NYC Condo Tower Bans Smoking

The residents of an Upper West Side condo tower have voted to ban smoking in their building, even if the unit owner has been doing so for years. It's the city's first such retroactive ban in a residential building.

Even smokers who moved into the building, the Ariel West, before the ban must abide by it. The building is one of the first in the city to approve such an extensive ban. (Several rental buildings introduced bans last year, but established tenants who smoked were not affected.) Owners in the building, a 32-story glass tower at Broadway and 99th Street, voted 47 to 3 to approve the ban late last month. There are 68 owners in total; 46 votes constituted the supermajority required to change the bylaws. “Even though people bought into this building thinking they could smoke,” said Gideon Stein, the president of the condo board at Ariel West, “people do not have a constitutional right to smoke.”

Enforcement of the ban will be performed by busybody old ladies, who will prowl the halls sniffing out infractions.