NY bans smoking on Beaches

NYdaily-
"For them to ban smoking in the great outdoors is an overreach of power," Yourow said.

He then stuffed a pipe, a cigar and a cigarette into his mouth - all at once.

The City Council voted in February to prohibit smoking in pedestrian plazas, 1,700 city parks and playgrounds, along with 14 miles of public beaches. The newest ban went into effect this week.

Violators face $50 fines. Parks Department enforcement officers, not the NYPD, are in charge of issuing the tickets.

A Daily News staffer got the first ticket on Friday, but only after six hours of wandering the High Line and the Coney Island beach with cigarettes.

"Park Enforcement officers ... do have the ability to issue summonses to those who do not comply with the parks rules and when possible will educate and advise before taking further action when overseeing compliance," a Parks spokesperson said.

CLASH founder Audrey Silk has been huffing and puffing about smoking bans since then-Gov. George Pataki's 1999 cigarette tax hike.

"[Politicians] have preferred to rescind our civil liberties rather than advise the public to walk away," she said. "What a tyranny we're living under that they make these decisions on a whim? We smoked before the ban, we're going to smoke after the ban."

Jack Kovalev, 21, agreed that people should be able to smoke: "Everyone's stressed out in this city," he said. "Cigarettes take that stress off."

But Galina Turalina, 21, was appalled.

"I'm shocked!" the visitor from Philadelphia said. "It's embarrassing. I've never seen a group of people gathering in favor of smoking. Is this what we're teaching our children?"

Ten-year-old Gabriela Centeno of Brighton Beach, echoed that sentiment. The Public School 253 student thinks the ban is healthy for the future of New York.

"I think it's a good choice because there can be secondhand smoke and people can get asthma, lung cancer and get sick," she said, while walking along the beach with her grandmother and baby brother.

Then there's Yakov Elperin, 67, of Brighton Beach. He doesn't smoke, but he believes people should have the right.

"We're opposed to people smoking inside," he said on behalf of himself and his wife, Polina, who nodded in agreement. "But on the Boardwalk and the beach? Come on, it's a free country."

 

Yeah, also in the parks. It partially to stop people going to central park/beaches/others parks and smoking joints instead of cigarettes. I think the law is a good one; i don't want any second hand smoke.

Off topic: name of girl in pic? : P

 

I don't really agree with this ban; I am not a smoker myself, however I cannot see how other people smoking affects you when you are on the beach. Sure, inside where all the smoke gets trapped and leaves the room smelling like smoke, I can understand why people are against that. But outside in the open air? I don't agree with that.

 

I certainly disagree. Being a smoker myself I can't see a damn thing wrong with smoking on a beach. Sure some slight second hand smoke might be a minor nuisance to space intruders, but you shouldn't deny a person their right to smoke in a public outside area.

Just my opinion though.

 

In Australia, your haven't been able to smoke on beaches for ages, I think mostly to do with the littering of the butts, but there's also huge restrictions, like you can't smoke within 3 meters of entrances to restraunts, you can't even smoke inside pubs and night clubs, unless your in the designated smoking area.

 

I agree with it, not because the smoke is an inconvenience, but because I always see cigarette stumps on the beach and it pisses me off.

 

I imagine this was one of the main reasons they did this.

 

i think its like 2nd hand smoke but it shudnt be like that if you smoke then u smoke ;;
theres always gonna be smokers so :S