Add Manhattan Beach, Calif. to the list of places you will soon be no longer welcome to enjoy a cigar in public, as on Tuesday night the City Council directed staff to develop plans to implement a citywide smoking ban for public places.
According to a report on TBRNews.com, the plan is expected to come back before the council in April, and will ban smoking on public property, streets, alleys, sidewalks and parking lots, as well as on the outdoor dining areas of restaurants. The move does not create a ban on smoking on private property, however.
Sona Kalapura Coffee, the city’s environmental programs manager, said that the program is designed to be self-enforcing and that there won’t be police walking around looking for people smoking. However, the rules change will come with penalties for those who do violate the ban. While the specific amount has yet to be determined, the article cited a range of fines between $100 and $250 as possibilities.
I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.