Smoking Ban in Parks? Bloomberg Vows to Git-r-done

Your data will always appear to support the special interest group that funds it.

Well, you're right I shouldn't have said that but it is kinda true that some people can really make a big deal out of nothing. Like smoke on the sidewalk. WHO cares? I rather smell some second hand smoke then the sweat of the over-sized fatty wiggling next to me.

Also, I've been to an openair movie in Piedmont park in Atlanta. Everything was fine, people drinking beers and smoking in the park. Everybody acted nice and things were just fine! But when I went to an openair movie in Central Park in nyc people were getting frisked, no drinks and no smoking allowed. I had to open my bagpack and I had to explain the friggin officer that that box full of fruit was my diner and not a bomb.

Common man! what the hell was that about?

What the fuck is wrong with you americans?

You are actually trying to ban everything that's bad for you.

Smoking in open, public places, drinking a god damn wine on your 'stoop' or porch....

Please stop trying to control everything a man does!!

Read the comments dumbass before you go off with this "you americans" nonsense.

I smoke a pipe not cigs. Can I be excused from the vitrolic ragings? ;)

I spent a little time checking out some of the sources harleyrider mentioned and it seems that they are legit. Moreover, I must admit I fall on the side of those who see the growing Nanny State in this society. Moralism has always been a central element in the campaigns of those groups who have sought to ban, outlaw and forbid carnal pleasures (for lack of a better term) they perceive to be "bad" for society.

Alcohol for a long time was (and to some still is) a great evil. Now, it's cigarettes and tobacco in general. Seeking to ban smoking from indoor places was just the first step, and maybe even one that ultimately offers more benefits than detractions. But where DO we draw the line. The paranoia and narodicism that would lead one to think that banning it PUBLIC parks is astounding, though perhaps inevitable.

We've already gone after the fatty foods/drinks. Next no loud playing of music (ear-damage could result), no cursing in public (too pyschologically damaging to the developing child or the morally upright).

oh damn, this is getting interesting folks.

Bloomberg is a cancer on this city.

what has been really making me angry again is the overturning term limits.

that was so destructive and a threat to demcracy.

and then he has the nerve to say, "then don't vote for me" - while he's spending

millions and millions to the point of scaring weiner away and muting thompson.

pure dick.

I'm looking forward to the mayoral debate. it doesn't take much to get under his skin. all one needs is some captures of his expressions. we know he has all the major print media in his pocket.

Readers and the Gothamist should know that "harleyrider" is no ordinary commenter. He's a spammer.

His specialty is hijacking message boards like the Gothamist's, manipulating them to function as his own free PR Newswire. His boilerplate is slammed onto every board in the country (Google him). He seems part of this weird cabal of maybe 10 rabid posters who try by sheer force of numbers to make their lies seem true, deluging boards with torrents of misleading sewage--like hr's tobacco-funded study, and his BAT-derived misrepresentation of a normal study. Hr's PR all goes back to tobacco, surprise!

Noise intended to drown out truth is a classic, documented tobacco industry tactic.

And it's all anonymous; bad-boy harleyrider doesn't DARE stand up to spew this swill out in the open in front of a legislative body, where he might have to account for himself or his misrepresentations. (Plus, he'd be too embarrassed when seen stumbling off the M1 bus' City Hall stop.)

Once the Flat Earthers, Holocaust Deniers and Birthers start following hareleyrider's scurrilous methods, message boards like the Gothamist's will soon become as useless as newsgroups are today.

you seem to be doing the same boilerplate thing here on gothamist, just for the opposing side.

Reply | September 23, 2009 1:50 PM [ report this ]

You're saying someone using force to halt a mugging is the same as the mugger's original assault. It's not. Duh.

It's a little different when the boilerplate is unprovoked. It seems you'd rather Gothamist readers take in some out-of-towner's widespread PR in ignorance. Wonder why?

just wrote bloomberg and, knowing that won't work, wrote to RJ Reynolds for good measure. since letter writing rarely does the trick, i'm preparing for a large-scale "smoke in" at central park as soon as this affront to smoker's rights hits the books. viva la revolución!

Let me know when, i'll bring the ashtrays so we don't get in trouble for littering!

good info.

"The public is overwhelmingly in favor of banning it in parks as well..."

Hey Bloomberg, you fucking asshole - the public was overwhelmingly in favor of term limits too!!!

when was the last time the mayor was at a public beach?

let's ban bbq's, coal fired ovens, wood burning ovens, burning leaves, new construction and old construction adhesives, asbestos, dog poo, and chlorine in water.

I am OK with banning smoking in beaches, something about a butt in the sand is gross, but then that's littering so give the beach patron a ticket for littering.

Ya know, it's like we're in fucking Lost Horizons looking for Shangri-La. Gotta take the sour with the sweet people.

Let's ban everything. We can have robots follow people around. You people are whining wussies.

If you pretend to care for peoples health let's start with the corn subsidies, SUV's, coal. Smoking in parks, this is insane.

Orwells future seems lax in comparison with what you are proposing.

I would understand if it was within a certain distance from playgrounds or something, but all together in parks is just ridiculous.

Wouldn't it just create a wall of smoke at the edge of the park anyway? If you can't smoke inside people would smoke just outside like they do at bars and restaurants.

Health issues aside, I wouldn't have nearly as much of a problem with smoking in parks etc. if smokers routinely cleaned up their mess rather than leaving butts and empty packs and used matches all over the place. You have a right to smoke, but that doesn't give you a right to litter.

No, they actually don't have a right to smoke. There's no such thing as a "right to smoke."

Thank you. There is no right to smoke.

Yeah there is. It's called the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. It's not even in the Bill of Rights, it's one of the inalienable ones.

