Where There's Smoke, There's Money

Let me share a secret - THE ONLY THING I CARE ABOUT IN HERMOSA BEACH RIGHT NOW IS THE SCHOOL DISTRICT !!!

To be more specific, I do not care about smoking on patios.  I do care about the Hermosa School District being handed over to LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District), whose motto is Destroying The Future One Child At A Time.

Whereas Kit Bobko has spent his time sleuthing out hidden budget line items like $624,000 for a dog catcher, Councilmembers Jeff Duclos and Howard Fishman are spending their time trying to ban the burning of tiny tubes of leaves outside in the open air. Given that there are probably 5,000 barbecue grills, and 5,000 fireplaces in Hermosa Beach, the additional smoke that these cigarettes will add does not interest me.  Furthermore, Hermosa Beach has a ban on leaf-blowers that is never enforced.  If these pro-air quality councilmembers want to show their sincerity for saving us all, they should consider figuring out why I can count a dozen noisy illegal leaf blowers running on my block every single week.  And they can explain why I can't drive anywhere in Hermosa Beach without seeing leaf blowers running 7 days a week.

But I digress.  I have a solution to the Patio Smoking Issue.  It is called the market system.  Or you can call it Smoking Offsets.  Whatever you call it, it involves charging money for patio smoking.  Specifically, any bar or restaurant that wants to have smoking on their patio can pay $1.00 per day per unit of patio capacity.  For example, a patio that has a legal limit of 30 people would cost that bar or restaurant $30/day, which is $10,950 per year, charged annually. This is just an example of course.  Maybe $2 per person, or $3 per person would be the optimal number. The bars could just add it to the bottom of the bill and nobody would notice or care. Every penny of that money would go straight to the Hermosa Beach City School District.  Any any bar or restaurant that is not paying, and is caught with smokers on their patio, would have to pay triple for that year.

Of course dyed in the wool Puritans who want to tell everyone what they can and cannot do will never be happy with a solution like this, but they don't want any drinking or any bars to exist at all, so who cares about them.  They are not happy and they will never be happy.

Business owners should love this.  Money is the language of business.  The market system is the religion of small business owners.  As a matter of fact, if they have any sense at all, they will make this their mission.  If they can get Hermosa Beach parents and Hermosa Beach educators, and Hermosa Beach home owners on their side about the Patio Smoking Issue by using it to raise money for the schools, then they won't lose the right to have smoking on their patios.  Otherwise, they had better realize that they can kiss their smoking patios goodbye, just like bars and restaurants in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Calabasas.

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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