Last night the Garden Grove City Council voted 4-1 (with Janet Nguyen dissenting) to fine people up to $1,000 that are caught setting off illegal fireworks within the city.
This is a good step for the city of Garden Grove, which has one of the smallest annual budgets in the county, and regularly spends more than a fair portion of that budget on law enforcement on July 4, and cleanup on July 5.
The Orange County Register has an article about last night’s meeting on the web here.
I commented on Thomas Gordon’s post at The Orange Juice, that I’d be happy if fireworks were banned here. And someone that goes by “Cook†responded that automobiles are dangerous, should they be banned too?
While we’re on the topic of obtuse arguments, how about this one: “I’d bet that non-profits could make a lot of money selling marijuana and guns…who are we to stop them?â€Â
I’m amazed any of the 5 firework-happy cities here still have them. Between policing and cleanup and the danger, there must be something more to it. I remember heading east on the 22 one July 4th and was amazed at the number of fireworks, both legal and illegal, that I could see.
I was cruising through Technorati just now and happened upon this old post. I grew up in Garden Grove but moved to LA after college where I’ve lived for 2 and a half years, but my family still lives in GG. I headed down to OC last night to spend the 4th with my family and was pleasantly surprised to see that the threats of fines for illegal fireworks were more than just meekly placed banners and posters throughout town. The Good Ol’ GGPD were out in force in my family’s neighborhood off of Harbor Blvd, patrolling our street numerous times through the course of the evening, where we actually saw them fining the newest family on the street who had nothing but illegal fireworks. No calls were placed from anyone. The police were definitely on the lookout.
Admittedly, I like that GG is one of the last holdouts for fireworks, even if so many people from surrounding cities flood empty parking lots and parks to take part in the fun. While I’m not particularly enamoured of fireworks in general, I know that my family, especially the little ones, look forward to it every year. Unfortunately, SoCal is one region that does not have huge professional fireworks displays on par with other American metro regions, and I feel like safe & sane fireworks do their part in filling that void.
At least this sets the precedent for next year. The word will get out that hefty fines have been and will be leveled towards offenders. We’ll see the number of illegal fireworks drop dramatically next year.