As a State of Michigan taxpayer I have a right to say anything I want to about cummunistic laws within my state even if it is Traverse city leading the way to socialism in this state, Traverse city scams a lot of my tax dollars from the states tax base so that gives me the right! you dont like seeing our comments you dont have to read them,
Traverse city has a long histroy of voting in laws against our state and federal constitution, you as a city tax payer should be outraged at many of the laws they pass then have to defend in courts wasting your hard earned money,and i am sure this new law also will go to court as Traverse city does not own the air,all it will take is someone to stand in the water, or sit on a boat a foot off shore and light up, wait till the TC storm troopers write a ticket then take it to federal court being as the feds have jurisdiction to all great lakes waters.I see a huge lawsuit comong and I hope your pockets are big for the city because the cig companies will be helping us little guys fight this one.

as far as BBQ and other pollutants go you dont hear about them because cigs are on the chopping block my great grand mother whom died of "lung cancer" was listed as a death of second hand smoke by health pros, why? because they had smoking on the chopping block she was never around a smoker, BUT lived in detroit her entire life not even leaving the city for a vacation or trip,some lame brained DR decided she was around a smoker for at least 10 seconds at some point in her 88 years and therefore classified it as second hand smoke lung cancer.. now lets be real here I relize Drs are not allowed to come out against big business and Government which is why so many cancers are misrepresented as smoking instead of pollutions,
I dont see an alcohol ban in Traverse city yet! and everytime i turn on the news some yoyo is crashing his car into some kid,person, or building.causing hundreds of thousands of deaths annually, unknown maimings and injuries yet you anti smokers mostly drinkers think thats just fine, personally i dont like driving down the road knowing statistically every 8th car i see has an intoxicated driver.
I do not drink so i guess i should come out to make all alcohol illegal huh?
being you dont like to see a cigarette butt i dont like to see peices of children being removed form a vehicle after a head on crash caused by a drunken driver.so we both dont like seeing something, you hate cig butts i hate kids turned into hamburger

I am sure your city Government you are so proud of has never once considered a law to stop those needless deaths and to protect its citizens by outlawing alcohol within its limits, and alochol related items kill more people in Grand traverse county in 5 years then cigs do in 10
take those stistics and chew on them a while

the outdoor ban is just a small start at whats needs to be done. Instead of hiring a couple people to pass out warnings and tickets. There have been littering fines for decades, have you ever heard of anyone that got one? The entire country should get on board and add a 5 or 10 cent deposit on each butt. Disposable diapers should be limited to hospitals. Welfare "bridge" cards while needed, should have disposable diapers blocked just like smokes and booze.If the parent had to change, wash and fold a cloth diaper, there would be a bigger inspiration for potty training, then they would be prepared to train their kids in other aspects of life, and then maybe we wouldn't have to worry about half the stuff kids are doing now. As far as all the smokers who are screaming mad about your right to smoke. Go ahead and scream while you can, no one will hear you after your tongue is removed. Think it would be hard to live without a tongue? Don't worry you'll only last a year or so, but it will feel like a decade. Soon nobody will care if you die from smoking. Nobody ever said on their death bed "If only I had given up that twice a week grilling habit". You want to kiss those cigarettes butts every day, or your grand daughter on her wedding day? Wake up. I don't want to sit next to smoker anymore than I do a rattle snake a heroin addict or anyone else who posed a danger to me. Odds are you only get one life, and you have no right to endanger mine while destroying yours. Does anybody in Traverse really care what people in Kalkaska and Maple city have to say about or city government. If you don't like our laws go to your own beaches.

What a joke. These people on the board got a tiny bit of power and it went right to their heads. Have you seen any meetings?

These people need to learn the difference between power and authority. They have the former and assume the later.

Two of the worst offenders are gone now, just leaves Commissioner Carruthers to be rid of.

I hope the people who created this ban are reading these comments because all but 3 are against their ridiculous ban! What a shame to turn beautiful Traverse City into a few people's little communist utopia!

Smoking ban out in a public place should be the right of the individual. I am a non smoker and think it is stupid. If I as a non smoker don't want to be around smoke it is my option to not go or move. Just like the bar issue, beer and smokes go together and again it should be the right of any individual it they want to smoke or be around smoke. I go to happy hour a couple times a week and choose to sit away from the smoke and have to cwalm about asking smokers not to smoke around me. What ever happened to our freedoms as individuals?????

