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by dumpstermcnuggets
on Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:11 am |
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I recently went to Ravinia Festival late last month, which for those who don't know, is a popular outdoor music venue in the north suburbs of Chicago. After some hunting, I finally found a brochure that talked about their smoking prohibitions on their grounds.
I have to conclude, after reading the brochure, they have to have some of the most f-ed up outdoor smoking rules of any places I've been to(and for all I know, the amusement park Great America may have more lenient smoking rules, though they restricted smoking to just a few designated areas about 1-3 years ago). Get this: the only places you can legally smoke at Ravinia are 2 smoking areas just outside Ravinia's grounds, and you have to get a hand stamp to go to those areas to smoke. There are no legal areas where you can smoke within the grounds of Ravinia, btw(and surprisingly, the brochure I read says they've had this prohibition since 1995, though I could swear from doing online research about Ravinia's smoking rules that this rule wasn't implemented till around 1998). One of them is outside of the east entrance, and another is outside of the west entrance(the west one is by the Metra train stop). I didn't see what the smoking area looked like by the east entrance, but the western entrance was this ridiculously small smoking area that was a 20x20(ft.) square that was the 'smoking area'. Sadly, I suspect people don't have the defiant balls to slightly step outside of that square to smoke, and I couldn't figure out if you could legally smoke or not on that Metra platform while waiting for a train. (I suspect it isn't legal, and I'm aware most suburbs haven't prohibited smoking on Metra train platforms)
One last thing: Due to the suburb of Highland Park passing stricter smoking prohibitions for outdoor areas around December 2007(they didn't quite pass a Calabasas-like law, but they may as well have done so, since I was shocked to hear some of the outdoor areas where smoking is prohibited by HP law, such as(get this) on a bike/hiking trail just to the west of Ravinia), they now have these creepy 'Smoke Free Illinois' signs throughout the parking lot saying something along the lines of 'This is a smoke-free campus'. And you will have heard this here first: I greatly suspect if any Illinois communities ever try to pass a Calabasas-like outdoor smoking ban law, Highland Park will be the very first municipality to do so.
Why I allowed myself stupidly to go back to Ravinia after I promised myself after going there once in 2007 not to go there again, after discovering their smoking prohibitions, I don't know. All I know is that THIS TIME, I now am going to officially keep my promise of never going back to Ravinia again. And though I feel sad saying this, since I loved going there as a kid, I don't regret now vowing as of this year to never go back, especially since Ravinia made a dumb sheepish statement in their smoking prohibition brochure along the lines of 'We sheepishly back and kiss up to any anti-smoking rules that the suburb of Highland Park wants to pass!'
Efff them, as I'm finished with Ravinia. |
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dumpstermcnuggets
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Nov 06, 2006
Posts: 232
Location: Health Fascism Capital of the Midwest, Illinois
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by Darkseid
on Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:31 pm |
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| Try enforcing this. Especially on a bike/hiking trail. |
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Darkseid
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Jun 13, 2006
Posts: 1360
Location: Peoples Republik of oHEILo
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by dumpstermcnuggets
on Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:17 pm |
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Darkseid wrote: Try enforcing this. Especially on a bike/hiking trail.
Yep, no question it's crazy! Especially considering that you still can smoke outside if you're at the nearby Chicago Botanic Garden.
Speaking of that, an interesting irony about there is despite that it's on the C(r)ook County side of the Lake/Cook County border, you can smoke just about anywhere there outside, as long as you aren't standing too close to any of the buildings. So yay for that! (and considering that most of the indoor smoking bans in Chicago suburbia that passed, before the state ban did, were in North Shore suburbs). |
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dumpstermcnuggets
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Nov 06, 2006
Posts: 232
Location: Health Fascism Capital of the Midwest, Illinois
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