Austin Council plans to ban smoking in city parks (Vega: house, neighborhood)

[austinrebel]

A great way to spend those taxpayer dollars.

Austin news, sports, weather, Longhorns, business | Statesman.com

[eepstein]

The odd thing about this "ban" they are proposing is that it has ZERO to do with health. The city only cares about the potential for cig butts starting fires amongst the desert that is Austin.

Gee city of Austin, we still have a handful of RESTAURANTS in the city that still allow smoking (through 2012 I think), and many bars that don't enforce the ordinance (it's based solely on complaints rather than cops)

Leave it to the backwards COA to do things BACKWARDS!~ KEEP AUSTIN WIERD!!!!

Originally Posted by austinrebel

A great way to spend those taxpayer dollars.

Austin news, sports, weather, Longhorns, business | Statesman.com

[senormatt]

Originally Posted by eepstein

Gee city of Austin, we still have a handful of RESTAURANTS in the city that still allow smoking (through 2012 I think), and many bars that don't enforce the ordinance (it's based solely on complaints rather than cops)

Really? Which restaurants and bars allow smoking in them?

[ScoPro]

Well, too bad - as long as the anti-smoking nazis don't try to ban it in private homes or clubs.

But since they already screwed private business rights, that's the final step.

[XLadylawX]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Well, too bad - as long as the anti-smoking nazis don't try to ban it in private homes or clubs.

But since they already screwed private business rights, that's the final step.

I'd support a ban in private homes where walls are shared and patios are adjacent.

[homeinatx]

"A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite and it leaves one unsatisfied." Oscar Wilde.

This regulation is puritanism- plain and simple. I am an ex-smoker who likes occasionally to walk behind a smoker on the streets, and catch a nostalgic whiff of that delicious, urbane, civilized aroma - only outdoors. Even when I smoked, I was not fond of excessively smoky interiors, and found airport smoking rooms disgusting. For secondhand smoke to become a health risk, you need daily if not continuous exposure. It is a minor aesthetic irritation - no worse than sandals and socks - but it must be clamped down with the full puritan force of the self-righteously pure of lung: no-one should have any pleasure that does not suit your definition of pleasure. Part of being civilized is not to mind being minorly inconvenienced by the pleasures of others, and I really did not need another reason to DETEST Laura Morrison - the chief NIMBY, mother grundy, anti-democratic ***** of the Austin City Council. She should be forced to recount all of those 38 000 discarded cigarette butts herself. That's more votes than what she got.

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by XLadylawX

I'd support a ban in private homes where walls are shared and patios are adjacent.

Well, if they do it in San Francisco, I'm sure Austin will follow soon. After all, Austin aspires to be another SF, apparently.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by XLadylawX

I'd support a ban in private homes where walls are shared and patios are adjacent.

We live in a standard single family home neighborhood with 60' wide lots. When our neighbor smoked in his garage or on his patio, we could sometimes smell the smoke in our house if the windows were open or if we were outside.

I'm not going to tell him he can't smoke in his own home, nor should the government tell him not to. Period.

Yes, we are former smokers - smoked a pack a day each until 1976 and quit cold turkey without a relapse since. My wife is hypersensitive to smoke and we avoid smokers in public (with the lone exception when we go to Las Vegas). We think smokers stink, but don't criticize them for their unfortunate & unhealthy choice.

I think it's an outrage that restaurants & bars are not allowed to choose to be smoking or nonsmoking. It's unAmerican, IMO.

[1mintjulep]

You won't hear me complaining about it. Of course, I think they should've outlawed cigarettes 70 years ago.

I was ever so glad when restaurants started going smoke-free. Being in a restaurant with a bunch of smokers is akin to being in a restaurant full of people continuously breaking wind. It's foul.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by 1mintjulep

You won't hear me complaining about it. Of course, I think they should've outlawed cigarettes 70 years ago.

I was ever so glad when restaurants started going smoke-free. Being in a restaurant with a bunch of smokers is akin to being in a restaurant full of people continuously breaking wind. It's foul.

So don't go to restaurants where smoking is allowed.

It's a choice.....or should be.

We don't eat in smoking areas anywhere.