Smoking

CITY HALL — The City Council on Tuesday moved to join the ranks of cities like Santa Monica and Calabasas by putting limits on smoking in certain outdoor areas in Burbank. The ordinance, which the council adopted in a 3-2 vote, will ban smoking in several targeted areas in the downtown, the Chandler Bikeway and restaurant's outdoor dining areas. Slated to go into effect in May, the law will return to the council for a second vote Tuesday before being finalized. Mayor Todd Campbell lauded the ordinance's passage as among the current council's greatest legislative accomplishments.

CITY HALL — A time-tested and unavoidable adage accompanied the City Council's second reading Tuesday of an ordinance banning outdoor smoking in parts of Burbank: The devil is in the details. The ordinance on the table, which was set to be finalized Tuesday, would prohibit smoking in several areas in Burbank, including parts of downtown, public outdoor restaurant dining areas and the Chandler Bikeway. The council had not yet voted as of press time, but city staffers were on deck to lay out the ramifications of putting the ordinance into effect, which would, in some cases, present a complicated set of variables.

Irma Lemus BURBANK -- Monterey High School student Gary D'Hue wanted other teenagers to be aware of the effects of smoking. So the 17-year-old student sketched a man walking to an open grave as he smoked a cigarette. The art not only attracted attention, it took first place in a districtwide antitobacco poster contest. Gary's drawing, chosen from among 110 submitted by Burbank, John Burroughs and Monterey high school students, earned him a $100 prize presented at the Dec. 21 Board of Education meeting.

BURBANK — A year-old ban on smoking in a wide range of public places of Burbank still has some businesses fuming as others call for an expanded ordinance that would curtail cigarette smoke throughout the city. The Burbank City Council passed the anti-smoking law by a vote of 3 to 2 on March 27, 2007, and enacted the ban on May 12, 2007, though police did not begin ticketing offenders until August to allow time for the ordinance to sink in while signs and advertisements alerted smokers about a possible fine.

BURBANK — City officials are having trouble enforcing a new law that limits smoking in some outdoor areas. The law bars smoking in outdoor dining areas, parts of downtown Burbank, the Chandler Bikeway, city parks and facilities, outdoor events and public transit stations. But since the law took effect, the city has received many calls and e-mails from residents complaining that it is not being enforced, City Manager Mary Alvord said. Part of the problem is that local business owners and managers are put in the difficult position of having to tell longtime customers that they can no longer smoke in restaurants and cafés, she said.

As 19-year-old Jon Little crossed Magnolia Boulevard on Dec. 10, cigarette in hand, he failed to notice the police officer on Olive Avenue. As he crossed the street, Little, a student at Antelope Valley College, was cited and fined $200 for smoking in Downtown Burbank, a violation of the citywide smoking ban that bars smoking on all sidewalks, alleys and other pedestrian areas Downtown, as well as on city property, including Chandler Bikeway and...

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- Crazy Jack is back. Jack Tavares, the owner of Crazy Jack's Country Bar & Grill, will be in Burbank court Tuesday to contest a citation for allegedly defying the state's ban on smoking in restaurants. The appearance, which will kick off trial proceedings, marks another confrontation with the city by the 65-year-old proprietor, who has challenged the state's smoking ban since it went into effect four years ago by continuing to smoke in his establishment.

DOWNTOWN — Ever since he started smoking, Thomas Kay has enjoyed a cigarette on the patio at this San Fernando Boulevard Starbucks. Now, in the wake of a recent City Council ordinance, if Kay lights up, he will have to pay up. On April 30, the City Council adopted an ordinance banning smoking in various public places. Smoking is no longer allowed within 20 feet of all entrances, exits and open windows of buildings open to the public; all sidewalks and pedestrian areas of Downtown Burbank; outdoor dining areas; and, all lines in public places, such as movie theaters and ATMs, according to Michael Forbes, a Burbank senior planner who helped draft the ordinance.

Warrant issued for ‘Transformers’ star An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for Shia LeBeouf, the 22-year-old actor who starred in last year’s “Transformers,” police said Tuesday. LeBeouf failed to appear in Burbank Superior Court Tuesday morning after police cited him in February for smoking in Downtown Burbank, a misdemeanor offense, under the city’s smoking ordinance passed last year, a court representative said. “He received a smoking citation at 314 N. San Fernando [Blvd.

Water rate hikes, speeding near schools, smoking downtown and the looming threat against after-school programs were hot-button topics Wednesday at Burbank's second town hall meeting. The meeting -- an attempt by the Burbank City Council to get feedback from residents in a more casual setting -- attracted roughly 50 residents to Luther Burbank Middle School. Residents frustrated about the high cost of water -- despite their conservation efforts -- discovered they weren't the only ones.

