Bloody ridiculous. I am an ex smoker but I still hate seeing stuff like this. http://www.cigarinspector.com/news-of-the-week/outdoor-smoking-banned-in-new-york-city
And how in God’s name will something like that be enforced!?!
If they are concerned for air quality, its the automobile that should be banned.
where my brother lives in santa monica you cannot smoke at parks . beaches . outdoor patios of bars resturants . 20 ft from a door or window of any business . virtually all hotels indoors and out . the whole of 3rd street promenade ( outdoor mall ) this is the best one thou on your own patio or balcony of your own house no matter if you rent or own it … when i am there i prefer to walk to venice to spend my money if i am going out for a drink
New York is trying really hard to turn it’s self into a crapy city.
While I abhor any sort of “nanny state” legislation/city ordinances, such ridiculous and oppressive laws do serve to encourage more smokers to try smokeless tobacco products. Whether that is a benefit or not depends on your perspective. I’ve heard some folks say they’re afraid that too much growth in the smokeless tobacco market will draw unwelcome attention from the anti-tobacco zealots. They may have a point, but given the stealth factor of smokeless, I can’t envision how bans of same could be successfully enforced.
I would actually welcome the debate between anti-tobaccoists and smokeless. Real debate can bring to wider attention many facts and dispell myths. Its really the best way to change people’s misconceptions.
In my experience, anti-tobaccoists (or anti-anything-ists) aren’t interested in real debate or facts. It’s always worth a shot, though.
This makes me … I’ll post later
Yet another reason for me to not ever visit NY. And the thing is, I KNOW New York isn’t just these anti-tobacco freaks on fixie bikes sippin’ free-trade half-caff lattes, I mean my heart goes out to plain folks in The Big Apple who are just as mad as we are that they’re herded outdoors and now only to the sidewalks to have a smoke. I’m also mad because NY is the big trendsetter, and you wait and see, other big cities will follow (using the eternal rationale: “But it’s big in NY!”). I said they’d never pass a public smoking ban in Michigan, and boy was I wrong…
When we Dutch founded NY, This was not our intention.
Its going to happen everywhere; it will slowly crawl across the face of the planet. Snuff may end up the only viable way of indulging in tobacco. It makes me seethe but at the same time very thankful for the ol powder.
I should hope not at any rate. Antitabagism has its ebbs and flows; the US saw a backlash against tobacco in the late 19th century with the likes of John Harvey Kellogg and Sylvester Graham promoting health (of course, they also promoted an all-cereal diet and not tossing off, no thanks!), before the partypoopers settled on Prohibition as their target. Now once again we find armchair experts with little else to do, people who are used to getting their way and they’ve decided tobacco’s the bad guy. And I suppose that’s what irks me the most; all this furor is mainly built on people who just hate smoke and want the WHOLE WORLD to smell just as bland and empty as their own heads, period. We gave you the planes (heh, I was born too late to ever smoke on a plane), we gave you the workplaces, the bars, the restaurants, and now outdoor public spaces. I guess Cedric the Entertainer was right; pretty soon you’re gonna have to leave EARTH to have a square…
“When we Dutch founded NY, This was not our intention.” England, in the 17th century, was economically and militarily no match for the Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden. To the latter the formal exchange of Nieuw-Amsterdam (New York) with England for the tiny spice island of Pulau Run in Indonesia seemed like a bargain at the time. As events turned out it was a poor exchange. England gave up a nutmeg orchard on an obscure island for the biggest of apples. How many people today have even heard of Pulau Run?
Never mind vehicle pollution, one is left with the impression that non-smokers are forced to wear respirators outdoors to combat the dense cigarette smog. Sounds poppycock to me. Perhaps it’s time to make some subtle changes to the text of the Star Spangled Banner to reflect America’s new quasi-Stalinist order. And this be our motto: “In Nanny is our trust.” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall limply wave O’er the land of the hare-brained and home of the wrapped-in-cotton-wool-little-darlings.
Lmao Phillips. I love the way you put things. But on a serious note this is disgraceful. I’ll give it ten years and it will be the same in the UK. Have these anti-tobacco, Stalinist fuckwits got nothing better to do? I’m quite angry about this. Stefan
@PhilipS: The exchange was not only the Banda islands, where the world production of nutmeg was situated, but also included Suriname as was stated in the Treaty of Westminster of 5th of March 1674. Jaap Bes.
@James S: Funny you should mention Kellogg. I have thought for a while now that modern society has a real neo-Victorian bent at times. From our focus on “nutrition” instead of food (qv Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”) to cognitive dissonance on matter of drugs, drink, and sex, to use a few examples. The movie The Road to Wellville, which was apparently panned by critics sheds some (fictionalised) light on this. I am told it is a book a well. Plus ca change …
I love that movie. “MEAT and POTATOES MEAT and POTATOES!”
I love nutmeg! Sometimes it’s not about money. THAT is when you know you have it right.