Breathe Clean

By Tom Soter
Habitat Magazine, June 2014

Nearly 14 years have come and gone since 180 West End Avenue banned cigarette smoking from the 452-unit building – and just as quickly withdrew the policy in the face of vocal opposition from smokers in the co-op.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s ire,” the wags said at the time claiming that no way, no how would smoking be widely banned. It was too controversial, too incendiary, right up there with lobby redesign and maintenance increases as one of the top topics to get the residents motivated to remove the board. “Smokers’ rights” was the rallying cry of residents who insisted that whatever happened in an apartment was private, personal, none of your business.

As times changed, so did attitudes. Just two years and seemingly a dozen lifetimes ago, board president Stepehn Budlow oversaw the successful imposition of a smoking ban in his 65-unit Yorkville condominium after a three-year struggle. That was tough, he admitted, but he still made a hopeful prediction: “This is the future.” Right, said the cynics, but remember the ifs, ands, and butts.

Depart cynics, for the future seems to be here…[read more through link below]


Read more: nycsmokefree.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/images/Citywide/habitat_article_2014.pdf

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