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• NYC's First Non-Smoking Apt Building Set To Open  

So some apartment buildings are now banning smoking for new tenants. Existing tenants who smoke will be allowed to continue to puff away.

That's not the case with the new East Harlem building at 1510 Lexington Avenue, which will be the city's first completely non-smoking residence, where tenants won't even be allowed to walk outside and light up in the immediate perimeter of the building. Even the construction workers can't light up.

"We feel that you're impacting, in a rental, so many people around you that we would like to offer the public an opportunity to live in a smoke-free environment," said Kinne Yon of Kenbar Management, which runs the building that will house 298 units.

The family-owned company gave CBS 2 a tour of the building, still under construction. The East Harlem development features upscale apartments, with concierge service, a large gym, and gardens. Smoking will not be allowed anywhere on the property.

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NYACS Backs Senator's Push for Cigarette Tax Collection 

State Senator Carl Kruger is working to close the state's deficit as Senate Finance Committee chairman, and recently held a press conference urging Gov. David Paterson to collect taxes on cigarettes sold on Native American reservations to non-Native Americans.

"We have to ask everybody to share both the benefits and the burdens of being a New Yorker," Kruger was quoted saying at a press conference, by the New York Daily News. "Part of being a New Yorker is paying taxes that are assessed upon you."

He added: "Today is the day that we draw the line in the sand, and I say that we should collect before we cut. We should collect the taxes due before we cut the services. While we negotiate we should be collecting. Anything short of that is denying the rule of law."

Kruger was joined Democratic Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., according to the report. By collecting the cigarette taxes, the state's general fund could see a "cash infusion" of $135 million in December and $1.6 billion a year, according to Kruger.

Following the press conference, the New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS) President James Calvin voiced his support of Kruger's efforts.

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HAMMOND: Albany gasbags are full of it 

State lawmakers are spouting so much hot air about the state's budget crisis these days, it's a wonder the Capitol hasn't lifted off the ground like the old man's house in the movie "Up." . . .

They've got nothing.

Ditto for Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, who made a big show yesterday of demanding that Paterson immediately start enforcing cigarette tax laws on Indian reservations.

It's true that Albany has tolerated rampant tax evasion that hurts law-abiding merchants and costs state and local government big bucks.

But for Kruger to claim that enforcement could reap $1.6 billion a year is reckless. "If people smoked that much there would be a big black cloud over the state blocking out the sun," one budget official quipped.

Throwing around numbers like that suggests that Kruger is exploiting the issue as an excuse not to grapple with the politically dicey work of finding cuts.

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Funding anti-tobacco programs saves us in the long run  

The 2008 Independent Evaluation report of the New York State Tobacco Control Program was recently released, and the news is good.

Our tobacco control program in New York is working, and working well. Both youth and adult smoking rates are declining significantly faster than the rates for the U.S. as a whole.

The smoking rates in Putnam, Orange, Westchester and Rockland counties are at or significantly under the national smoking rate.

Support for the Clean Indoor Air Act is continuing to grow every year, and anti-tobacco attitudes are increasing. Even though our programs are funded at one-third of the funding levels that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for the size of our state, these programs are having an effect. This saves lives and saves us money. Continued program funding cuts will jeopardize the gains we are already seeing.

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Mohawks would fight cigarette tax 

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is getting ready to show some muscle if the state goes through with its idea to collect taxes on tribally-sold cigarettes.

Gov. David A. Paterson has been floating the idea of collecting the taxes to help cover the state's massive budget deficit and recently asked the state attorney general to help assess the risk of violent demonstrations should the tax-collectors come knocking on American Indian reservation doors.

In a speech Tuesday at a state Senate public hearing in New York City, Chief James W. Ransom told the governor what kind of resistance may come his way.

"My response is that anytime someone attempts to infringe on the rights of Mohawks and the Haudenosaunee, we will defend ourselves," he said in the speech. "New York state should expect no less."

If the state moves to consult with the tribes and consider their rights, a "peaceful resolution of state concerns can be found," Mr. Ransom said.

