Starting May 23, No More Puffing on the Promenade

By on May 11, 2011 8:21 am in Environment, Health

A city-wide ban on smoking in parks, including the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, goes into effect Monday, May 23.

NBC New York: In two weeks, the parking lot — whether at Yankee Stadium or outside one of the city’s numerous parks — becomes one of the last legal escapes for cigarette smokers. Central Park will be off limits. So will the Brooklyn Heights promenade, Coney Island boardwalk and the pedestrian plaza outside Macy’s.

According to the NBC report, enforcement of the ban will be left up to citizens, “who will ask people to follow the law and stop smoking.” Violators may be fined $50, but will a citizen’s arrest be necessary?

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  • Whatever

    And to all the haters, my cigars are nearly $30 each, so a $50 dollar fine is a joke. If I rolled a fifty dollar bill up and it tasted as good as my cigars I would smoke it! It’s a joke fine for a law.

  • AdrianB

    Good luck getting this enforced.

  • Jorale-man

    It will be enforced. Bans like this have gone into effect around the world and they’ve been successful enough that New York is finally getting on board. Also, laws like this aren’t enacted without a substantial body of research to support their efficacy.

    Yes, there will be a few people like @whatever who feel it’s their right to be insensitive and break the law but the majority will fall in line and take their gross habit somewhere else.

  • Knight

    @bornhere: the fruit street(s) aren’t being called Fruit Street(s). But there is a NYC Parks sign across from 92 Columbia Heights that brands those benches the Fruit Street Sitting Area.

  • bornhere

    It is not a $50 fine that affects my smoking; it’s the front-of-face hand waving, eye rolling, teeth sucking, and stunningly dramatic, paroxysmal coughing of passersby, which, by the way, I never heard 25 years ago. Odd how millions of people were so much better at coping with some things in days of yore. But I find the random angst of others to be a pretty effective deterrent. I’m not a fighter — I’m a smoker.

    And nabe is right about what the entrances to the Promenade may look like before long. Maybe the City will install really, really gigantic ashtrays….

  • David on Middagh

    @bornhere: Interesting point re: days of yore. Unfortunately, people were suffering back then, too. One of my father’s friends and colleagues was a cigar smoker. First the friend had a cough, then my father had a cough. (My father was not a smoker, but eventually died of lung cancer. Having been born in 1926, I’m sure he breathed a lot of other things, chimney smoke and automobile exhaust included.)

  • epc

    I’m not a smoker, didn’t grow up in a smoking household. Used to be able to tolerate smoke but have found post 9/11 and the six-month-long hacking cough I picked up that I have zero tolerance for it. I don’t particularly care whether people smoke in private but find the gauntlet of smokers outside buildings infuriating (I’m sure it’s infuriating to be segregated to smoking outside).

    That said, fining someone for smoking on the promenade is idiotic, the CO levels there are far worse than any ill effects of second hand smoke.

  • T.K. Small

    For 20 years I used to occasionally have a cigarette and the various smells never bothered me. In fact, I would almost say that I enjoyed being around people who smoked. Thankfully, I came to the conclusion that smoking shouldn’t be a part of my life. Now I find that being around cigarette smoke (even indirectly) is particularly objectionable.

    My response to cigarettes must be something more than a simple psychological explanation created by the anti-smoking media campaigns. I think that the chemicals with which tobacco is treated with have been altered, making cigarettes more unpleasant.

  • nabeguy

    Bornhere, you make me laugh with that description of what I call the “bubble people”.
    Yes, years ago, folks were more accustomed to living in a world of smokers because there were so many more of them. I wish that the anti-smoking education and propaganda that exists today was available back when I first lit up. Alas, us die-hards are just that, dying hard.

  • Wrennie

    The difference between the CO levels or whatever else coming off the BQE and secondhand smoke is that you can’t do much about the former (not to mention that it just kind of blends in with the general hum of the area and isn’t that annoying or intrusive), while the latter has everything do with people just being inconsiderate and classless.

    I really am not understanding what is so offensive about this law. I actually think it’s a little sad that a law is necessary to curb inconsiderateness.

    I lived in London for a year during college, and went to college in Philadelphia, before any of these no-smoking-in-public-places laws were passed. Sometimes I would leave a restaurant or bar because the smoke was bad enough to make my eyes tear, and then went home with my hair and my clothing absolutely reeking of cigarette smoke. If people want to be disgusting, great. But I and my belongings don’t need to smell like it.

  • T.K. Small

    @bornhere & nabeguy: you guys sound so resigned to the control of nicotine. Even if you keep failing in your efforts to quit, it’s worth the effort. You might end up smoking less and, studies show that even for people who have been smoking for a long time, there is an almost immediate health benefit.

