121 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Tumblr Digg Linkedin Stumbleupon Mail Print

Sometimes you just need to use common sense. If you’re on a bus, plane or train, even as a smoker myself, I would hope that people wouldn’t be smoking around you in an enclosed space. If I am outside in a heavy crowd I myself won’t smoke around other people as I wouldn’t want any of my actions to bother anyone else. I would simply walk somewhere else to fill my craving.

Unfortunately the town of Great Neck, Long Island doesn’t think people can make these decisions. So they are either trying to keep us healthy or collect on the $1,000 fine to help raise their salaries.

The law, which went into effect Wednesday, prohibits smoking tobacco and other substances on sidewalks along or within 125 feet of Middle Neck Road in front of commercial establishments, the Village Green Park and the Village Housing Authority. The enforcement area stretches 1.3 miles. The ban also precludes smoking at benches in municipal parking lots with access to Middle Neck Road and within 10 feet around them.

A $1,000 fine or 15 days in jail seems a bit harsh for smoking outdoors. According to Audrey Silk, head of the New York City-based smoker’s rights group, Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment.

That would be cleanliness at the expense of freedom, “This is a case of feel-good legislation . . . It begs to be ignored, for everybody’s sake,” she said. “If you love freedom, if you love what this country stands for, non-smokers should be out there smoking with the smokers in protest.”

Full article

Great Neck Bans Smoking on Public Sidewalks: MyFoxNY.com