Posted on 05/12/2004 11:27:10 AM PDT by Know your rights
A city-sponsored survey says the number of adult smokers in New York City fell by more than 100,000 between 2002 and 2003. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said the drop - which amounts to 11 percent - is the steepest decline of smokers seen anywhere.
Telephone surveys found that 19.3 percent of adults smoked in 2003, down from 21.6 percent in 2002. Overall cigarette consumption declined by 13 percent, suggesting that even those who continue to smoke are now smoking less.
Health officials credit the decline to a 2002 tax increase on cigarettes, which raised the tax from eight cents per pack to $1.50 per pack. A year later, New York City banned smoking in bars, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began an aggressive anti-smoking campaign, which included programs helping people to quit.
I live in New York and it is still the greatest city in the world.
I don't care what left wing groups support it, my feelings are that the smoker's right to smoke ends at the tip of my noise.
Having the privilege to live in NY and take advantage of the great restaurants we have here on a regular basis makes life more enjoyable, and definitely healthier. Most people wouldn't go to restaurants as often ( NYers according to Zagat dine out 5-7 times a week) if they had to wheeze and choke from someone else's smoke. I have never met any NYer who objects. It is usually the heavy smoking French or other Euros that protest...PS they go anyway.
New York is such a great place to live. Just go and look for an apartment or house in NYC. The demand is higher than ever. Nothing stays on the market very long, and most properties go for HIGHER than the asking price.You can easily verify by checking the N Y Times Real Estate section.
Your native Brooklyn is undergoing an fabulous renaissance,from Park Slope to Fort Greene, as well as the always gorgeous Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. Brooklyn is considered highly desirable, especially for young families. New Baseball Park in Coney Island for the CYCLONES, tremendous development plans for downtown, the Fabulous redone Brooklyn Museum, gorgeous parks and Botanic Gardens.
Maybe you should think of moving back.
You are totally correct.
There is a huge housing boom in NYC and prices are rising with no end in sight.
I can understand that many folks don't like city living, but to trash NY the way I see here is silly. For people who love cities, NY is still the greatest city in the world. That is why more and more people want to visit here and live here.
When the RNC comes to town in August, I am certain they will have the time of their lives.
I was born and raised in NYC, (BTW, living there is not a privilege, it's a choice for many) .........I did the entire gamut starting from the monthly meetings I attended at the Museum of Natural History as a 7yo to having jobs on Wall Street, Park Avenue and in the Village while I was in college and still living in my parents' home in Brooklyn. The sheep meadow was where I played touch football for years and MSG was my favorite bowling alley.
You like the smoker ban and apparently so do the folks you generally associate with --- more power to you all. My friends are all telling me different stories, from all over the state, not just NYC.
The fact you are in favor of increased government control over private property and small business so you are catered to in your personal preferences says a great deal about you.
Get off your high horse........from your comments I get the impression you are not a native NYCer.....if I'm wrong, my sincere apologies.
There is no way and no how I can imagine anyone being able to convince me to move back to the place of my birth. I left NYC when I was 22 with all intentions of being back withing 3-5 years. Since then I have become an adult and I am much happier knowing that my husband and I don't have to worry about our daughter playing out in the yard while we are in the house.
The Slope, the Heights and even the Greenes have been undergoing "renaissance" since before I left the City in 1982. I was born in Park Slope, as was my father. My mother grew up there, but was originally from Flatlands. I grew up in East Flatbush, only 5 blocks from the farmhouse my grandfather's family owned for generations prior to the building of my neighborhood.
I repeat my long ago comment. Housing activity in NYC has NOTHING to do with the bloominidiot's smoker ban.
What the housing activity in NYC gives me just further proof the left is all wet about how bad the economy is.
And when you can tell me that you have purchased a house on 2 acres of land somewhere in NYC for under $60,000 I just might reconsider my attitude that the only thing I lost in NYC was my virginity and therefore have no reason to go back.
Government intervention in private affairs? NYC gets the medal for their policy on rent controlled apartments. Cigarette smoking is nothing compared to the control over the best rental units in the city. NYC - the home of American Communism!
Luckily, VIRG's tax hasn't gone anywhere so far.
Your impression is totally wrong. I was born and raised, and have lived most of my life in NYC, except for college and living abroad for 12 years.
Many people leave NY and all they talk about is how they hate it. I hope you are happy where you are, but don't trash others who live here by choice and love it.
I live on a beautiful street lined with huge old trees and beautiful houses. We are a neighborhood that has no crime. Kids play outside and walk to school.
My feelings about the smoking ban are personal. If people on their own can't respect oither's rights, it is the rights of the affected party that take precedence.
NY is very expensive, but for people who love city life, and the quality of life it provides, along with the economic opportunities, it is well worth it.
Rent control is a terrible leftover from WW II housing shortage days. It affects under 10% of all renatals. What you might not realize is that there are hardly ANY rentals at all in NY. Everything is Co-op or less common Condo.
Finding a rental in NY is almost impossible.Rent control ends when the person living there moves out or dies. It cannot be passed on.
Get over your hate for NY. It is the city that took the hit for America on 9-11 and stood up beautifully.It is the economic engine that keeps the country running.
BTW finding a rental in NY is no problem at all. Finding a 3 bedroom apartment in a pre-war building for $350 a month is 'almost' impossible unless you're connected and you convince the inhabitant to either die or move out. And speaking of dying or moving out - are you trying to argue that 10% of apartment dwellers have lived there continuously for over 60 years? The 'same' apartment renter who was 35 in 1942 is still alive and living in the same apartment? hahahaha
You're a Freeper and you support rent control?????? I thought only communists supported rent control.
I don't support rent control, I strongly oppose it.
There are very few rent-controlled apartments left in NY. You might be thinking of rent stabilized which is totally different.
There aren't many rentals available because of the desirability of owning and because of vancy rates at around 1%.
The only people left in rent control are those who were there before the decontrol laws became effective. When they die or move their apartments go on the market at free market rates.
A co-op is NOT a rental. One buys a co-op and owns shares in the building which is a corporation with owners only the Board of Directors. They decide who is qualified and permitted to buy.
There are substantial finance benefits to the co-op structure, over condo, and co-op is the more prevalent form in NY. Typical monthly maintenance charges in a 3 BR 3 bath co-op which run about $2,000-$5,000 per month are 35-60% tax deductable, depending on the building's services, full time doorman, etc and on the building's real estate taxes
and mortgages, all of which have interest which is tax deductable .These tax deductions are divided among the shareholders by the number of shares held.
Yeah, but the ban is killing business at the local neighborhood gin mills. Bars should be allowed to at least purchase a smoking license if RINOs like Bloomingidiot and Patakifeller want to regulate smoking.
Mayor Bloomingidiot (who voted for Clinton twice) has not seen his approval ratings pass 45% since early 2002. Freddy Ferrer keeps kicking his a-s in the polls. Him and that troll Klein (another former Clinton associate) have done little to improve education except to change the organizational structure. He is a jacka-s Clinton Democrat who may win reelection if Freddy opens his mouth to often. Otherwise, I see Freddy Ferrer taking the election 53-47 in 2005.
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