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Kruger: Time to start collecting Indian cigarette taxes  

In what might be a sign that budget talks are really stalled and lawmakers are starting to — depending on who you talk to — flail about desperately or think outside the box, Senate Finance Chair Carl Kruger walked a letter to Gov. David Paterson's second-floor office demanding that he start collecting taxes on cigarettes sold on Native American lands.

Such a move, Kruger said, would generate $1.6 billion a year, with $135 million in December alone.

The Indian tax issue has been around for years despite lawmakers' passing legislation to collect the tax. So far, that effort has been stymied by the likelihood of endless litigation over the argument that the taxes don't apply to sovereign Indian lands, and the fear of violent protests by Native groups. Past actions have included the closure of the state Thruway; some of the largest Native American lands are along the Thruway in central and western regions.

Kruger compared that fear to the possibility that suburban homeowners could create an uprising and halt highway traffic in protest over their property taxes. "Everybody has to pay their fair share," Kruger said.� "We want taxes collected. It would be an instant cash flow infusion."

Not everyone agrees, most pointedly the Paterson Administration, which has typically fielded Indian tax calls more from Republicans than Democrats.

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Williamsburg Exhibition Captures Smokers on Camera  

In a city that's banned smoking from bars, restaurants, and is looking at parks, and in a country led by a President who's an alleged closet smoker, it's easy to understand the trepidation that comes with being captured on camera taking a long, smooth drag from a cigarette.

Photographer Susanna Howe found many of her friends would "dash to put the cigarette out when you raise the camera to [their] face" while shooting for "Smokers," (NSFW) her current exhibition at Bird in Williamsburg (203 Grand St).

And many of the "Smokers" photos displayed on Howe's site show subjects enjoying a smoke around decidedly anti-smoking New York City

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• Now Showing | Smoking in the Dressing Room  

Photos by Susanna Howe

The tobacco-stained past, on display at Bird in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In the wake of our recent mayoral election, let’s take a moment to remember New York before Bloomberg cleared the air in bars, clubs and restaurants by banning smoking. Sales of Febreze aren’t the only thing that plummeted in the city: according to the photographer Susanna Howe, no one wants to be pictured smoking anymore. “Even those people who you wouldn't think would be all squeamish about it dash to put the cigarette out when you raise the camera to your face,” she said.

And so she rushed to document her friends and favorite subjects before they quit. “Smokers,” an exhibition and video installation at Bird in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is a stylish, funny, even sexy look at the remaining few who aren’t waiting to exhale, such as the artist Phil Frost. Be sure to try something on in the V.I.P. dressing room, where Howe has created a video that goes as well with Margiela as it does with A.P.C.

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Smoking Ban May Now Include Your Apartment  

Some city landlords have begun prohibiting tenants from smoking inside their apartments, because of the dangers of second-hand smoke. A study recently found that secondhand smoke causes at least 35,000 deaths from heart disease and 3,000 deaths from lung cancer in nonsmokers nationwide each year--and New Yorkers are even more at risk because their dense urban environment. As one tobacco expert put it: "Smoke doesn't know to stop at a doorway. It fills the full capacity of every indoor location in which the cigarette is smoked." So at least one major real estate company is now stepping in to stop the smoke before it starts. . . .

Should renters be allowed to smoke in their apartments?(polling)

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READERS' COMMENTS For Some Smokers, Even Home Is Off Limits  

Landlords Move to Ban Smoking in Apartment Buildings 

The movement to ban smoking in New York City has grown so quickly that no place seems immune -- certainly not restaurants or bars, and public beaches and parks may not be far behind. Now the efforts are rapidly expanding into the living room.

More landlords are moving to prohibit smoking in their apartment buildings, telling prospective tenants they can be evicted if they light up in them.

This month, the Related Companies will ban smoking at some of its downtown apartment buildings because of health concerns about secondhand smoke, according to company officials.

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• For Some Smokers, Home’s Off Limits 

More landlords are moving to prohibit smoking in their apartment buildings, telling prospective tenants they can be evicted if they light up in them.

This month, the Related Companies will ban smoking at some of its downtown apartment buildings because of health concerns about secondhand smoke, according to company officials.

Smokers who already live in any of these buildings will not be affected, according to Jeff Brodsky, a president of Related, which is a national developer with 17 buildings in Manhattan.

But any new renters must promise not to smoke at home, even if they continue to elsewhere.

