Just one day after Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tim Gallagher’s Feb. 17 announcement that he decided to ban all smoking in all Seattle parks, despite other recommendations from the Board of Park Commissioners, he announced he would “relax the rule.”

Therefore, as of April 1, smoking, chewing, or other tobacco use is banned within 25 feet of other park patrons and in play areas, beaches, or playgrounds. Gallagher tweaked the new municipal code of conduct while on vacation skiing in Oregon. He said in a press release that his decision change was due to “public input.”

The West Seattle Herald asked smokers and former smokers for their input on the new ban.

“I smoke a pack a day,” said Will Gurkey, 41, who was taking a lunchtime cigarette break on a lawn area of a West Seattle office complex just off Delridge where he works.

“Smokers are generally pretty nice people and we try very hard not to offend anyone,” he said. “We grumbled about moving 25 feet from doors to smoke outside. But we were like, ‘O.K.’ I’m pretty neat about discarding cigarette butts.

“If it’s about the kids, we get really hung up on a lot of stuff,” he added. “It’s insanity. Parents will go to the park and let their kids play next to traffic where trucks go by. We’re too sensitive about it.

“I think the park (smoking) rule is like, ‘We’re outside. There’s plenty of air.’ I guarantee you by next summer there will be no smoking, no Frisbee playing, no bikinis.

“We ‘must become’ the puritanical country we dreamed of 200 years ago,” Gurkey added with sarcasm.

“It’s my habit, but the parks rule I understand,” said Gurkey’s co-worker, Shaun Lee. Still, it kind of comes down to what’s next. No smoking in cars because of the kids? So why is it legal? You can’t smoke anywhere.”

“I didn’t know about the new rule,” said Mike Gardner, an Alki Bakery employee and West Seattle resident on a quick cigarette break outside and away from the rear employee door. “It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I don’t know if it’s going to effect me. I don’t usually smoke in the park. I understand the whole restaurant thing, but it would be a little strange to get approached in a park by a cop for smoking a cigarette. I’m kind of wondering what’s next.”

“I smoked for 26 years, a pack a day and when I finally did quit it changed everything,” effused Gardner’s co-worker, Matthew Darling, while serving a long line of customers. “I can’t stand the smell of it. I’m happy about the new law. If I don’t choose to smoke I don’t want to have to fumigate myself after coming home from the park.”

“I smoked for 42 years, then quit two years ago,” said West Seattle community activist Chas Redmond while strolling Alki Beach, which he pointed out, is Seattle park land and will therefore be included in the new smoking code. “I used to love to go to the park and smoke a cigarette. Now I like to exercise, walk, let the endorphins kick in.

“It’s one of those laws that may look good but probably won’t be observed too much,” he said. “Smokers will smoke. They’re unduly discriminated against because it’s a legal activity. So were a bit duplicitous as a society in that regard and that concerns me. Smokers have been castigated for a long time now. I guess Tim Gallagher is doing what he has to do because he feels it’s a healthy thing to do for the parks.”

“My mom died of smoking,” said Cleveland Stockmeyer, a lawyer from the Green Lake area also enjoying the walk along Alki. “I am an ex-smoker. I hate smoking. I think tobacco executives should be put in jail. But we’ve got a court downtown with judges making over $100,000 and we’re going to start giving them hearings for people smoking in parks, and having cops go testify? If you are caught smoking in a park (within 25 feet of another person) you get an exclusion order, the enforcement mechanism- if they catch you three times. How are they going to enforce this? Courts, bailiffs, cops, judges, all that rigmarole. Real police officers are going to have to spend real time in municipal court (while) not looking for crime.

“The Parks Advisory Board depended on this survey that showed after one-and-a-half feet there’s no impact on outdoor second hand smoke,” Stockmeyer added. “What you want to do is to make real bad stuff against the law and enforce the law on those things.”

What is your opinion of the new smoking rule in public parks? Share your views in the comments forum.