial areas of the City, including bilingual signs on the Eastside and Westside.
Smoke-free areas include sidewalks, paseos, City-owned parking structures and lots, Stearns Wharf, beaches, parks, sports fields, trails, community centers, outdoor recreation facilities, outdoor library areas, and public events and festivals. The next phase of signage in parks and beaches is planned for early 2020.
A public information campaign is also underway with a bilingual mailer and advertising in movie theaters and on social media. Signage and public education are funded by a State grant.
Police Officers, Downtown Ambassadors, Park Rangers, Harbor Patrol Officers are currently enforcing the smoking regulations. Any citations issued are infractions to violator(s) of the ordinance.
To learn more information, visit the City’s web page to watch a video and read frequently asked questions: SantaBarbaraCA.gov/Smoking
Police issue Citations Ambassadors tap shoulders. Which can modify behavior? Only Citations. The City Ambassador program is nothing but a misuse of Prop 56 taxes to cater to the downtown business owners who want the City to push the homeless off of State Street. The City simply found a way to have taxpayers pay to do this under there guise of Tobacco Enforcement. This money would be better served if it was directed at schools where it’s been reported that 3 in 5 students smoke or vape. It is a huge epidemic that will have a lifetime of consequences for children whose brains are not developed. Shame on the City.
~$17k vs ~$1.05M directed to school officers or enforcement on school property. City is spending money on Junk Mail and ads at movie theaters. How many kids will that reach? Total waste of tax payer funds. If you want a target a new generation to prevent smoking or provide education You don’t have Ambassadors patrol the downtown. You go where the kids are: school, recreation centers in other places where kids actually are.
education starts at home. And I dont know about you, but as a kid. I NEVER went to recreation centers. I was downtown……. where the ambassadors are. I also went to movies, So I dont know if anything will make you happy in the end. the “tax dollars” came from the tax placed on cigarettes, so if you dont smoke… it didnt waste any of your money.
Why do we waste money and time on laws that don’t get enforced? People walk around or hang out smoking in Santa Barbara still. Hell, the city banned skateboarding on State and Chapala decades ago. Yet I still see kids and adults do it every DAY. I don’t want our limited police force piddling away their valuable time and resources those laws.
Valuable police time is already spent on the following Big Four: vagrants, gangs, drug and alcohol. Enforcing no smoking is a public benefit everyone can enjoy. This is far better use of police time than shoving the Big Four through the revolving door over and over again. You call this valuable use of police time? We need a new city council and a new police chief and get serious about this time and money draining Big Four: vagrants, gangs, drugs and alcohol.
Litter was part of the Tobacco Grant. A grant that was supposed to focus on preventing kids from ever picking up a nasty tobacco habit in the first place. Someone decided that “tapping” would help them get the grant to use the funds for the homeless. “Tapping” won’t prevent smoking. “Tapping” won’t change behavior. “Tapping” won’t prevent litter. But “tapping” got the City a $1,067,000.00 grant to use to appease property and business owners downtown. Fid you know that the City Staff is trying desperately to figure out how effective the Ambassadors are in preventing homeless from loitering on State Street? Does that tell you the Ambassador Program about the homeless or preventing people from using tobacco products? One final thought: Why do Ambassadors walk in pairs up and down State Street to “tap” people on the shoulder? Will a smoker get so irate about the “tap?” Or do they need to travel in pairs for fear of a negative reaction from a homeless person they try to shoe off State Street?
D8: PLEASE stop with the multitudinous !!!
Smokers are a real drag. (Get it—-drag?) When the local theaters put up no smoking signs, I was thrilled. During the opening night screening of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980), I was in a downtown theater that was packed tight. I ended up sitting smack dab in the middle of the place, far from any exits. My boyfriend and I had to sit in different rows, the place was so crowded. A guy lit up in front of me. I asked him to please put out his cigarette. He stood up, turned around and raised his fist at me. Things got a bit ugly. Not one person near me spoke up. He eventually stubbed out his cigarette. After the movie, when my boyfriend found out what had taken place, he was looking for the guy so he could give him a good punch in the face. Yes. Ban cigarette smoking in all public places. Put up signs. And people shouldn’t be afraid to let smokers know they need to keep their filthy, toxic habit out of public places.
350 SIGNS, AT HOW MUCH EXPENSE PER? I’m going to guess a $100 per sign cost, and an equal amount to install. That would be $70,000. Not that I like being downwind, but they will be ignored and I can think of a few things I’d rather that money was spent on. And will people be fined to recoup the cost? That’ll make the tourists even less likely to come back than they are now, strolling through the urban outdoorsmen and the shuttered shops.
…but no signs like….No Crapping…No Pissing…No Sleeping…No Loitering…No Sitting On Sidewalks…No Buggin’ the Sh!t Out of Shoppers for your booze/weed/piercings/body modifications/drugs…
Absolute huge waste of money. Signs or no signs, smokers will still smoke everywhere and leave their butts and trash around as well. So many smokers are absolute pigs with their refuse. I could never understand the mentality of it all. Also very hard for the police to turn attention away from the real crimes happening everywhere else, to stop and harass some smokers who aren’t bothering anyone else, though killing themselves very slowwwwwly. Very hard to justify the many thousands of dollars for signs and installation expenses as a result.
Signs , Signs, everywhere is signs, blocking up the scenery and breaking my mind, do this, don’t do that cant you read the signs, I have a sign that says Smoking is not a crime 🙂
Time to get rid of your sign …it is a crime in Santa Barbara. Has been for almost 2 years. It’s about time they are going to enforce it
It is time to enforce this law. Smoke in your home if you must. Keep your second hand smoke to yourself and your property. The signs are funded by a grant to the city.
YETI: I’d like to ask how it is you know secondhand smoke (even from “some smokers”) never bothers anyone else? Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. said “Smoking is a slow, sure form of suicide.” I am thrilled that these idiot smokers will now have to keep their death wish for themselves at home or in their car. Just keep those car windows rolled up, thank you very much.
Those signs too will come it they finally allow legal enforcement against these now common violations. Vagrancy ordinances will come back with proper due process – the action and not the person will be subject to legal prohibition.
Oversize vehicle ban is the best thing that happened to this town and its narrow streets in a long, long time.