Smoking World Reacts To Park, Beach, Boardwalk, Plaza Ban

A Nameless Yeast's Flickr

Embattled smokers reacted bitterly to the news of increased restrictions on their activity yesterday. In the wake of Mayor Bloomberg's announcement that, pending City Council approval, the city would ban smoking in parks, beaches, pedestrian plazas and boardwalks, smokers took to the streets to defiantly light up. Here are some of the most indignant reactions:

"It's like a dictatorship," Scott Sottile, a bus operator smoking in Brooklyn's Columbus Park, tells the Wall Street Journal. "It's not like we're talking about smoking inside somewhere; this is outside. It's just amazing to me. I already stopped going to the bars and restaurants because half the pleasure for me was lighting up a cigarette when I finished my meal."
"People have a right to smoke, and it's another product that you buy and should be able to use, so it's a little fascist by Bloomberg again," college student Karlyn Daigle tells the Post.
"It's stupid," yoga teacher and ex-smoker Lula Trainor tells the Times. "It’s outside, it’s not like there’s no ventilation. You can always walk away from a smoker, but they should have the choice to smoke."
"It's extreme," Benyamin Ratliff, a comedy-club promoter, tells the Journal. "This is something I'm addicted to—it's not something I can just stop doing that easily."
"Tell them to build smokers' parks then!" David Aladashvili, a Juilliard piano student, tells the Daily News. "Artists smoke. Don't even dream about us quitting. We will smoke more."

However the Post may have found one the saddest smokers of all, a waiter at the Ballfields Cafe in Central Park. Patrick Hambrick usually goes behind the cafe on the two smoke breaks permitted during his shift, but once the new ban goes into effect, he'll have to switch to nicotine gum. "It would take me 10 minutes to walk to Central Park West and 65th Street to smoke," Hambrick tells the tabloid. "I'd need 20 minutes to smoke. I think it's kind of unconstitutional to ban smoking in a restaurant. I think it's even further across the line to ban it in public parks."

Then there are traitorous smokers like Bobby Fayad, whom we approached in the public plaza outside our DUMBO office. "They want to make this area no smoking?" Fayad asked. "I think its great. I think it's a great idea. You know why? 'Cause it’s a lot of people who smoke they throw the cigarette on the floor. So it’s not worth it. I mean, I walk here and I see that, and I always try to pick up as much as I can but it's always thrown everywhere around. At least if there was an ashtray around here, that would be great. No one has an ashtray to ash. They have the right and also the city has a right. That's all. I agree."

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By John Del Signore in News on September 16, 2010 1:26 PM

Comments [rss]

fosiacat

"I already stopped going to the bars and restaurants because half the pleasure for me was lighting up a cigarette when I finished my meal."

....and ruining it for people who can't stand that fucking revolting stench? fuck off. im glad you don't go out anymore. and please, die of cancer sooner than later. you're not worth keeping around.

Hammer

Who's the chick in the pic? She is totally HOT!

moonbeam

LOL, I guess you by "hot" you mean "nasty skank who reeks of cigarette smoke."

kevd

If too-smokey outdoor parks is problem - we really need more park space in the town.

Lots of things smell bad and cause cancer.

Like diesel exhaust. The reason the city doesn't do anything about that (and that would actually have a much more positive effect on health than banning smoking in parks) is because smokers are really easy (and popular) to pick on now.

Yes - charge $12 a pack - ban it everywhere inside. But a ban in parks? Thats just posturing + a way to feel morally superior to smokers - not a way to actually help anyone's health. Sure, second hand smoke is a problem. It just isn't a problem in parks or on the beach.

The Guardrail

Exhaust is by far the worst. When I ride my bike over the 59th St Bridge I inhale black exhaust the whole way over. I thought we had "tough" emission standards, but I guess that is just for civilian vehicles. So much for our president making the "tough" decisions.

moonbeam

Obviously it *is* a problem for we wouldnt' be having this discussion.

ianmac47

When is Bloomberg going to ban car exhaust?

Sketto

Smokers:

1) You cannot possibly know how much your smoke affects others and not just because you've blackened your own lungs and nostrils and can't smell it anymore as keenly as non-smokers, but because it is smoke. Prove you can control the smoke you create, and I'll vote for you to smoke anywhere.

2) Though you may think evidence on the danger of second-hand smoke is insufficient, I do not. And you don't get to take reckless cancer risks with my lungs, only your own. Your right to smoke ends at my nose.

GREGORYABUTLER

77 comments in, and nobody's made a lascivious comment about the beautiful woman in that sexy short green dress in the pic accompanying this story?

No "I'd like to light up her butt!"?

No "I've got something for her to puff on!"?

No "It's unfiltered, baby!"?

Come on, men, let's perv it up - this is Gothamist, for God's sake!

This isn't a space for serious commentary on world events - this isn't Slate, people!

I come here for juvenile salacious comments from grown men who still think like middle school boys - I shouldn't have to bring the catcalls myself, dammit!

Sinchy

The federal govt should ban the manufacture of cigarettes. A company whose product is so dangerous just shouldn't be chartered. However I value personal freedom of choice so people should be allowed to roll their own. Then only tobacco companies would exist but the ready-made, easy, and convenient delivery system would be gone.

