Attention smokers: you may have to walk farther away from a building for a smoke. A new D.C. law allows businesses and property managers to post signs banning smoking within 25 feet outside their building.
But here’s the downer -- the law has no enforcement. Even Councilwoman Mary Cheh called the law “phony.”
There are no fines associated with violating a “no smoking” sign, no mechanism for a police officers to write a ticket and no authority for a security guard to move a smoker along.
The Apartment and Office Building Association e-mailed the Washington Business Journal, “As building owners and managers,” she wrote, “we are effectively on our own."
But Councilman Phil Mendelson said the law goes as far as it can “unless you want to ban smoking on sidewalks.”
