By Eric S. Page and Omari Fleming /7San Diego / August 21, 2024
A city in North County adopted new restrictions on smoking on Tuesday, banning residents from smoking in most multi-unit homes in Carlsbad.
By a vote of 4-1, the Carlsbad City Council adopted “a comprehensive smoke-free multi-family housing ordinance for all properties with at least 3 or more units located within the City of Carlsbad,” the city said in a news release issued on Wednesday morning.
Not everybody approves of the council’s decision. Former smoker and Carlsbad resident Phil Mouvet told NBC 7 last month that banning people from smoking in their apartments or condos is government overreach.
“It’s kind of taking it too far,” Mouvet said, but also said he understands the impulse
“The idea is to keep your neighbors from getting secondhand smoke,” Mouvet said. “They might have infants around or even pets.”
At the first reading of the ordinance, on July 30, council members debated the issue. Their concern: The health effects of secondhand smoke and whether the city of Carlsbad should be involved.
Though Carlsbad Mayor Keith Blackburn said in July that he owns apartments and wrestles with whether the effort is overreach, he was among the councilmembers who voted 4-1 in favor of introducing an ordinance for smoke-free housing.
“It feels like an overreach of the city. We shouldn’t be property managers or landlords,” Councilmember Melanie Burkholder said at the time. “Landlords and property managers can make their own determination within the confines of a lease, and I don’t think the city should be involved, so I can’t support this.”
The ordinance, which passed by an identical margin on Tuesday, makes Carlsbad the first city in San Diego County to ban all types of smoking and vaping of tobacco and cannabis products inside and outside multi-unit residences, except in “certain designated outdoor spaces.” It would also include rental and for-sale housing developments like condos and townhouses with three or more units.
Hotels, single-family homes with granny flats and mobile-home parks would be exempted from the ban.
A Carlsbad City Council staff report showed that secondhand smoke can travel through multi-unit housing walls, ceilings and ventilation systems. According to the American Cancer Society, it contains more than 7,000 chemicals — hundreds of which are toxic and about 70 that can cause cancer.
The ordinance will go into effect on Sept. 20fter the adoption on Aug. 20, but the rules regarding enforcement go into effect at the start of next year.
I recently read about Carlsbad’s new ordinance banning smoking in multi-unit housing and felt compelled to share my perspective. I too view this decision as government overreach.
Consider cat dander, for example. Many people are highly allergic to cat dander, a common issue in multi-unit housing. Even if someone in an apartment complex is not a cat owner, the presence of cat dander in the air can still cause allergic reactions for those who are sensitive. The discomfort and health issues caused by cat dander are well documented. Secondhand smoke is akin to cat dander in that it can infiltrate spaces beyond one’s control, affecting the health and comfort of neighbors. I have yet to see Carlsbad city counsel wish to ban cat ownership in multi- unit dwellings. Why not? Same issue, isn’t it? Both have potentially negative affects on the heath and well being of others?
In summary, while the Carlsbad ordinance may seem like a harmless imposition to some, it represents a move towards authoritarianism and a nanny state mentality which I believe are detrimental to the American way of life.
Huge overreach into the privacy of one’s home and personal choices.
If your neighbor smokes, and you don’t like it, you can move. If your neighbor plays music in the middle of night and you’re not getting any sleep, move. We are not chained to our living abodes.
We need to stop making decisions for others and remembering that others can typically make decisions for themselves. Maybe if we encourage personal responsibility and allow more autonomy we wouldn’t have so many people thinking they are entitled to everything.
LOL Disturbing your sleep and second hand smoke are your problem, so move? Encourage personal responsibility? A multi-unit home is a rental. Smoking degrades the interior.
Smoking is bad. Plus you stink when you smoke. It cracks me up when people won’t smoke in their house because of the smell but they smoke outside and their neighbors have to smell it.
Or they hang it outta their car window. Ya. Not helping.
I’m an ex 2 pack a day smoker and as an ex smoker I can confirm that there is no way to hide that smell.
But even vapes? They don’t smell or give off any smoke.
Yet any self-credited old hippie went through this whole thing during the pot prohibition and I can’t believe they’d allow themselves to go through it again.
Yeah, my entire family smoked (except my mom who was a Shakespearean actor-Old Globe-who valued her projecting stage voice), and I was probably addicted at birth by being inside houses or cars as a baby. I’ve quit smoking twice, once in the 80s that lasted for 6 years until I joined a band at Utah State U…Pack ‘O Smokes which, I know, is a really bad pun but hey, playing rock & roll in UTAH needed some cultural slap-backs!!! I quit again in Jan of 2008 and yes I’m still clean, but oh my did I have to throw away clothes because the smell just wouldn’t wash out of cloth. But I already knew that running a sew shop…
Yeah, smoking is bad as most of my family died miserably of lung cancer…
But wait! It’s okay to have cancer-causing half-burnt petroleum exhaust belching from passing cars and trucks spewing into the windows and doors of every building they pass including schools. And school buses filled with kids are breathing diesel fumes to and from classrooms. What’s up with that??
But I have a solution (the bike guys will love it)!! Let’s ban ALL infernal combustion engines…including lawn mowers and leaf blowers etc etc from all streets!
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So Carlsbad is going to have to legalize smoking cannabis on the public streets now, right? Since you now can’t do it in the apartment you rent, and you can get a DUI if you do in your car (remember, cops love the old “I smell weed” and I’m searching your car routine?), and can’t smoke in public buildings… there’s only one solution and that is to legalize puffpuffpass on on all sidewalks!
Ahahahaha I’m so cynical! Stupid intrusive government making more laws when they should be getting RID of stupid laws that are still on the books…like Dredd Scott that is now being put forth as a reason Harris is ineligible to run for president.
sealintheSelkirks
Today’s Voice of SD:
Carlsbad cops say they don’t have the resources or manpower to enforce the ban. Enforcement, then, will fall to other residents and landlords. What does citizen enforcement look like in this case?
It means landlords could evict people for smoking and neighbors could bring civil legal complaints against their neighbors.
“So you pass an ordinance and then tell the property managers, ‘You need to enforce this’ … good luck. This is another clear case of government overreach,” one person wrote in a letter to city staff.