Firefighters made progress early Friday on a three-alarm blaze that ripped through a Burbank smoke shop. The fire was reported around 3:30 a.m. at Wholesale Giant at Victory Boulevard and Manning Street, just south of Bob Hope Airport, KTLA-TV reported. The business is a wholesale market that sells items including tobacco, restaurant supplies and candy. Firefighters arrived to find heavy fire inside the building, which then spread to the attic, compromising the roof. Fire crews battled the flames with hoses from outside to keep the fire from spreading.

It took firefighters in Burbank more than three hours Friday morning to knock down a three-alarm fire that destroyed a wholesale cigarette and tobacco business. The fire at Wholesale Giant Inc., at 4410 W. Victory Blvd., was reported at 3:30 a.m., with firefighters from several outside agencies, including Los Angeles and Pasadena, called in to assist. Firefighters had to get out of the burning building when flames extended into the attic and the roof collapsed. Carbon dioxide tanks in the shop reportedly exploded, and butane cigarette lighters began exploding after that.

Good morning, readers. Today is Thursday, October 4. An accident that left two women dead in Valley Village is being investigated by the district attorney's office. On Aug. 22, the women were electrocuted after they tried to help at the scene of a solo car crash. The driver may face charges , reports Patch . L.A. City Councilman Tony Cardenas is looking to make an area of Van Nuys more attractive to businesses and their customers by shortening the metered street parking hours , reports the Daily News . L.A. Weekly reviews Al Amir, a Lebonese restaurant in Valley Village , where "The  mezze  here, essentially Middle Eastern tapas, are worth the visit alone.

Hollywood has Musso & Frank Grill, and West Hollywood has that lovable old hussy, the Formosa Cafe. For a squinting glimpse of old Hollywood glamour, Burbank turns to the SmokeHouse. It's a joint that's been serving up prime rib and iceberg wedges since 1946. Where Bing Crosby and Bob Hope sated their appetites. Where Frank Sinatra ate his filet mignon sauteed with tomatoes, peppers and onions and served over linguine. Order the Steak Sinatra and see if you share Frank's tastes. In its current location, where it moved in 1949, across from Warner Bros., the SmokeHouse has been a decades-spanning draw for actors, writers, even extras.

I'm troubled - troubled by the inequity found in double standards and discrimination evident in Burbank demonstrated by its smoking ordinance. Within a specific parameter downtown, no one may legally smoke but for some apparent exemptions predicated on dubious justifications whose true cause can only be guessed. Two of the flagrant violations to equitable treatment are found at Café O and Gitana, two hookah lounges. They belch prodigious clouds of tobacco smoke into the very Burbank air the ordinance was created to render cleaner and healthier for all. The courtyard at Video Symphony between these hookah lounges - which sports not one but three signs indicating no smoking in Burbank - has, instead, become a smoker's Mecca that is entirely ignored by law enforcement.

Regarding the April 30 story “Smoking restrictions set to expand,” our Burbank City Council and inept Police Department don't have anything better to do for the betterment of our community than this? The so-called ills from secondhand smoke are nonsense, and is as ridiculous as people saying that President Obama wasn’t born in this country. It is the folly, and a headline grabber, that made Henry Waxman famous. Well, his 15 minutes of fame are up. As a condo owner, no one or no city is going to tell me what I can or cannot do in my home or balcony or patio.

Many Burbank residents already think twice before blowing smoke in public, but beginning Sunday, that concern will carry over to their apartment or condo. As of May 1, private patios and balconies, play areas for children, swimming pools with children in the area, and residential units that share ventilation systems join the list of locations where smoking is prohibited within city limits. Four years ago, City Council voted to ban smoking in hallways, stairwells, elevators, lobbies, laundry, trash and recreation rooms, gyms and within 5 feet of all entrances, exits and walkways at multi-family residences.

By now, even smokers know that cigarettes are toxic, addictive and just plain evil. How far city governments should go in telling people when and where they can smoke is, however, a cloudier issue — a balancing act between freedom of choice and public welfare that now also threatens the privacy rights of Burbank condo and apartment dwellers. A recently adopted extension of the 2007 Secondhand Smoke Ordinance that all but eliminated tobacco use throughout downtown Burbank will, as of May 2011, outlaw smoking on many private patios and balconies.

The City Council's steps this week to further protect apartment and condo residents from secondhand smoke represents the next phase of anti-smoking policies, and Burbank is once again at the forefront. Complaints that rules banning smoking in shared living quarters — be it via an air duct, patio or otherwise — intrude on private life smack of the same tired arguments that have been made against every progressive public health initiative. How many of us can even stomach returning to the days of smoking and nonsmoking sections in restaurants?