Luxury condo building in B'klyn bans smoking by owners and tenants

New York Post ^ | December 23, 2012 | JULIA MARSH and BETH DEFALCO

[ConservativeStatement]

It’s fine to flash the neighbors — just don’t have the indecency to smoke.

The condo board for one of Brooklyn’s most prestigious addresses has banned smoking throughout the glass-walled building — including in residents’ private apartments.

Condo owners at tony 1 Grand Army Plaza — a k a 1 Prospect Park, where residents are famous for parading around in the buff, giving parkgoers an eyeful through their floor-to-ceiling windows — will now face fines if they dare to light up in their multimillion-dollar pads.

The only area where residents can puff away is on their private terraces, which boast sweeping views of Prospect Park.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I don’t smoke, but this is exactly why I don’t live in condos or anywhere there are homeowner associations. I like my freedom too much."

Ditto that. I live on a private road that is gravel. Said road serves about a dozen families/homes, and gets "pot-holey" occasionally.

One homeowner started a move to get the road asphalt-covered, but the avenue he wanted to use was to establish a "neighborhood homeowners association", which, by Washington law, applies to a lot more than just the road problem. I told him that while I was quite willing to fork up my fair share to pay for the asphalting, that in no way would I support starting a homeowner's association.

I suggested we establish a contractual group agreement that applied solely to road construction and maintenance.

Fortunately, a majority of my neighbors rejected BOTH, so the road remains gravel, and we remain free (or at least relatively so).

[bikerman]

We also live on a dirt road and love it. half way down the road is sugar sand and that stops everyone using the street for a thru road. further back they do have an association just for the road but our street turned it down as I we can take care of our own pot holes without a yearly fee.

[bgill]

This is America so the owner can put any stipulations on his condos. No smokers is the same as no pets. You don’t like it, don’t live there.

[Venturer]

I went over to visit my Aunt in the assisted living building she live in. It was a nasty day outside, cold and drizzling rain, and yet across the street there sat two elderly people in a wheel chair and a couple of others with umbrella’s standing in the rain smoking.

What a habit.

[conservaterian]

The owner can put no smoking in the rules for NEW owners, but I can’t see how they could tell someone already living there that they can’t smoke.

[Wonder Warthog]

"We also live on a dirt road and love it. half way down the road is sugar sand and that stops everyone using the street for a thru road. further back they do have an association just for the road but our street turned it down as I we can take care of our own pot holes without a yearly fee.",

Well, I can't honestly say we love ON the dirt road. Our house faces the main drag, but our driveway parallels it, and actually exits onto the side street that "tees" off of it. The state has paved the side street back "just" the width of our driveway, so our little three-lot offshoot is already "asphalt all the way", but the rest is definitely dirt/gravel.

[ElkGroveDan]

I don’t want fat people in my building. They cause excessive wear on hallway carpeting and lobby furniture, and they create long term safety hazards by placing unnecessary strain on the elevators.

I don't want skinny people in my building -- especially the pasty-white anemic-looking vegans. They are unhealthy and more prone to catch and incubate diseases and viruses and then pass them on to well-fed healthier people. There's also the issue of self-esteeem with all their hallway talk about small clothing sizes and going to the gym and rocking climbing on weekends, it really just makes those of us who are the victims of Excess Gravitational Force Disability (EGFD) feel bad about ourselves.