Even To San Franciscans, Smoking Bans Start to Sound Silly
June 26th, 2006
Recreation and Park Department officials in San Francisco are wondering if anyone is going to be able to see the park’s trees in the forest of signs they’ve been forced to put up.
So many restrictive laws and regulations have been passed in the California city, ironically noted for its free spirit in the counterculture heyday of the 1960’s, that they failed to add more than 1,000 “No Smoking” signs to the burden already marring the view of nature in hundreds of locations throughout the parks.
I wonder what would happen if some San Francisco residents brought suit against the County for visual pollution of the parks? What about all the energy wasted to make all of those signs, transport them, and put them up?
Heck, the signs might even be cutting down on available sunlight getting to the trees and plants, doing them serious injury. Or perhaps they are destroying the habit of some priceless insect or bird, and hurrying yet another species along the road to extinction.
More on the San Francisco outdoor smoking ban that is even being ignored by parts of San Francisco’s govenment as excessive is below the fold.
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