12-14-2002, 12:59 AM
I smoke. I quit smoking a few years ago, I started back up. When I quit, I never had a problem with other people smoking around me. Ever. When I go to a restaurant and they ask me "smoking or non-smoking", I always say "first available". I like the idea of having a choice (Mrs. Goat thinks I quit a while ago, which I did, I just fall off the wagon a lot - heh). Anyway, when we go to eat, she prefers non-smoking, but most times she'll take the smoking section, especially if the wait for non-smoking is long.
My point is options are a good thing. I don't light up to annoy people around me, and if I'm in a situation where i feel I might do that, I'll take it someplace else or I won't light up. To ban it totally is ludicrous. It will affect a lot of businesses, and people will become dejected about going out to places - if anything, they'll look for places that don't enforce it, or keep it very low-key, which will drive customers away. I don't like having my choices made for me.
And as Kindred said, I'm sure eventually people will adjust to it, but I don't think we should have to. As taxpayers, we give this city way too much of our income as it is, let alone the fleecing that goes on that most people don't even know about (example - I have to pay the city a "transfer tax" because I sold a house, and I have to pay the city a "mortgage tax" because i bought a house! I forget the percentage, but I believe they're both either 1% or 2% of the sale and purchase price - and in this market, thats a Hell of a lot of cash to pay just to relocate).
Ever since 9/11, the city has been trying to keep people here - residents and businesses alike. Every day, it's getting a little more expensive to live here, and salaries/wages are not climbing fast enough to maintain a comfortable level for most of us. To make life that much harder for people by telling them they essentially can't smoke anywhere save for the privacy of their own home is just the wrong move to make right now, IMO. This mayor apparently feels he doesn't need to try and win the people onto his way of thinking, and he's just gonna make decisions he feels comfortable with (meaning, whatever he feels will roll in the cash).
And Silera makes a good point that I have yet to understand :
This makes absolutely NO SENSE to me. He raises the tax because he knows there are millions of people who smoke, and it would bring in a Hell of a lot of cash to the city. Now he shoots himself in the foot by saying you can't smoke anywhere. if this was his attempt to get NY'ers to quit smoking, he should've just banned it and made smokes illegal.
Bloomy is really fucking things up, and we've got a ways to go with him still. If he wants to raise the quality of life, why doesn't he put some money into cleaning up run-down areas and streets? He wants to rebuild lower Manhattan because that'll keep big business in town, but the rest of the city can go to shit - unbelievable.
My point is options are a good thing. I don't light up to annoy people around me, and if I'm in a situation where i feel I might do that, I'll take it someplace else or I won't light up. To ban it totally is ludicrous. It will affect a lot of businesses, and people will become dejected about going out to places - if anything, they'll look for places that don't enforce it, or keep it very low-key, which will drive customers away. I don't like having my choices made for me.
And as Kindred said, I'm sure eventually people will adjust to it, but I don't think we should have to. As taxpayers, we give this city way too much of our income as it is, let alone the fleecing that goes on that most people don't even know about (example - I have to pay the city a "transfer tax" because I sold a house, and I have to pay the city a "mortgage tax" because i bought a house! I forget the percentage, but I believe they're both either 1% or 2% of the sale and purchase price - and in this market, thats a Hell of a lot of cash to pay just to relocate).
Ever since 9/11, the city has been trying to keep people here - residents and businesses alike. Every day, it's getting a little more expensive to live here, and salaries/wages are not climbing fast enough to maintain a comfortable level for most of us. To make life that much harder for people by telling them they essentially can't smoke anywhere save for the privacy of their own home is just the wrong move to make right now, IMO. This mayor apparently feels he doesn't need to try and win the people onto his way of thinking, and he's just gonna make decisions he feels comfortable with (meaning, whatever he feels will roll in the cash).
And Silera makes a good point that I have yet to understand :
Quote:Why raise the cigarette tax if you can't smoke them anywhere?
This makes absolutely NO SENSE to me. He raises the tax because he knows there are millions of people who smoke, and it would bring in a Hell of a lot of cash to the city. Now he shoots himself in the foot by saying you can't smoke anywhere. if this was his attempt to get NY'ers to quit smoking, he should've just banned it and made smokes illegal.
Bloomy is really fucking things up, and we've got a ways to go with him still. If he wants to raise the quality of life, why doesn't he put some money into cleaning up run-down areas and streets? He wants to rebuild lower Manhattan because that'll keep big business in town, but the rest of the city can go to shit - unbelievable.