New York City (and state) banned smoking on outdoor patios of restaurants and bars as part of the overall smoking ban years ago. It was a shock to me when I moved to LA to find that the same thing didn’t happen here. That I had to endure smokers in the outdoor sections of restaurants was a drag for me because that’s often the preferable section of an establishment.

I look forward to sitting outside Intelligentsia, sipping my $12 coffee and inhaling the noxious Sunset Junction car, truck and bus exhaust, untainted by secondhand tobacco smoke.

OK, this may be a stupid question, but if smoking is banned in bars and restaurants in the state how can the city override this with exemptions.

I don’t think anybody’s proposing any new exemptions to the existing state law that bans smoking inside. Did I miss that somewhere?

Good point on who will enforce and how it will be paid for is the biggy. It will wind up being like the ridiculous cell phone and texting ban, largely unenforced.

On a side bar I think the whole banning outside is pretty annoying and stupid. I quit 8 years ago and still thing smokers should be able to at least light up outside. I run into it often even in the cities were it was supposedly banned and just shrug my shoulders and move where I don’t have their smoke rolling around me.