    I know, it is easier said than done. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t impossible. Just keep trying; one day it will stick.

  • Big Dave

    Wrennie is kind of missing the point. We are talking about smoking in a public place that generally has prevailing winds of at least a few knots. I have always been cognizant of others and try to be “downwind” if I am stationary; that is simply good manners. By the way, what about pipe smoking? I suppose that has gone the way of the am/fm radio, but usually that smell is not found objectionable… Ah well…

  • Wrennie

    Big Dave, I’m reacting more to people like Whatever who seem to be defiant of the rule for the sake of being annoying and rude. I applaud your cognizance of others, and appreciate it. Pipe smoking is fine with me so long as you wear a monocle.

  • Big Dave

    Cheerio and all that rot!!!

  • David on Middagh

    Maybe if we put out some spittoons…

  • Whatever

    Children screaming really bothers me. I go there to smoke and relax. Can we legislate against children so I am not discomforted? Remnants of dog crap stinks and is repulsive. Let’s outlaw pets as well.

  • Whatever

    Joggers can be dangerous and disruptive. Occasionally one will get in my way or even bump into me on the way to have a smoke. One even knocked me over once. We should make parks a safe place and outlaw jogging too.

  • Whatever

    Camera flashes can be damaging to the eyes. They really bother me and irritate my eyes. Too many tourists taking pictures. They also block the walking paths. We should outlaw flash photography in the parks, particularly the promenade.

  • Whatever

    I don’t like all of the food wrappers on the promenade. And, even when it makes it to the trash can, I see rats running into the cans. The food stinks and dirtys the promenade. We should outlaw eating and drinking in the parks. It would save money on sanitation costs as well.

  • David on Middagh

    ^ Some really good ideas up there.

  • Whatever

    I may take up chewing tobacco because I can’t smoke my cigars. Now my occasional habit may become a daily habit. That won’t help me at all. I apologize in advance as you will no longer smell my smoke but you will be walking in my lawful loogies of dirty chew spit. If you have a dog, your dog will love licking it off it paws from walking in it. Just wash your shoes when you get back and don’t let your kids touch the wheels of their scooters. Huuuuuuuuuchh fhuuuu(lugy)

  • Knight

    @Whatever: I hate to break this to you, but spitting in public has been against the NYC Health Code for as long as I can remember. On the bright side, maybe it carries a smaller fine than smoking will.

  • T.K. Small

    If you expect to rate, you should not expectorate.

  • bklyn20

    TK I agree that the newer cigarette brands smell worse and are more irritating to the throat than the old “just tobacco” cigarettes. Lucky Strikes Marlboros et al have much less of a chemical smell. I grew up with a Luckies smoker and spent much of my early years wondering just what “LSMFT” stood for. My father got them in WW2 where they gave them out like candy and came home a smoker. The smoke was still stinky but less offensive. Still I am a lifelong non smoker and am glad to encounter less outdoor smoke especially of the Benson + Hedges variety. By the way my shift key is out of whack. Please pardon the poor punctuation – aliteration (sp?) unintended.

  • Andrew Porter

    LSMFT: Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.

    Another WW2 lie: “Lucky Strike Green has Gone to War”. The supposed reason they stopped making them: they needed the copper used in the packaging. All a lie, to make it seem patriotic to buy the brand.

    Whatever, you smoke $30 cigars, and the fine is only $50. But you could get a dozen fines per day, every day.

  • nabeguy

    WTFhatever, you’re right. There are plenty of annoying things that we are subjected to on a daily basis. However, what make s you think that your ability to earn large sums of money earns you the right to be more annoying than most?

  • http://Brooklynheightsblog.com 30yrResident

    Just changed my bench for the 3rd time in two days on the prom due to my coughing and subsequently noticing that someone near me was smoking. I am normally sensitive to cig smoke and even more so since I am recovering from a sore throat. I came to the pro
    to relax and found that cozy comfortable feeling disrupted by the smoke. I went online to see if the ban extended to the prom and found this thread. Just wanted to add a personal example of how prom smoking does interfere with others (and also vent). Maybe next time I will politely let the person know I am distressed by the smoke (if they look fairly reasonable) and see how they react. Or if i see an officer passing by I can loudly ask if smoking is illegal on the prom, although that’s a rare sight.

  • David on Middagh

    30yrResident, the tourists don’t know about the new restrictions. Just ask them nicely, “Would you please not smoke here?”

  • 30yrResident

    That’s a thought, David on Middagh; it is possible that some of the smokers are tourists. I’m positive that, at least, one couple wasn’t, although they may not have been Heights residents. However, it is good to keep in mind that some people may just need to be informed. I’ll blog from the hospital, after informing the next person. Just joking. Sort of.

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