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Not One Ticket Written Yesterday For Smoking In The Park
By
Garth Johnston
Published May 24, 2011
Modified May 24, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published May 24, 2011
Modified May 24, 2011
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The city's new ban on smoking in parks and beaches kicked in yesterday—not that anyone could tell. Though we (and the tabloids) easily found a gaggle of unrepentant smokers in the newly non-smoking areas, the Parks police didn't issue a single summons for smoking yesterday. Because they expect it to be self-enforcing, obviously.
The extension of the no-smoking zone from offices and restaurants to parks and beaches yesterday meant the areas in which you are not allowed to puff in New York grew by 29,000 acres, or roughly the size of the Bronx. And though the Parks Enforcement Patrol (what few of them there are) can now write $50 tickets to offenders, "we don't expect many of those tickets to be written," Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said. Which, to be fair, is what Mayor Bloomberg said would happen.
"The new smoking ban is a quality of life rule that is primarily self-enforcing," a Parks Department spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday. "We're counting on all New Yorkers to comply."
New Yorkers don't seem to be ready to obey, though. Instead they are starting to organize to actively smoke in parks. Yesterday a group met up at the private Paley Park to smoke cigars and on Saturday at 2 p.m. smokers' rights advocate Audrey Silk is planning a big smoke-in on the Boardwalk at Brighton 6th Street, Brooklyn.
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cigarettes
parkes enforcement patrol
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smoking
smoking ban
Garth Johnston
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