Tonight I chaired my first Parks board meeting, one meeting after I was elected Vice Chair. The Chair, Jimmy Thiem, is on vacation this week.
And it was a doozy of a meeting, too, with a controversial action item: a proposal to ban smoking in Raleigh Parks. After some debate and discussion (and lots of work by our Smoking in Parks committee), tonight the Parks board voted unanimously to recommend banning all smoking in city parks.
I received several emails on the topic, all in favor of the ban. I’m sure there are other folks with differing opinions but they were nowhere to be found.
Being a realist, I know those folks are going to come out of the woodwork once this hits the City Council agenda. The way I see it, though, smoking and park use are fundamentally at odds with each other. Still, I was pondering one scenario that would’ve given me pause about the outright ban: one where a smoking ban might actually harm children. What if the city adopts the smoking ban and some parents who smoke choose not to take their kids to the playground because of it? Those kids might not get exercise if their parents aren’t comfortable taking them somewhere the parents can’t smoke.
A few years ago I might have been more concerned about this type of scenario, but now society has enjoyed clean air due to years of smoking restrictions. Nowadays, smokers better understand how their behavior infringes on the right of others to breathe clean air. I think some may not agree with the ban but they will nevertheless understand.
Now, the air may not be clear when this hits the Council’s agenda but that’s why they sit in the Big Chairs. As for the Parks board, our job is done. I am proud of how we worked together to come to this decision.