Modesto ponders smoking ban in all city parks

Modesto is considering banning smoking in all of its 75 city parks as well as in certain other public spaces.

The City Council’s Great Safe Neighborhoods Committee will take up the proposal at its Monday meeting and could recommend it be sent to the full council for adoption. The meeting is open to the public.

Modesto currently bans the use of tobacco – including chewing tobacco – within 50 feet of children’s play areas, including park playgrounds. The proposal would extend the ban throughout city parks and include the smoking of marijuana. Even though recreational marijuana is legal in California with November’s passage of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, the act does not allow consumption in public places.

Councilwoman Kristi Ah You said she and some of her constituents in the college area asked for the ban in parks. The College Area Neighborhood Alliance includes the ban in the steps it would like the city to take based on the results of its safety survey.

College-area residents have complained about public drunkenness, the selling and using of drugs, littering, vandalism, and other bad behavior in Graceada and Enslen parks as well as crime in their neighborhood. These parks – like many throughout Modesto – are frequented by the homeless. Some homeless say residents scapegoat all of the homeless for problems created by a few or by people who are not homeless.

But Ah You stressed the proposed ban is about reducing the number of cigarette butts in parks and making them healthier spaces for everyone. Citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the city report emphasizes the dangers of secondhand smoke, which include “more frequent and severe asthma attacks.”

“Parks are public places where kids play,” she said. “I think it will cut down on the trash in our parks. It will be good for our health.”

The proposed ban has the support of Andrew Howard, even though the Modesto resident is a smoker and enjoys smoking in the park. “I don’t like it personally,” he said Saturday while in Enslen Park. “But other people don’t want to be bothered by the smoke when they are out in the fresh air.”

The proposal also would ban smoking within 100 feet of the entrance and exit of a hospital, public gardens, plazas, trails and recreation areas. Those who smoke where it is prohibited face penalties of $100 to $1,000.

City Attorney Adam Lindgren said Modesto is considering reasonable regulations that are in line with what other communities have done. He said there is a major statewide and nationwide trend over many decades of communities increasing smoking restrictions in private and public spaces.

But there is the question of enforcement.

College-area residents complain that Modesto does not do enough to enforce existing regulations. The smell of tobacco was strong Friday afternoon at the Graceada Park pavilion, where the homeless gathered to stay dry from the wet weather. Some said they were skeptical the ban would be a priority for police. Police Chief Galen Carroll said enforcement would be based on complaints. But city officials say the ban would give parkgoers something to point to when others light up.

The committee will meet at 5 p.m. in room 2005 on the second floor of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Modesto ponders smoking ban in all city parks."