© Jeff Nickerson/Wikimedia CommonsBurnside Park
You can already get a ticket if you smoke in Burnside Park or any other city park in Providence. That ordinance was passed six months ago. Next up -- if it passes -- all downtown public spaces.
Businessman and former Mayor Joe Paolino walks the street that rings the south end of Kennedy Plaza, pointing out the discarded cigarette butts that litter the area. In fairness, the ashtrays were removed he says to discourage smoking. But more importantly, it's the secondhand smoke.
"I don't think that the secondhand smoke is healthy for anybody that has to breathe that smoke. And I think we can clean up our city at the same time," Paolino said.
Some agree. Even some smokers. Mark Brier was smoking in Kennedy Plaza when I asked where he would go to smoke if he couldn't smoke outside downtown.
"I'd go to another city. They're getting too expensive anyway," he said.
Frank LaTorre of Riverside would like to see the ordinance passed by saying, "Does someone have a right to put that kind of carcinogen into the air?" I asked him, "What about car exhaust?" He said, "It's a problem too. We're trying to deal with that as well. But you can't do everything. But I think in terms of secondhand smoke, that it's an incredible health hazard."
Some do not agree, like Kelly Masterson of North Providence.
"Just because it's Kennedy Plaza that's where people (smoke)," said said.
Comment: Noteworthy but unsurprising insights into the minds and values of some of the very rich. Is it any wonder that so much is screwed up? But alas, many of these cretins are in for a rude awakening.