Plan to ban smoking at outdoor venues stubbed out

HOLLYWOOD — Smokers who want to light up at the beach can breathe easy.

A proposed ban on smoking at Hollywood’s beach, parks and playgrounds was snuffed out Wednesday when commissioners said they were worried about offending tourists and running afoul of state law.

The power to ban outdoor smoking in the Sunshine State falls to legislators in Tallahassee, not city or county governments.

Hollywood Commissioner Dick Blattner, who was pushing for the ban, urged his colleagues on the dais to buck up.

“I don’t want to wimp out on this,” he said. “You either do it or you don’t.”

In the end, they decided it made more sense to post signs discouraging people from smoking rather than embrace an outright ban that might lead to a lawsuit.

Commissioner Debra Case, whose district includes the beach, defended the idea of a ban.

“It’s really about the children and the youth being exposed to our bad habits,” she said. “Since we want to encourage more families to use our beach and our parks, we want to set a good example.”

But Mayor Josh Levy and three commissioners — Traci Callari, Kevin Biederman and Peter Hernandez — worried about how police would enforce a ban.

Biederman also was concerned about upsetting tourists and residents who smoke.

“I don’t think we should do anything to alienate the tourists,” he said. “Especially when we are spending tons of money to attract them.”

The ban would have made Hollywood the first city in South Florida to snuff out cigarettes, cigars and tobacco pipes at the beach, officials said.

Under the ban, people caught smoking at the beach would have faced fines from $50 to $200. Smokers at a city park or playground would have faced fines up to $500.

Blattner told commissioners he was not giving up on the ban and planned to revive it later this year.

Bobby Lieberman, a member of Tobacco Free Florida, said he’d been urging Hollywood to pass a smoking ban for the past decade.

“Hollywood would attract more people if it had a smoke-free beach,” said Lieberman, who lived in Hollywood until moving to Fort Lauderdale last year. “It’s a shame. Secondhand smoke is deadly. And when someone pitches a cigarette butt on the beach, it can wind up in the hands of a child or in the mouth of a bird.”

Audrey Silk, founder of Brooklyn-based smoking rights group NYC Clash, had a different take.

“Florida has a pre-emption on smoking bans and cities are trying to pass them anyway,” she said. “They have no authority to do this. Can you imagine you’re being robbed and the cops are busy fining people on the beach for smoking?”