Pearl Street Mall smoking ban aired at Boulder open house

Only a few Boulder residents attended an open house Wednesday on a proposed Pearl Street Mall smoking ban, but their position was clear: Cigarettes should be snuffed out. The ban will appear on the Boulder City Council agenda Oct. 16, and then again for a public hearing Nov. 15. If passed, the ban would be enforced 24 hours a day on the pedestrian mall between 11th and 15th streets and on the Boulder County Courthouse lawn. It was drafted in response to complaints from tourists, downtown employees, restaurant owners and retail businesses about an increase in cigarette-butt litter and secondhand smoke, city officials say.

 Sharon Hillman, a 22-year Boulder resident, said she struggles with asthma and attended Wednesday's open house to show her support for the proposed ban. She said she lives near the mall and walks through it several times a day, and lately she's been bothered by how many people smoke there. "I just think this year was the tipping point where I couldn't find fresh air on the mall anymore," Hillman said. "There is a reason you live downtown, and I want to be able to hang out where I live." The ban would not be enforced in alleys or on side streets of the mall, according to the city staff. If it passes, police and city employees would spend the first month educating people seen smoking about the ban.

 After that, violators would be given one warning before being ticketed for smoking, which carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail, according to information distributed Wednesday. Molly Winter, director of Boulder's Downtown and University Hill Management Division and Parking Services, said the response to the proposed ban has been almost unanimously positive. She noted a survey of downtown business owners and employees done by Downtown Boulder Inc. has so far shown that 73 percent would support the ban. Cigarette butts are the most prominent kind of litter on the mall each day, Winter said, but smoking in the public area also creates a substantial public health risk, the primary reason for the proposed ordinance.

 Jennifer Kovarik, program coordinator for Boulder County's Tobacco Education and Prevention Program, noted that about 12 percent of Boulder County adults are smokers, and there is mounting evidence that exposure to secondhand smoke in an outdoor setting can be just as damaging to one's health as indoor exposure. Robin Kolble, manager of the University of Colorado's community health department, has been working on a possible campus-wide smoking ban for years, but she came to Wednesday's open house as a concerned resident. "I think a lot of people believe that when you blow the smoke out it just goes away, but it doesn't. It lingers," she said. "I really would like to be able to take my grandchildren to the mall without breathing in smoke."