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Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg stepped back from a plan to make smoking in public parks and beaches illegal, cautioning that the proposal would stop short of completely outlawing smoking on Parks Department property. Bloomberg boasted at a press conference, "Nobody is more of a believer in saving lives and stopping smoking. In fact, we already ban smoking, for example, in playgrounds." However! "There's also the practical aspect of how we can enforce it. Our Police Department has enough to do. They can't be going around giving tickets." Not with all those photographers and superheroes on the loose, anyway. The mayor explained that the ban would not cover entire parks, only select areas where large crowds might gather. He also acknowledged that if you, the embattled smoker, are "sitting in the middle of Sheep Meadow and you’re the only one there, are you doing any damage to anybody other than killing yourself? Probably not." At the same time, Bloomberg reaffirmed his tough anti-smoking stance: "Make no mistake about it. This city is not walking away from our commitment to make it as difficult and as expensive to smoke as we possibly can." So smoke 'em while you can still (barely) afford 'em.
Full Smoking Ban in Parks Stubbed Out by Bloomberg
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If you are making us pay 11.50 a fucking pack, you better believe we're smoking them in public.
per bloomberg's "expensive smoking" advice, i'm totally switching to crack.
I've already switched! Try the menthol!
Instead of more stringent smoking bans, they should fine for littering cigarette butts. The run-off from the rain, especially this year, is the real public pollutant! By creating more awareness for this it will hopefully become a social faux-pas to throw your butts on the ground.
I agree. All those butts make the city look so gross! I don't throw my gum wrappers on the ground... and at least in Manhattan there's a trash can on every corner. USE IT, please.
While we're at it, gum chewers need to use the trash cans as well. Then we won't have black polka-dotted sidewalks.
i always put my cigarette butts in the garbage. there is no reason not to.
I agree too. Fine people that litter. Cigarette smokers are among the most prolific litterers.
$1000 fines for littering will clean up the city quickly.
that 'think with your penis' image is almost as disturbing as the ban in question.
You can also roll your own cigarettes which is MUCH cheaper and maybe safer depending on what tobacco you're using.
Can someone please photomash that cigarette-dick with Bloomie's pic in his banner ad? Thanks.
7-stole my thunder!
And this is why I am voting against Bloomberg.
Good luck with that.
And next, no cursing in public parks. It's too damaging to the pysche of little children.
that is an amazing and thought provoking ad.
King Bloomberg was in good spirits yesterday and decided to let the commoners smoke outdoors once again. Remember; Progress not Politics...
Noone read your comment.
Have you ever read the cigarette patents?
I'd recommend checking them out and then you can try telling me how products made with benzene, nuclear waste & other dangerous chemicals don't cause cancer.
400,000 people a year die from cigarettes.
Heh... it's funny seeing this quote from Bloomberg, "This city is not walking away from our commitment to make it as difficult and as expensive to smoke as we possibly can." since just the other day I sent off a letter to the editor of the London Free Press about a hospital campus ban where I'd written, "There is no sound medical or scientific reason why (comfortable, ventilated, indoor) accommodations should not be made. The refusal of the hospitals to do so rests purely upon the shoulders of the social engineers intent on reducing smoking through making it difficult, uncomfortable, expensive, and "denormalized." "
Looks like I was inside Bloomy's brain... ick!
btw, while I appreciate Harley's quoting me in his post here, I usually don't post that whole thing on boards. There's a good link where the whole nonsensical "Third Hand Smoke" argument is laid out over at Columbia University Press at:
http://www.cupblog.org/?p=493
And yes, it basically would take a wild floor-licking kid roughly three trillion years of licking to get the dose that the New York Times was warning parents about.
Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"