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Private Residences Last Frontier in Anti-Smoking Crusade
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 16, 2011
Modified Mar 16, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 16, 2011
Modified Mar 16, 2011
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Now that we've banished smokers from our beaches, pedestrian plazas, parks, automobiles carrying children, dreams, bars, novels, restaurants, sidewalks, thoughts, and fantasies, one last hurdle remains: ridding ourselves of those untouchables who still light up behind closed doors. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that a number of co-ops and condos are planning votes to ban smoking inside private residences, man.
"It's the one topic, aside from bedbugs, that all co-op boards are talking about," Aaron Shmulewitz, a Manhattan real-estate attorney, tells the Journal. And the president of an Upper East Side condo that is planning a smoking vote says, "At every single board meeting we get complaints about smoke and people asking us when will the board do something." At least two lawsuits filed by non-smokers against their smoking neighbors have made the news recently, and those who smoke find themselves an increasingly scorned minority in NYC, where only about 16 percent of residents say they smoke, according to the Health Department.
But we're still a long way from a perfect, clean air utopia powered by smoker labor camps! Anti-smokers who live in condos and co-ops face an uphill climb, because most co-ops require a two-thirds vote to pass any rule like this, while most condos require a three-fourths vote. And even after the co-op board at Lincoln Towers voted to ban smoking in all units, the board was forced to rescind the rule because the insurance company refused to pay legal fees if the co-op was sued by litigious smokers. Secondhand smoke has been proven to kill innocent bystanders and can spread between apartments. But for now, your only real recourse against smoky neighbors is to give them a stink eye in the elevator, and encourage them to smoke in bed.
Tagged
apartment
cigarettes
laws
residential smoking
smoking
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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