Re “Unlike Earlier Times, Smoking Ban Figures to Fly Tonight”
[img]2283|right|Jeff Cooper||no_popup[/img]Not so fast on predicting a unanimous vote.
City Councilman Jeff Cooper said this afternoon he will cast a dissenting vote this evening when he and his colleagues are polled on whether to outlaw smoking in multi-unit buildings.
“I am opposed to this plan for several reasons, just as I was the first time we discussed it,” Mr. Cooper said. “No. 1, I think it is already being self-enforced.
“Start with rentals, apartment buildings. More than half of landlords already have a ban than the other way around.
“From the landlord’s perspective, if you have a heavy smoker on your property, it costs him a lot more money to clean it up and re-rent it.
“Nowadays, most people don’t smoke,” Mr. Cooper said. “The percent keeps growing smaller.”
He estimates that “at least 60 percent” of the units targeted by tonight’s proposed no-smoking ordinance already forbid lighting up.
“From that aspect,” the banker said, “(the ban) already is in place.
“To confirm that,” said Mr. Cooper, his daughter recently rented an apartment. When he checked out the rental company she utilized, the Councilman was surprised how many landlords inquired whether prospective tenants smoked.
“To me, the reality is that (a ban) already is in place,” Mr. Cooper said. “When you move in, you know whether it is a smoking or non-smoking building.”
Tightening his case against the seemingly popular prohibition, why, Mr. Cooper wonders, is the Council aiming at condos and townhouses. “That is why we have homeowner associations,” he said
