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Time to Butt Out Even More, Newport Beach-goers!
You can bring your Dodgers' cap, but not your cigs to the beach in Newport (Photo by bymylaces via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
Calling all whale watchers, surfers, and sunbathers who also like to smoke: Starting today, if you're going to light up a ciggie in Newport Beach, it's going to have to be beyond 100 feet of the city's parks and beaches.
The Newport Beach City Council approved the ban on February 28, according to City News Service. This new ordinance adds distance to earlier local laws, which already found smoking banned on beaches, the pier, and boardwalk, and within 25 feet of a playground or 20 feet of community centers and public buildings.
This new 100-foot law creates what city spokeswoman Tara Finnigan calls a "buffer zone" that limits exposure to second-hand smoke for visitors to Newport Beach's 73 parks and nearly 10 miles of beaches.
So where can you smoke in public in Newport Beach? Among the remain locales at which you can indulge your vice are "in an alleyway or in a vehicle on a public street or in a parking lot," according to Finnigan.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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