Free to expectorate? Grand Rapids considers removing ban on spitting in public from city code

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A ban on spitting in public in Grand Rapids could soon be off the books.

The Grand Rapids Press reports (http://bit.ly/1g4se0N ) the City Commission on Tuesday plans to consider deleting the word “expectorate” from a list of prohibited public acts that includes urination and defecation.

City Attorney Catherine Mish wrote in a memo that language was added to the code in an era when the use of chewing tobacco was prevalent and spittoons were common. She says the code’s language “did not disappear as quickly as the spittoon.”

Mish says she contacted local health officials, who told her spitting doesn’t pose as much of a threat as it might have in the past.

Mish has been scouring city code to find archaic rules, including one recently on being wilfully annoying.

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Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids