Proposed smoking ban heats up debate at LA housing complex

Resident Juan Manuel Cabrera, 77, who has been smoking for 67 years, says no federal edict is going to stop him from lighting up in his own house at the William Mead Homes in Los Angeles, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. "When I'm in my house I don't bother nobody and nobody bothers me," Cabrera said as he relaxed on his porch with his chubby brown Chihuahua, Dunko, an ashtray within arm's reach and a pack of Marlboro Lights in his pocket. The federal government's proposal Thursday to ban smoking inside and out of public housing nationwide got a decidedly mixed reaction from the people most affected.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Resident Juan Manuel Cabrera, 77, who has been smoking for 67 years, says no federal edict is going to stop him from lighting up in his own house at the William Mead Homes in Los Angeles, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. "When I'm in my house I don't bother nobody and nobody bothers me," Cabrera said as he relaxed on his porch with his chubby brown Chihuahua, Dunko, an ashtray within arm's reach and a pack of Marlboro Lights in his pocket. The federal government's proposal Thursday to ban smoking inside and out of public housing nationwide got a decidedly mixed reaction from the people most affected.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

By Associated Press November 13, 2015 4 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) – At William Mead Homes, where people live in 415 tidy if aging red-brick apartments on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, opinions on the federal government’s proposed ban on smoking both inside and outside of all public housing are about as plentiful as the scores of cigarette butts dotting the complex’s numerous green common lawns.

How will the government enforce such a wide-reaching possible regulation as the one proposed Thursday, smokers and non-smokers alike asked.

And whatever happened to the rights of people to do whatever they want in their own homes as long as they aren’t breaking the law, opined others.

“Do you really think the police are going to come into peoples’ homes because they’re smoking? I don’t,” said 21-year-old Aaron Castaneda, who grew up in the warren of two-story apartments built during World War II and now hemmed in by railroad tracks and warehouses.

“If people pay their rent, why can’t they smoke in their own house?” asked Castenada, a self-described light tobacco smoker who was carrying a pouch of roll-your-own with him Thursday.