This is exactly the point I was making above. Most people who bitch incessantly about cigarette smoke don't really care so much about the health implications, as evidenced by the fact that they seldom seem to go after the things you've mentioned here. It is more a case of looking down on others from their moral high horse for what amounts to an annoyance, at the very worst.

I do, however, agree with the comment about leaving the mess around, especially in parks.

Oops, that was supposed to be in response to Darius, but I guess I addressed your point too.

thank you.

agreed

Will Bill Thompson get off his ass and say something??? Jesus fucking Christ Bloomberg is suffocating the media with his ads. Please Bill, say anything to let voters know you exist...

For fucks sake people, you don't like the cig smoke in your face (let me add that the entire second-hand smoke argument has always been GREATLY exaggerated)and the car exhaust that is far worse? Then move to the country. In restaurants sure, bars I've come around to, but outdoors? You have got to be fucking kidding me. People have dealt with it for ages, what next? Filtering subway steam cos it smells funny? We live in fucking New York, don't like it? Then move to Long Island.

Idiots

the campaign is getting desperate.

did he bring bono or matt damon with him?

all these weird endorsements from people who can't even vote in this city?????

can we ban smoking on elevated train platforms? it's still mta property & part of the system, so smoking should be prohibited.

Yeah i thought it already was illegal? But the funny thing is, i am in bklyn where all the construction is going on, on the express lines, and guess who's out there smoking every time, morning or night, the workers wearing the MTA Contractor vests as they work on the platforms. Yet another case of hierarchy wins...

Yep it is illegal under the Rules of Conduct to smoke "in any facility or conveyance." Of course it's probably more likely that someone can get away with it on an outdoor platform, because only people nearby and downwind will smell it. Light up underground and even a copy on a different level or in a security booth will smell it.

By the way, it is legal to smoke on outdoor LIRR platforms. Those rules only ban it "on a train or in any indoor area within a terminal or station." That makes for odd situations like Woodside, where you can smoke on one platform but not on another that overlooks it.

It is illegal.

It is; I've seen people get ticketed at Smith & Ninth Street.

first thing i got busted for in nyc - they were on me quick too.

The Nanny Campaign is full swing.

In addition require food cart vendors to install filtration systems, or ban them as well.

as we move towards legalizing marijuana in certain capacities, we conversely march towards prohibition of tobacco. the nanny state will NOT bow to common sense.

I want people who fart in public ticketed. Those fumes can't be good for you either.

Suggestion for the mayor: go after graffiti vandals, it's more of an election year winner than your anti-smoking jihad is.

Honestly this city is turning into an embarrassment. If i hear this douche say one more thing about our great cops when in reality 90% of what they're doing goes against every moral and ethical code any of us should adhere to as human beings, i'm gonna pull my own ears off just to make it stop.

The public also wanted term limits...

You beat me to it.

How about fining smoking morons who swing their arms wildly while holding a cigarette in their hands ??

Micro managing people is dumb, but so is making sure your jacket doesn't get ****ed up because of how careless most smokers are.

Can the city please ban smoking while WALKING? I'm serious. How many other nonsmokers (pregnant nonsmokers, nonsmokers with asthma, nonsmokers who have watched a loved one die of emphysema) get caught on a busy sidewalk behind somebody exhaling smoke and there's no way to avoid it? Or the WORST is people who take a last puff before they go down into the subway and exhale in the stairwell where we're trapped in with that stinky crappy cancerous smoke.

Can the city please ban smoking while WALKING? I'm serious. How many other [...]

REALITY CHECK, your username.

The irony.

It burns.

REALITY CHECK, your username.

The irony.

It burns.

anything else bother you gpt? spitting, farting, or chewing gum?

please let us know so we can make them criminal acts.

If something about your personal history makes second hand smoke particularly "risky"/offensive to you, maybe you should take your privileged, entitled ass back to the suburbs where you can raise your precious spawn in a hermetically sealed health dome.

Otherwise get used the site, smell and sound of other human beings doing things that occasionally you might not agree with.

how about banning "smug" in public places? what would bloomberg do then? huh?

Can they ban eating fatty foods in public as well? We all know that stuff is bad for you and causes cancer. It's gross and disgusting. Oh and ban sneezing, coughing and looking like shit while we're at it.

If it's really lung disease you're concerned about, I'd worry a little bit more about the fact that every second vehicle on the road in this city seems to be an SUV. I mean, what a practical vehicle in a congested city of over eight million people.

I agree. Cars, trucks, SUVs and whatever vehicles people drive are way worse for our health than OUTDOOR (diluted) second hand smoke. Also if the city keeps banning people's activities, pretty soon we're not going to be allowed to talk on our phones or listen to music on the street because it bothers someone. Nothing makes everyone happy and no one likes everything.

There are restrictions on cars idling for this reason. I totally sympathize with folks who get headaches from perfume and cologne and folks who don't like the smell of farts but there is not huge legal precedent linking public farting and perfume to health risks whereas there are legal precedents linking car exhaust and cigarette smoke to health risks. And I don't like the lowest common denominator argument that cities have to be polluted and unhealthy.

well if that's the case, they should ban people from wearing perfume or cologne inpublic, which causes me debilitating migraines, you know, its all just a matter of common courtesy. I smoke, i do NONE of the things you mention above, maybe because i am concious of the fact it does bother others. But so do obnoxious coffee drinkers, flailing their scolding cups around in conversation and having that spill on me or worse hit me in the face. It's ALL a matter of hu7man decency and respect for one another, but EVERYTHING can be scrutinized, does that mean we all have to fored to live in some government enforced bubble? I didn't realize we had become a communist city.

"its all just a matter of common courtesy."

no, it's a matter of you spreading cancer to people.