Survey: Smoking cut drastically after Pacific Avenue ban

although I do not smoke cigi's, I do extremely occasionally enjoy a portion of a cigar. I used to take a few puffs and walk along and then put the thing in a metal cigar container for later. I will continue to obey this rule, but will also continue to stay away from your businesses.

This is a really stupid article. Smoking is banned. Of course it has been cut drastically. Geez . . . .

My friends and I spend lots of money downtown and have spent more time than ever there since the ban. The smoke was so bad for a while that we just stopped going. And remember, smokers aren't shopping, they're smoking. I will guarantee that the number of shoppers has increased since the ban. Of course, we will never know for sure because the economy tanked right around the same time the ban was put into effect. The smoking ban was the right decision. No one should be exposed to second hand smoke...ever.

I find downtown to be vastly more tolerable since the ban. My family is shopping on pacific ave more frequently since we no longer hae to avoid a haze of smoke.

I think there should be a crv deposit on each filtered cigarette. Bring back the filter and get your nickel.

Whats that? you don't want to handle your filthy, stinking cigarette butt? Well maybe you see why we don't want thousands of them in the ocean!

Smokers! Control your stinky Butt!

It is amazing the political voices appearing here as citicizenry in discuise. I suspect UCSC horsepower.

Article should be titled

"Smoking increases dramatically on all side streets connected to Pacific Ave"

Just keep your heads in the sand and never look down the side streets and the 2nd hand smoke will magically disappear.

Its like the BP oil spill, while most surface oil is not noticeable, there are still huge amounts under the surface..

Me and My Shadow wrote:

Article should be titled
"Smoking increases dramatically on all side streets connected to Pacific Ave"
Just keep your heads in the sand and never look down the side streets and the 2nd hand smoke will magically disappear.
Its like the BP oil spill, while most surface oil is not noticeable, there are still huge amounts under the surface..

I've noticed that too. Especially with the staff that handles the food prep at the pizza place on the corner of Pacific and Locust. It's gross. Or the people who stand outside the patio area of Little Shanghai and puff away, oblivious to the the outdoor diners. But I'm still happy the ban was enacted on Pacific.

You wouldn't know it based upon all of the cigarette butts on the ground. What the article fails to mention is that the transients make up 99.99% of the smokers. Let's see, no money for food or shelter but a steady supply of smokes....

Kachina wrote:

<quoted text>
I've noticed that too. Especially with the staff that handles the food prep at the pizza place on the corner of Pacific and Locust. It's gross. Or the people who stand outside the patio area of Little Shanghai and puff away, oblivious to the the outdoor diners. But I'm still happy the ban was enacted on Pacific.

I agree also. The Ban is good. Its nation wide. I'm a smoker. I never throw a butt out of the window or on the ground. If all smokers generally respected other non smokers this wouldn't be much of an issue. I was in Wyoming on business and there are allot of bans there as well. I was thinking of starting a restaurant / hotel chain where ONLY smokers are allowed. It would be very popular.

neighbor son wrote:

although I do not smoke cigi's, I do extremely occasionally enjoy a portion of a cigar. I used to take a few puffs and walk along and then put the thing in a metal cigar container for later. I will continue to obey this rule, but will also continue to stay away from your businesses.

As the person walking behind you holding her breath, I say, "Thank you." My increased patronage of the business you stay away from should help keep them afloat.

They should try banning heroin now too.

Everybody still smokes downtown. Most people have dogs downtown, they skateboard, and ride their bikes on the sidewalk and against traffic. SCPD has given up on downtown, and can you blame them?

This second hand smoke thing is weird to me. The stats have been exagerated. They make it sound like more ppl die from second hand than the smokers themselves. 30 years of smoking and I'm not dead yet but, according to these statistics, I must've murdered thousands in my wake. If a person has weak lungs problems then they have lung problems. If they die from it perhaps they should not blame second hand smoke just because they were around it one time.
Next item: You have to figure if you can inhale smoke that even without smoke you are also breathing in others' germs anyway. You can step back while talking to a person who smells of B.O. but walking down the street you are breathing in a lot of gross stuff every-single-day.
Years ago when you could smoke at bus benches, I was the only one at a bench out by OSH. This grossly obese woman comes up and sits next to me and starts opening her groceries and shoveling chips and snacks down her gullet. THEN she has the nerve to start insulting my smoking. She was not nice about it. But of course I did not say, Well your gluttonous ways offend me, please stop.
Smokers let others walk all over them. They are insulted and given dirty looks. But do we do anything about it? No, the laws keep changing and we accept it because smoking is considered unconscionable and we are humiliated on a daily basis should we go out in public. If we defend our habit then we are treated with great disdain in front of others and on the street. It's mostly the kids who are all environmentally conscious which I am all for but know nothing of the live and let live concept. They are not the boss of me, I don't try to change them so they shouldn't try to change strangers by insulting them. I get so tired of hearing it that one day this kid on a bike insulted me. All I said was, "Oh shut up," and I kept right on walking. The twit.
Next: Let them smoke but ticket them for littering. The City would get more money that way. If you prohibit smoking, most will abide by the rule but the street ppl might not. What are you going to do? Expect them to pay their tickets? Littering tickets are more lucretive than tickets for smoking in public.
And now let the insults begin. It's ok, I knew going in I'd be pounced on by 50 ppl but gee, there should be 50 of me to fight back but cowards pick on a woman who is no threat.
Thanks, L.....

Sidewalk Surfer wrote:

Everybody still smokes downtown. Most people have dogs downtown, they skateboard, and ride their bikes on the sidewalk and against traffic. SCPD has given up on downtown, and can you blame them?

Yep! people smokin in fron of Roasters 24/7! Can't even sit outside and enjoy some good coffee :( Selfish btards

Funny how it's newsworthy that a smoking BAN law with fines has resulted in less smoking - shouldn't it be zero?

"30 years of smoking and I'm not dead yet..."

I just buried my father last week. He was 87 and smoked for 35 years. He underwent 2 bypass surgeries and was diagnosed with COPD 15 years ago. He spent the last year of his life on oxygen and had a massive cardiac arrest in the parking lot of the pharmacy where he had just picked up a prescription for a chronic cough..

True, you're not dead yet but there may come a time when you feel like you are as you gasp for breath to live another hour. Your glibness is sad and reflects a person in total denial...

Title should have read:

"Business off dramatically after downtown smoking ban"

PS: The dog ban was lifted. How about a vagrant ban?

Instead of traversing the mall on Pacific I use the side streets now. Less money for you. Plus the vagrants with obnoxious dogs are not on the side streets.

This is the most stupid waste of taxpayers' money I have heard of. The statistical design of the survey should have been subbed to UCSC environmental studies students for a term paper project. The numbers are no better than most of the comments about the article in which people say they feel that the law has reduced smoking at least where they have been downtown. Dressing up a survey with a lot of randomly observed numbers proves nothing!!!!

This "study" was an outrageous and total waste of money. I guess it takes something as controversial as a smoking ban downtown to get people to overlook that.