Jacob Grier

Here’s a story that combines anti-smoking nannies with overly zealous zoning enforcers in Eugene, OR, a town that up until now I had only good thoughts about:

The city of Eugene has fined the Horsehead bar $12,960 dollars for a row of arborvitae in the bar’s outdoor smoking area. The city’s smoking ordinance mandates that at least 75 percent of a smoking area be open to outdoor air, and, according to the city planning commission, that row of plants constituted a wall, violating the ordinance.

The owners of the Horsehead are understandably pissed, especially since they already spent $10,000 tearing down the old fence that used to enclose the area in an attempt to conform to the 2005 smoking ordinance. The new row of arborvitae was supposed to allow air to circulate and give patrons privacy from downtown Eugene’s omnipresent street kids and hobos.

That’s from the Oregon Commentator; the Register-Guard has the rest of the story. Though the bar owner knew he faced a potential fine from the council, he deserves credit for bringing attention to these increasingly stupid laws.