While at the beach, if you want to smoke, just go stand in the water. The City, with all of its rediculous attempts to limit what the general public (both beach goers and boaters alike) can and can't do at the beach, does not own the property or the rights beyond the waters edge, and therefore cannot enforce this silly ordinance. And by the way, I am NOT a smoker.

being as every BBQ grill in these parks and what people bring emit extremely toxic gases, enough so that if you lit what the average person lights to cook one meal in an area the size of a gym and had 100 people in that gym it would kill them within 25 minutes, I think we need to also ban these monsters from our public areas, that guy cooking the steak at the other end of the park is killing me quicker than cigarettes do, and by the great smell coming from it i know he is poisoning me, if i can smell that steak or burger, i know i am getting all those toxins, also wood burning stoves as well one log produces the same exact poisons as 1000 packs of cigarettes, yet people seem to think its cigarettes doing all the damage, lets tax firewood and charcoal like we do smokes to help our kids in school, a 10 dollar per bag tax on charcoal and 500 tax on a facecord of firewood would be good even though not anywhere near how bad cigs are taxed, you people on the march against cigarettes, you drive cars pollutiong our atmoshere and causing a green house effect, I do not drive a car so i am not a contributor in that regard you car drivers leave traces of rubber everywhere you drive at all times this is also toxic waste and should be taxed, those pieces of rubber are like dust and ruining my lings right along with the second hand smoke BUT the rubber is actually more toxic
I demand equal treatment these people going after our smoking rights contribute as much sometimes more to the poisoning of the air we breathe and should be taxed accordingly, I see pieces of tin foil in our parks from them grilling pollutors they are ugly as well and do not even break down in weather like a cigarette butt and lets not forget about the asj from charcoal that becomes slippery as ice when wet all over the ground by them BBqs, I also think we shoud ban all eating in the parks as people drop stuff all over causing bees and other insect to be drawn into the area, I am allergic to bees and i think these people are trying to kill me.it also draws in wild animals that could carry rabies or attack our small children.Birds that carry so many dreaded diseases dropping their waste everywhere they please its a health threat and we should ban it all...
anti smokers get off your high horses, you are just as bad at polluting as smokers prolly wore in some cases

Frivelous. What a joke.

The more places that ban smoking the better . By the way , I like butts at the beaches . dr

As federal,state, and local goverment continue to chip away at the rights of law biding citizens one should remember the words of Gerald Ford a goverment big enough to give you anything you want is a goverment big enough to take all you have. When you pass laws that infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens you are a communist. Prohibiting smoking in a building is one thing, but out in the open air is a form of harrassment.

well that settles it for me and my very large family, we wont bother coming to Traverse city 4 to 6 times a year for our reunions,festivals, etc. it will be a loss of about 60 tourists whom all rented hotel rooms,cars, eat at restaurants 3 times a day for about a total of 21 days a year, not to mention annual shopping trips for Christmas, we will head to other citys like frankenmuth,and mac city, and Houghton lake....
I am sure others will also follow our example as well.
I know from my family and me its close to or exceeding a $45 to $47 thousand dollar revenue loss to the citys businesses and parking meters...

Agree.. it goes a bit too far.. it's not really a public health issue..it's a litter issue and should be treated as such.

I'd much rather see them Grow a Set and ban smoking in Bars and Restaurants. At least it's a health issue, not only for the patrons, but more importantly the employees. No other place of business allows somking, why should bars and reastrants be exempt?

Agree.. it goes a bit too far.. it's not really a public health issue..it's a litter issue and should be treated as such.

I'd much rather see them Grow a Set and ban smoking in Bars and Restaurants. At least it's a health issue, not only for the patrons, but more importantly the employees. No other place of business allows somking, why should bars and reastrants be exempt?

When will it stop? One rational for banning smoking is that it sets a bad example for children. Is obesity a better example? Perhaps we should require only health foods be consumed on our beaches and in our parks. Another rational is littering. Are we also going to ban fast food? I have seen many soft drink straws and empty ketchup packets littering the beach and our parks.
Gum is nasty to find on the bottom of one's shoe and chewing gum and candy promote tooth decay. The wrappers are found everywhere. Perhaps gum chewing eating candy should also be banned.
The smoke from bar-b-que grills could also be hazardous and offensive. Perhaps we should remove all of the grills from the parks

Yes, the cig butt are unsightly but so are alot of other things like buried diapers; so only kids who are potty trained can go to the beach and watch out for the floaties in the water, they do have accidents.
Fact is some people are lazy and just don't care.
Cans,cups,water bottles, cigs; its all garabage I just hope every get a ticket and not just the smokers.