Ph

This town used to be a fun free wheeling nobody gives a fuck place. Somewhere you could go out to clubs, get mangled on God knows what in a dank smokey room with a booming system and dance in a sea of everything from business types to B boys to trannies until 2 in the afternoon..and then go find an afterparty!

Blue laws were basically kick everyone out at 5, sweep the bar out and start serving again at 5:15.

Bombing trains, random shootings, hookers beating johns with shoes...fucking hardstyle.

Now...eh. I'll keep my memories.

John L

Yes, the good old days!

They'll never understand.

No one can really explain it, you just had to be there.

The funny thing is that that's what made it the Greatest City in the World.

That's why everyone wanted to come here and now everyone wants to change it.

Anyone that is bothered by what their neighbors are doing this is may not be the city for you. If you feel the need to change the behaviors of others because it interferes with your well being then maybe you need to live in a suburb with a lot of space between you and your neighbors. I'm not suggesting that anyone needs to leave but if you're not tolerant of others' behaviors then you probably shouldn't live in a city with 8 million neighbors. And if you're so worried about your health then NYC might not be the place for you, there's plenty of cities in America with much better air quality and green spaces.

Like I said I'm not saying you should leave this city but you should have realized what you were getting into when you came here and if you didn't then you may need to reevaluate your decision.

Here's a study about air quality in NYC:

"NYCCAS is one of the largest studies to date of urban air quality. The survey measures, year-round at 150 street-level locations throughout the city, common air pollutants that impact public health. NYCCAS then uses these pollution measurements— and the distribution of known pollution sources such as traffic and oil-burning boilers—to estimate concentrations of air throughout the city. The first two NYCCAS reports contained data from the winter of 2008-2009. Those reports highlighted emissions from motor vehicles and from heating fuels (in particular, #4 or #6 heating oil) as sources of air pollution ... Exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to exacerba- tion of cardiovascular disease and lung disease, including asthma, contributing to work and school absences, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and premature mortality. EC is also a respiratory irritant and is often used as a marker of diesel exhaust, which is linked to chronic lung inflam- mation, may cause or exacerbate allergies, and is a probable human carcinogen. NO, NO2 and O3 are respiratory irritants that can exacerbate respiratory illnesses such as asthma and also result in emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Research suggests that, in addition to the individual risks posed by each pollutant, combined exposures to multiple pollutants may be especially harmful. Because multiple combustion pollutants are emitted from the same sources, certain areas of the city have higher concentrations of multiple pollutants.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/eode/nyccas-report-summer09.pdf

It mentions a lot of pollutants but I don't see second hand smoke there.

Either way I hope you understand there's a lot of pollutants in the air in NYC.

If air quality is your concern NYC might not be the best place for you.

Boogie Down

"If air quality is your concern NYC might not be the best place for you."

Pretty much word for word what I stated in another (related) post. These people that act like they're so concerned about second-hand smoke in NYC because of their health are either a) ignorant, or b) full of shite. It's SO much easier to whine about the behavior of some individuals who are doing something you don't like than, say, take on big industry to improve emission standards. They just don't like the smell of it, which is fine, but let's not turn it into an argument about concerns over pulmonary health. Where's the lobby to ban SUVs, a vehicle that is completely unnecessary in this urban landscape and produces (relatively) very high levels of toxic emissions? Oh, that's right, it doesn't exist because the auto industry is just to big and difficult to take on. Again, it's so much easier to bitch about what your neighbors are doing rather than actually doing something about more serious public health issues.

Also, when were trains being bombed, Ph? Is this some type of ol' timey NYC slang?

baris1

Society should allow for freedom. What about my freedom to be outside in NY and enjoy parks without inhaling a known carcinogen? I've never lived in a city outside China where it's so hard to avoid smokers except NYC.

When non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like smokers do. The more secondhand smoke you are exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in your body. And maybe all you idiots are in denial and want to die from lung cancer but I don't.

Secondhand smoke causes cancer

Secondhand smoke is classified as a "known human carcinogen" (cancer-causing agent) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization.

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer.

chrysler5thavenue

You're really going to lose your shit when you find out what car exhaust consists of.

thephonz

This place is gonna be packed!

http://www.karmanyc.com/

Gotham Extremist

I got a boner looking at this picture of the chick sucking on a fag.

Wza

Smoke near a car and blame it on the exhaust.

They haven't banned exhaust fumes........yet.

izsosick

maybe it's time for me to jump on the tea party wagon and reclaim my civil liberties...

or not.

John L

As an American I'm less free today than I was 10 years ago and that's a shame.

Either they're taking my rights away to protect me from terrorists or to protect me from myself but that fact remains I'm less free and that's unacceptable.

Bloomberg, they still haven't caught the guy who beat and robbed that girl for her iPod a few months ago and some sicko just fondled a woman close to the area where another was raped and killed a few years ago, crime is rising in city parks. Stop worrying about the smokers and try to catch the muggers, killers and rapists lurking in the parks first.