This week, Mayor Bloomberg signed Introductory Number 332-A, amending the Smoke Free Air Act to prohibit smoking in the City’s parks, beaches, boardwalks, and pedestrian plazas. The new law will take effect on May 23.
A letter from the Parks Department explains how they expect this to work:
We expect that the new law will be enforced mostly by New Yorkers themselves, who will ask people to follow the law and stop smoking. This is how similar laws have worked in other places, including Chicago and Los Angeles. However, people who violate the new law could receive a $50 ticket from one of our PEP officers.
Smoking will still be allowed on sidewalks outside parks, including the sidewalks that form the perimeter of parks and in the parking lots of all Parks properties. You can see more about the new law at the Parks Department website.
Or, if you're feeling like an increasingly marginalized smoker, you might consider growing tobacco in your backyard.
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