If you plan on visiting Great Neck New York in the near future I hope you don't smoke. As of this past Wednesday the 5th it has become officially illegal to smoke outside in certain areas in Great Neck. This law began with Residents complaining to Great Neck Mayor Ralph J. Kreitzman who is a previous smoker himself. They were complaining that second hand smoke from smokers standing outside stores was flowing back inside the stores.
According to the new law you cannot smoke within 125 feet of Middle Neck road in front of commercial businesses. Middle Neck road in Great Neck is a major road with many business sprawling along side of it. The law also states you cannot not smoke in the Village Green which is a public park , the local public housing and park benches leading up to Middle Neck road. The total non smoking area is 1.3 miles in the center of Great Neck. If you are caught smoking illegally you can face up to a $1000 fine or 15 days in jail. The first sidewalk smoking Ban in the U.S. was in Berkley California in 2008.
Is this new law going too far or not far enough in your eyes? When is enough enough? To me our society is slowly turning into all those classic sci-fi movies like Clock work Orange , Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and so on.
Newsday - Great Neck Village smoking ban takes effect.
According to the new law you cannot smoke within 125 feet of Middle Neck road in front of commercial businesses. Middle Neck road in Great Neck is a major road with many business sprawling along side of it. The law also states you cannot not smoke in the Village Green which is a public park , the local public housing and park benches leading up to Middle Neck road. The total non smoking area is 1.3 miles in the center of Great Neck. If you are caught smoking illegally you can face up to a $1000 fine or 15 days in jail. The first sidewalk smoking Ban in the U.S. was in Berkley California in 2008.
Is this new law going too far or not far enough in your eyes? When is enough enough? To me our society is slowly turning into all those classic sci-fi movies like Clock work Orange , Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and so on.
Newsday - Great Neck Village smoking ban takes effect.
Just caught a blurb on the news about this and at the end the mentioned a slight problem with the law in that while smoking on the sidewalk is now illegal they didn't include the actual street also so the loop hole will put people in the street, if this is correct.
ReplyDeleteOverall though while I am not a smoker and I do not want to be around it people still have rights even if you do not agree with what they are doing. This is a hard subject to find a place where everyone is happy but I look at the theme of today it is smoking, next week it might be something I like.
Scott
Prepology
Exactly Scott, I am not a smoker either and I'm not interested in breathing in second hand smoke but where will it end.
ReplyDeleteWe have a commons area in our city, several blocks long, that was just made a smoke-free zone. Since the ban, more people are smoking there than ever. The law is completely unenforceable. Of course, a thousand dollar fine could make the difference.
ReplyDeleteWell. It not enough at all. We shold stop using any kinde of car, shut down any kind of manufactory and etc.. Why not ? It all produced smogs!!! And we are breathing all that staf! :-)
ReplyDeleteI Am kidding. Even I wфnt to cray!!!
While I'm not a smoker, my boyfriend is, so I guess we won't be dining in Great Neck any time soon.
ReplyDeleteThat's just f*cked, I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteI never would have guessed Berkley as the first city to impose an outdoor smoking ban! Fascinating.
ReplyDelete