http://66.225.205.104/SO20091022a.mp3
The Charlotte City legal department is looking into whether the city would be able to ban smoking on a public sidewalk. WFAE's Simone Orendain has more. Central Piedmont Community College President Tony Zeiss made the inquiry to the city attorney's office this summer. That was before the CPCC board agreed that the campus would go tobacco-free on January 2, when state law allows such a policy. The college wants to know whether the city would be able to designate a stretch of Elizabeth Avenue as a no-smoking area. Elizabeth Avenue runs through the middle of campus. CPCC spokeswoman Jessica Graham says it's just in case smoking on the sidewalks becomes an issue. "If it turns out there are people gathering on the sidewalk and creating an issue for folks trying to get across the street or trying to get into the building or, if we would get complaints or feedback that that was becoming a challenge, or if the city for example were to found that there were cigarette butts on the street that they weren't anticipating, that sort of thing," says Graham. Charlotte City Attorney Mac McCarley wasn't available for an interview but he said in an e-mail that his office still doesn't have an answer to the inquiry. He said he hopes to have this wrapped up soon. Municipalities around the country have moved to place smoking bans in public parks, but very few have targeted public sidewalks.