From Crains:
Public transportation, restaurants, bars and parks have all gone smokeless. Now one of the earliest and most vocal advocates of those bans in New York has his eye on the final prize: a prohibition on smoking in all multi-family residences.
Roughly five years after he began pushing for a smoking ban in two co-ops in his Bayside, Queens, neighborhood, Phil Konigsberg is broadening his sights. Late last year, he proposed a draft resolution to the City Council on behalf of the Bay Terrace Community Alliance Inc., a northeast Queens civic association representing 18 local co-ops and condos. He's asking the city to do what it did on beaches just last year: snuff out smoking in condos and co-ops citywide.
“I think that smoke-free housing is something that needs to be done because there's no way that when someone smokes in an apartment it stays in that apartment,” said Mr. Konigsberg, first vice president of the BTCA and a member of Queens Community Board 7.
To date, he has tried unsuccessfully several times to have the boards of his 120-unit co-op, Bay Country Owners—on which he sits—and its sister 120-unit co-op, Bell Owners Corp., impose a ban. Oddly enough, it's those failures that have convinced him that, as he put it, the “best route to go is to get a city law to pass.”
18 comments:
Phil Konigsberg is my hero !
Too many innocent people and children are be killed by second hand smoke.
This is the natural progression to ban smoking indoors. Smoking is banned everywhere else and thus this forces many to quit earlier rather than later and others will suffer through this until they quit.
I know - because I had to quit because of no smoking in the work place and in hotels etc forced me to do so, I happy now that I don't smoke and have zero regrets after smoking 35 years - there is no magic bullet to do so - just keep trying!
C'mon now...
there's more secondhand hydrocarbons and sulphur dioxide, etc. killing folks in New York City's air than tobacco.
I personally don't smoke, but this kind of micro governing is getting on the ridiculous side.
In a big open outdoor environment, what's the real harm?
I propose a ban against public farting.
this is getting crazy if they want to tell people what they can do in the home that they purchased with there own money how much goverment do we need in our lives, smaller govt let us live
The problem is when MY home that I paid for with MY money is infested with YOUR smoke. While I don't think it will kill me, it is unpleasant enough to make a place unlivable for some.
There is more than just second-hand smoke involved here.
Smoking is one of the top causes of fire in residences.
When you live in some detached house out in the sticks, what happens to your home generally has no practical effect on others.
In an apartment setting it does.
Co-ops and condos similar to houses in that the individual who lives in them bears responsibility for their upkeep and repair.
Banning smoking may seen extreme, but it's a good idea.
seal off YOUR home. Unless you plan on paying my rent or mortgage don't dictate what i can or can't do in my own home!
I don't even smoke in my own house, but this is just dumb. If you are so worried, don't live in a multi family dwelling! or move somewhere that is smoke free, but don't try to push it into law.....
Also, will there be an additional ban on cooking smells?
Hell Yeah, and we should ban loud TV's and Radios' so I dont have to hear them. And lets make a law that wont allow Bacon into houses because it can kill people with heart disease. Also ban all smelly foods so I don't have to smell them. Hell lets ban everything! We know better what people should be doing so lets pass some more laws!!
Smoking Kills !
Smoking Kills !
Smoking Kills !
Get it yet :-O
Smokers don't want to be told where to smoke but they put unwanted smoke in other people's lungs.
Control Freaks are taking over!!!
UR totally full-o-shit!
I suppose cooking should be banned because it involves the use of an open flame.
Only take out food will be permitted in the building by order of the management.
And I don't like the smell of Indian curry coming through my walls....or the sounds of your toilet flushing.
Buy a private home if you insist on that level of privacy or learn to live with apartment dwelling.
If they smoked the right stuff...
I wouldn't mind some second hand smoke.
Contact...and we're off!
Life kills. Let's ban it!
The extremists saying "let's ban bacon," "let's ban farting," "let's ban life," etc. are using a common and very transparent tactic to avoid real thought.
Absurdist exaggeration isn't constructive. It's just venting in an immature way.
Whether one agrees or disagrees, yelling like a little kid doesn't make the commenter seem like a reasonable adult whose opinions matter.
Otherwise, geez -- you sound like assholes.
Speaking of venting...
open the windows fella...
I think that the smell of your online shit is becoming overwhelming.
RU perchance...a prissy primary school teacher or something?
This is New York.
We're brash and to the point.
If you want genteel mild mannered people, then move to Peoria.
So, stop lecturing us..already!
What a bore UR!
Here's another reason to ban smoking in apartments...FDNY: Poorly Disposed Cigarettes Cause Of Queens Apartment Fire
Kudos to Phil! I hope you read this Phil. You have many people cheering you on!
I reside in a coop and am surrounded by neighbors who smoke cigarettes and marijuana incessantly. It's so bad that i have a constant metallic, chemical like taste in my mouth every single day! I've spent hundreds of dollars trying to stop the smoke from entering my unit. Numerous air purifiers that I bought cannot handle the amount of smoke coming in. I am coughing, feel dizzy and lightheaded all the time. Management and the board are unable or unwilling to help since some board members are smokers. Can't figure out where the strong marijuana smell is coming from so the Police isn't an option.
Consensus is that you cannot tell people that they can't smoke in their own home. However, aren't I allowed to breath smoke & pot free air in my own home?
To all the smokers on here taking offense: This isn't us against you! It's compassion for your neighbors! To tell non-smokers to go live in a house is absurd.
How about taking your addiction into a single family home where you can poison yourself? If your neighbor smoked crack, would you like to breath that in every day? The strong skunk like smell of pot mixed with cigarettes travels out of the apartments into the hallways, elevators, staircase and apartments surrounding them. This is not unacceptable.
A few neighbors do go outside of the building to smoke and kudos to them for their common sense and compassion.
I have relatives that died of complications from many years of cigarette smoke. Their spouses who did not smoke developed COPD and asthma just from breathing in the second hand smoke. One relative has emphysema and will require an oxygen tank.
I've never smoked but I have already been diagnosed with asthma so I'm heading down the same road.
Something needs to be done ASAP!
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