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Park smoke ban next?
Local couple leads effort for smoking-free locales
| Tuesday, Dec 26 2006 8:35 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Dec 26 2006 8:39 PM
In Bakersfield public parks, archery, javelin throwing and riding cattle are specifically prohibited in the municipal code.
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But not smoking.
Bakersfield resident Arthur Marroquin, 28, wants to change that. He and his wife, Laetisha, emboldened by parenthood, have taken their worries to the City Council and will plead their case when a city committee discusses it after the holidays.
"I'm really concerned," Arthur said. "My daughter spends a lot of time at the park. She might associate that (cigarette) smell with the park, or fun."
Arthur, with nerves showing in his voice and knees, spoke in front of the City Council Dec. 13, advocating a ban on smoking in public parks. His councilwoman, Jacquie Sullivan, asked that his proposal be discussed by the city's Legislative and Litigation Committee in January.
"We nonsmokers have been victims for many years," Sullivan said Friday. "Maybe (banning smoking in parks) is the next step."
The state Health and Safety Code addresses the issue, Assistant City Attorney Janice Scanlan said.
No person shall smoke within 25 feet of any playground or sandbox area, and no person shall dispose of cigarette butts within 25 feet of a playground or a sandbox area, the code says.
The Marroquins got involved when they took their daughter, Elliot -- 2 years old on Christmas Day -- to Patriots Park.
"People were smoking while pushing their kids in strollers, flicking their cigarettes on the ground," Laetisha said.
Arthur asked some smokers next to the playground to stop smoking. The smokers replied that there was no law against it.
When they got home, the Marroquins decided to look into it, and found that it was illegal to smoke next to a playground.
But the family wants more.
"At first, I just wanted the City Council to put up signs and enforce it," Arthur said. "Now, I just want the parks to be smoke-free."
Jennifer Henry, of the Tobacco-Free Coalition of Kern County, spoke to the council immediately after Arthur. She said Arthur's actions have been the catalyst for the coalition's invigorated campaign to stamp out smoking in parks.
Henry became involved in the group after seeing family members' health deteriorate because of smoking.
The Marroquins said that if their push is accepted and made into an ordinance, they want to make all public events, such as the Kern County Fair, entirely smoke-free.
Scanlan, the assistant city lawyer, is a nonsmoker. She noted the push by people like the Marroquins to make smoking illegal everywhere.
"We're running out of places where people can smoke," she said.