Kenbar Management, a local developer, is going a step further. When its new project, 1510 Lexington Avenue, opens in December, smoking will be banned in all 298 units, in addition to private and shared terraces.

And the typical smoker’s refuge — directly outside the building — is also off limits; tenants must agree not to smoke on any of the sidewalks that wrap around the building, which takes up most of a block in East Harlem, according to Kinne Yon, a Kenbar principal.

The trend has predictably divided smokers and nonsmokers in New York. . . .

So far, about 50 public housing agencies have now forbidden smoking, according to Betsy Feigin Befus, a lawyer with the National Multi Housing Council, a landlord trade group that has tracked the efforts.

Other cities, through legislation or by initiatives of developers, have taken similar steps.

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• $2 billion in tax revenue up in smoke 

One in two cigarettes smoked in Ontario is illegal, robbing provincial and federal coffers of more than $2 billion a year and raising concerns about children gaining easy access to tobacco.

"There's absolutely no doubt that there's an incredible amount of revenue lost both in the province of Ontario and Quebec and to the federal government as well," provincial Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci said in an interview.

A study for the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council found that illegal cigarette purchases in Ontario have climbed to 48.6 per cent, followed by Quebec with 40.1 per cent. . . .

Originating on First Nations reserves, the contraband smokes are readily available in most towns and cities.

"People have to understand the severity of buying, of making ... and what damage it does do," said Bartolucci.

But how do we know? Enter the squad of "butt pickers."

In a separate investigation last month, the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco collected by hand 19,770 cigarette butts near 110 high schools, and discovered 30 per cent were illegal.

The coalition, which was launched by the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, whose members lose an average of $115,000 in sales annually due to illegal cigarettes, analyzed 14,064 butts from 75 Quebec high schools and concluded 45 per cent were contraband.

Because each legal cigarette has a distinctive marking on the filter, investigators are able to pinpoint hot spots for untaxed and unregulated smokes.

Ontario and Quebec represent about 95 per cent of illegal tobacco sales in Canada, and about 33 per cent of cigarettes sold in Canada are contraband, according to the manufacturers' council study. . . .

The major source of that supply is the Akwesasne native reserve that straddles Ontario, Quebec and the State of New York. Ten cigarette manufacturing plants on the U.S. side pump out billions of cigarettes annually.

"We know that perhaps 95 per cent of the contraband in Canada originates in illegal operations located on four First Nations reserves, the most important of which by far is the U.S. side of Akwesasne near Cornwall, Ont. There is also Kahnawake near Montreal, Tyendinaga near Belleville, and Six Nations near Brantford," said Cunningham.

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• VIDEO: RCMP plays cat-and-mouse with cigarette smugglers  

"Because the smugglers are operating on the water with no lights, we've had a guy killed on a Sea-Doo when he hit a boat going north with cigarettes and he was coming south with marijuana. It's crazy," said Sgt. Michael Harvey, spokesman for the RCMP Cornwall detachment.

The water highway between Akwesasne Mohawk territory and Cornwall is the main source of cheap, illegal cigarettes entering Canada.

The cigarettes are turning up from coast to coast, in big cities and small towns alike. As much as 50 per cent of the smoke filling Canadian lungs comes from smuggled cigarettes, according to one study.

As smuggling goes, Akwesasne is in a unique position: the reserve is on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Its territory straddles not only Quebec and Ontario, but also New York state – where the cigarettes are produced.

From her perch overlooking the St. Lawrence River, motel manager Susan Denneny sees and hears the nightly water traffic.

She recalls watching early one August morning as a small armada of open boats unloaded cigarettes into several waiting vans.

"I'm not going to call the cops. I smoke them," says Denneny, who manages the Monte Carlo Motel located on Montreal Rd., which runs along the river.

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MONSERRATE ANNOUNCES HEALTH AWARENESS OBSERVANCES 

State Senator Hiram Monserrate announced that Cancer and Alzheimer's awareness programs are scheduled during November. One of the highlights will be the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout on November 19, an event which challenges people to stop using tobacco. Monserrate said that during November, "We must renew our commitment to finding a cure [for Alzheimer's disease] while providing high quality and affordable treatment and prevention options."

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