Roken in New York wordt fun!
Sinds de invoering van de rookverboden in New York heeft roken daar een speciaal tintje gekregen. Rokers hebben zich nog nooit zo solidair gevoeld als nu. Ze zoeken mekaar op op dakterrassen en bouwen feestjes.
Een journalist beschrijft deze nieuwe sfeer in de New York Post.
Banning smoking is like Prohibition; it’s a good idea, but it won’t work.
Last year, the roof terrace of Ken Aretsky’s celeb-friendly Patroon went begging for customers.
“Now that smoking is illegal in most of the city but legal up there, we’ve had people clamoring to go up there,” Aretsky says.
“People go up there and they have a great time. There’s a party atmosphere up there half the time. They come up and thank me for providing the space.”
The best parties in town have followed the smoke – and we don’t mean they’ve all gone to New Jersey to beat the ban, as a certain other New York newspaper reported this week.
Sure there are sidewalks, roof terraces, bar gardens and the few “tobacco bars” holding prized exemptions to the ban, where patrons can light up.
But there’s nothing like the allure of the city’s new discreet but decidedly busy “smoke-easies,” where, if you keep your cigarette low and don’t blow it in the barman’s face, you’ll meet a blind eye.
It harkens back to the now-romanticized days of Prohibition.
New York Post artikel
Light My Bloomberg
Forum van New Yorkse rokers
