In September, when we wrote about a proposed city ban on smoking in public parks, we received flak from a colleague for even entertaining the notion that this was at all acceptable or fair. (Yes, this colleague is a smoker — the type of smoking martyr who gives out all of her Camels to office mates who “don’t smoke” until they’ve had a few drinks.) So we’re just going to leave this to you guys to discuss. How do you feel about the Times story from this morning on the increasing number of rental buildings and public houses where smoking, even in the privacy of one’s own apartment, is banned for new tenants? In many of these buildings, you’re not even allowed to smoke near entrances or under awnings. “How about a little tolerance?” groused Bryan Marx, 53, who has been rolling his own cigarettes in his Tribeca apartment for a decade. “Smokers have become the whipping boys for everything that’s unhealthy about living in New York City.” That, at least, seems like an overly broad claim. We have a lot of unhealthy whipping boys: restaurants who use trans fats, parents who serve their kids soda, schools that serve juice. The list goes on and on … even to anybody who wants to buy a bucket of popcorn at the movies and has to look at how many calories they’re about to consume. That makes us all feel pretty whipped and unhealthy.