Soon enough the government and health insurance companies will get to you weather you smoke or not. You'll be screaming loud then. In the mean time go ahead and keep going after the smokers since they are the easiest target for awhile.
Why not get some people from the correctional place and have them do garbage duty for us as tax payers on the beaches and in the parks. Sheriff Joe has them working real good in Arizona called the chain gang and they all wear pink:).
Anyways this is getting old.

I think they ought to also ban dogs/animals from the beaches as well since the dog owners seem to think the beaches are a DOG-RUN. I've seen plenty of problems created by this with the dogs creating their own litter if you know what I mean. I'm a non-smoker but I'd much rather deal with a cigarette but than someone's dog.

This will be great for littering, but what about public health? It's smoking indoors which creates a health issues with innocent bystanders. It's been well studied that cities that ban smoking in all buildings lower the rate of heart attack and stroke of the city. This is a first step, albeit a small one.

Well first off I believe that this ban is a waste and not very effective. who is going to pay for the person to watch over these places...not me! But that's the only ligical way....yeah wahtever! But who wants this job anyway they'll probably get beat up for tellin someone to put there smoke out. So eleminate this ban and there will be no violence. I say we promote clean healthy beaches by placing butt cans around to help this problem. Get real politicians people are not going to stop smoking in these areas. That's like telling a dead person to wake up...not gonna happen. Happy holloween!

Do we really have an issue with cigarette butts overwhelming our city??
This city wants to tell us where we can use our boat and now this. What is next?
Doesn't the City Commission have anything better to do? How much time and money will be spent enforcing this?

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I"m a nonsmoker and this law stinks!!!!

BOOOOOOOO!!!

Go control your children s life not a smokers. The state is going to make a killing just off of civil disobedience. Way to compound a problem.

BOOOOOOO!!!

NO SMOKING IN THE OPEN AIR ON A BEACH? WHAT NEXT?

I am so thrilled this ban passed! Great way to start! I hope eventually we'll create a smoke-free community! How bad ass would Traverse City be!!! Dare to dream. Seriously though, at least let's keep our children away from the toxics if we can avoid it. It's really in all our best interest. Look at it that way. Thanks to all who voted in favor and on behalf of this cause! This is one grateful Traverse City resident!

you allready have a littering law so if litter is the problem then enforce it ! why not ban styrophome cup , worm containers , etc. fast food containers make up most of it ! anyway.

Okay, first off, Marsha you seriously need to take a look at yourself and your complete and utter ignorance.
Secondly, I couldn't be happier with this decision. I actually wish smoking would be banned in all establishments as well. I went into a restaurant the other day and literally could barely breathe. It is not only disgusting, but physically harmful to others, not to mention the smoker. I for one have difficulty breathing when being around those that smoke. I cough for hours after being around someone's cloud of smoke (even if it is just one person - not to mention a gathering of people).
I am not saying they shouldn't have the right to smoke, but in public places, I think it is nasty.
To each there own, but when it affects others - people should have consideration. I know I would appreciate it.

What about smoking a pipe? Its not littering.

WOW,I dont like butts in the sand or floating in the water either.I think the littering fine should maybe be looked at instead.I think were taking away peoples rights.Whos going to enforce this?,I hope not are police force,you know the one that doesnt have time to control the current auto traffic and bikes that race on the side walks.Arent they suppose to have a license too.So now were going to want them to waste time on slapping wrist of smokers,instead of them taking care of real issues...

It just gets more and more ridiculous. I ask that the CC now get on the prohibition of alcohol band wagon. Since Mr. Mayor is not running for reelection, he can patrol the parks. Maybe the city could hire him as the non-smoking enforcement officer.

I smoked for 30 years and have been clean for 3 years but I don't mind smelling cigs as long as its not in my face.I hate butts on the beach though.

I am a smoker and very much agree with the band. Who wants their children to play and bath in cig. butts! I do not smoke in the house or car since I have children. It's not their habit, it's mine. And a disgusting one to boot. These laws are only pushing me more to quit!! I totally agree with this law!!

Acually, Marsha, the Mayor said the reason behind this ban was to stop the litter of cigarette butts, not the acual smoke. He said it would be much easier to enforce than a littering ban. Wow, small town politics at its best.

Marsh...you can't seriously be that ignorant....

No smoking? What about banning fat people from city parks and beaches too? Isn't it just as offensive to show cottage cheese thighs in the great open air of area beaches and parks? Or better yet, see the cracks of hairy butts that have a pimply texture. It is just as disgusting to see that as it is to breath air in city parks that just might have a hint of cigarette smoke particles in the same air? How 'bout banning flatulence too? The offending odor is caused by feces particles expelled with the release of gas. So, essentially you are inhaling some other persons feces in the open air of city parks and beaches. The examples can go on forever, oh please