East Lansing City Council voted unanimously to ban smoking in city parks, plazas and recreational facilities at its meeting Tuesday, on the heels of MSU’s tobacco ban put in place this year.
The ban affects any space owned or controlled by the city and its parking lot when used for events. It does not address chewing tobacco or e-cigarettes.
At the public hearing, residents expressed both positive and negative views on the ban. Matt Phelan, an advocacy specialist for American Cancer Society and East Lansing resident, spoke in support of the ban.
He said he spends time using city parks and sports complexes as a coach and player, and thinks the ban is beneficial to the city. He said in the past, smokers have ignored requests to stop around children.
“Unfortunately, I know not all smokers are as discourteous, but we’ve basically been told there’s nothing that can stop them,” Phelan said. “So I’m here today to ask you to stop them. Please put something in place. … Signage isn’t good if there’s no enforcement. If you put it into law, most people will abide by the law.”
Not everyone was in support of the ordinance. Councilmember Susan Woods was initially against every regulated area included in the ban.
“I personally believe that this is just over regulation,” Woods said. “East Lansing is starting to get a reputation as somebody mentioned, being a nanny city. We manage the landlords, we manage the students, we manage everybody. And I just think that this is too much.”
Woods, however, still voted to pass the ban after amended language was added to the ordinance that banned smoking in parking lots only during events.
Mayor pro tem Ruth Beier said she wanted to ensure the ordinance did not have adverse effects. She said while researching and surveying, she found most smokers in the East Lansing and MSU community were foreign students.
“This is not without some, I don’t want to say racist, but definitely targeted effects,” Beier said. “In East Lansing and on campus they’ve found that a larger percent of foreign students smoke than American students here at Michigan State University. I imagine that’s true in the city as well, especially foreign students who can’t smoke on campus and they come into the city to smoke.
"I don’t want to add an extra burden onto foreign students. I did think about this for a long time but I think that the cost of secondhand smoke and smoking in general are greater than that burden.”
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