NYC Condo Tower Bans Smoking

The residents of an Upper West Side condo tower have voted to ban smoking in their building, even if the unit owner has been doing so for years. It's the city's first such retroactive ban in a residential building.

Even smokers who moved into the building, the Ariel West, before the ban must abide by it. The building is one of the first in the city to approve such an extensive ban. (Several rental buildings introduced bans last year, but established tenants who smoked were not affected.) Owners in the building, a 32-story glass tower at Broadway and 99th Street, voted 47 to 3 to approve the ban late last month. There are 68 owners in total; 46 votes constituted the supermajority required to change the bylaws. “Even though people bought into this building thinking they could smoke,” said Gideon Stein, the president of the condo board at Ariel West, “people do not have a constitutional right to smoke.”

Enforcement of the ban will be performed by busybody old ladies, who will prowl the halls sniffing out infractions.

No Smoking For NYC's Parks & Beaches

Today NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce a complete ban on smoking in city parks and on city beaches.

After months of considering the issue, Mayor Bloomberg will today announce that the city will institute a smoking ban in parks and on beaches, sources said. The new ban requires City Council approval, which seems assured since the mayor will be joined at the announcement by Council Speaker Christine Quinn. In the past, Bloomberg expressed concerns about the logistics of such a ban, mostly because of the size of the enforcement area. But Health Commissioner Tom Farley has been pushing for the ban for months. "[Bloomberg] was undecided, and now he's made the decision to go ahead," said a source.

Bloomberg banned smoking in bars early in his first term.

NEW YORK CITY: M2 Club To Reopen

After closing them in March for smoking ban violations, NYC's Health Department will allow M2 Ultra Lounge to reopen.

The Chelsea hotspot must pay $7,500 in fines and submit a plan to the city detailing how it will stop patrons from lighting up. It was one of several clubs busted in a Health Department undercover sting in January. Undercover inspectors said they found dozens of smokers puffing away in plain sight and bathroom attendants selling loose cigarettes for $2 a pop. "Our main goal was to get M2 to take their obligations under the law seriously, and we achieved that," Health Department spokeswoman Erin Brady said yesterday. "After the case was brought, M2's enforcement of indoor smoking drastically changed. That was the real victory for us."

M2 is one of the handful of remaining NYC dance clubs of a decent size and is the largest to regularly host gay dance parties. Last month's gay pride edition of the popular Alegria party was relocated to Times Square's Nokia Theater due to M2's closure.