Top 10 LA Bans Of 2010: They Left Us Bagless, Smokeless And Puppyless, With Nary A Loko In Sight

[The Straight Story]

Top 10 Los Angeles Bans Of 2010: They Left Us Bagless, Smokeless And Puppyless, With Nary A Loko In Sight

Nothing like a good hard ban to make life in this concrete jungle a little more oppressive.

Between the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and most other governing bodies within county limits, politicians on power trips made 2010 a rough year for doing whatever the F we wanted to do.

While the City of Los Angeles cut public libraries and bus lines like they were cherry trees, valuable council floor-time was spent on more important things like telling us all the places we couldn't smoke, eat junk food and park our leaky RVs. And just when we thought we couldn't take any more, the FDA came along and yanked the one thing that made us feel better: Four Loko. Things just haven't been the same since.

With no further adieu, here are the top 10 bans of 2010, in no particular order --

10. Fast food joints in South Central.
9. Raves, temporarily.

...

6. Renegade RVs in Venice. Being poor and/or homeless in Los Angeles has never been very popular with city officials. Hence the fast-food ban, the plastic-bag ban and Venice's own special crackdown on RVs parked on city streets. Earlier this year, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl proclaimed that all mobile homes along Third Street, notorious for dumping shit (yes, shit) on the sidewalk, would be moved to a parking lot. That didn't jive well with the dread-heads. "Tell them residents, this is a beach," one told the Weekly. "Fuck that shit. We don't give a fuck what people up in them hills think about us." Since then, it's been a lively game of tug-o-war. Banned? Yes. Enforced? Kinda sorta.

...

4. Smoking on your own patio in Santa Monica. Sure, the L.A. City Council has its own public-area smoking ban in the works, and West Hollywood doesn't allow smoking in outdoor restaurant/bar areas, but Santa Monica takes the cake for most draconian cigarette stamp-out. When you can't even smoke a cancer stick on your own property, you know you live in the stick-up-its-ass capital of the West Coast. "If you want to smoke, go take a walk," Councilman Bob Holbrook said. But not on the beach. Or within 25 feet of any building. Sigh. We need a cig break just thinking about it.


http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/12/top_10_los_angeles_bans_of_201.php