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Ban makes senior smolder

Monday, January 21, 2008 6:36 AM PST

By Barbara LaBoe
blaboe@tdn.com

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Apartment building goes entirely smokeless; elderly residents ponder buying a van to smoke in

Kathy Clark, the Longview senior citizen who picketed her apartment's new no-smoking rule this summer, is still fuming about the ban.

Starting this month, all existing tenants in the Parkland Terrace and Westgate Terrace apartment complex at 3133 Maryland St., are barred from smoking. The ban includes anywhere on the grounds, including their apartments, the former smoking area and even the parking lot.

The Portland-based building owners, Guardian Management, said in August that they made the change to cut down on the cost of renovating smoke-damaged apartments as well as follow a national trend of smoke-free rentals.

Clark advertised her dissatisfaction with the change in August, displaying a "Guardian Management Unfair to Senior, Disabled and Low Income Smokers" sign on the back of her chair at the outdoor smoking area. She also started a petition of residents, both smoker and nonsmokers, who supported keeping the outdoor smoking areas.

Clark said her main beef wasn't the smoking ban so much as the idea that seniors like her, who have smoked for 50 years, would be able to kick the habit in just four months. She also said it's hard to find subsidized housing in the area, so it's not as if she can easily move.

Since the ban went into effect this month, Clark said she tries to be away from home as much as possible, visiting friends who are allowed to smoke in their homes.

She and other residents also have joked about buying a junker van, parking on the street in front of the complex and smoking inside. And she says they're only half joking when they talk about it.

"There's an 88-year-old woman here with a walker and osteoporosis so bad she's about bent double," Clark said. "Can you really see her wheeling that walker out to the street in this kind of weather to have a cigarette? That's one of her very few pleasures that she has got left."

A few residents moved out of the complex because of the ban, which Clark says is arbitrary.

"I think they need to look at some of the other causes of pollution that are causing lung cancer and health problems that aren't addressed at all because they have smoking as a scapegoat," she said. "And what's wrong with having some smoking apartments and some non-smoking? ... Or a restaurant with a big sign out front warning that there's smoking inside and no children allowed? Whatever happened to compromise? They let consenting adults do everything else, why not this?"

Clark's main remedy may be a move to Nevada this spring to be closer to her daughter. She's considering the move once the weather gets better.

"I'd be closer to her and I have friends there," Clark said. "And in Nevada you can still smoke in most places."

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UN study wrote on Feb 7, 2008 12:32 PM:

" A UN study released Thursday says Smoking will kill 1 Billion worldwide by 2100. Do you want to be one of the statistics? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23047447/ "

Citizen wrote on Feb 7, 2008 1:09 PM:

" Change is hard and the older you are the harder it is.

However, this change is really a good one in disguise.

Try it you will like it.

Get the new owners to help with medical bills to get medical supervised withdrawal. It works. "

last pleasure she has left wrote on Feb 7, 2008 8:38 PM:

" Smoking contributes heavily to osteoporosis. It she didnt smoke then she might be walking upright. "

well wrote on Feb 8, 2008 2:13 PM:

" I think Kathy Clark is nothing but a whiny cry baby,go cry somewhere elses,we don't care about Your so called smoking right's,it's not your house,buy your own and smoke yourself to death for all I care,get over yourself Kathy!!!!! "

Confused wrote on Feb 10, 2008 11:15 AM:

" I cannot even believe the comments you all are leaving about this 88 year old lady. It is so sad to me she has to be away from home as much as possible just so she can smoke. Maybe none of you are smokers but what if someone was trying to tell you you couldn't do something in your living space that you enjoyed doing? I believe the apt owners have a right to ban smoking but they should place this lady and any other tenant in another apt complex and rent to someone that doesn't mind having no personal rights. "

Freedom in America? wrote on Feb 10, 2008 11:16 PM:

" Your rights will be next!Think about it! "

When smoking is a right I wrote on Feb 11, 2008 10:41 AM:

" The next time smoking becomes a right over my right to breathe clean, smokeless air, I will gladly leave America. In the meantime, my right to vote says NO SMOKING in public establishments. And my next right to vote on this issue will say, NO SMOKING in public period. That is why I love America. I have the right to vote on issues like this and my right to vote in more powerful that your right to smoke, 62-38 percent. When you get in the majority, you make the laws. I wish we could make a law about fanatics who think smoking is some kind of right. WHERE does it say that? "

It's High Time wrote on Feb 11, 2008 7:15 PM:

" Local governments started building public glass smoking rooms. They should have very little ventilation. All the whiney smokers can go there and smoke, with the added enjoyment of getting a few packs worth of carcinogens with every single cigarette they enjoy. The rest of us can sit outside and watch joyfully as they kill each other off. The end result would be lower insurance costs and greater quality of life for the rest of us. Hooray... a win-win!!!!! "

Jacque wrote on Feb 12, 2008 3:49 PM:

" Iam no longer a smoker,but I did smoke for over 20 years.I quit due to my Granddaughters health and she's with me daily.I do not in any way agree with the way smokers are treated these days.I've yet seen the price of Alchol get taxed,or people not be allowed to drink it in their own private homes,cars and ect.Heh you can buy Alchol,drink and drive,possibly even kill someone in the process.But you can't smoke where you want without the Government nosing into it,and prices going so high people can't afford to buy them.What's wrong with this picture here people.Have you ever heard of someone driving while smoking and kill someone? "

RE: Jacque wrote on Feb 14, 2008 11:48 AM:

" What's wrong with the picture here is your understanding of the government. The GOVERNMENT did not make the smoking ban. The people did in a statewide initiative. The people wrote this law and voted by more than 62 percent for it. So there is nothing wrong with the picture. The majority voted the law into place and the majority will take a step further in the next initiative. We will ban all smoking in public. Smokers will and should be confined to their private residences. There they can kill themselves without inflicting their poisons on others. "

Go Granny! wrote on Feb 15, 2008 9:05 PM:

" Wow, I can't believe the uncaring attitudes here. There is only ONE place on earth most people call theirs. Regardless of who your payments go to, home is home. And what we do in our home is NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS! Unfortunately, you bleeding hearts out there can't leave well enough alone, and have to force smokers out of their own homes to smoke outside, only to take away that option as well. You drive a car, hypocrite? I doubt an 88 year old woman does, so fair trade. Shut the hell up. "

Next move will be wrote on Feb 16, 2008 11:16 AM:

" I don't call renting a home. When I rented I had to abide by the rules of the renter. If they don't want smoking, as owner that is their right. The renter has the right to stay or go or follow the rules. Simple as that. As for the 80-year-old woman if she were my mother, I would be doing everything I could to get the smoking to stop. Short of that, I would move her. Sorry that those are the options.
As for smoking in your home, no one is or has told people they can't smoke at home if they own or if they have permission from the owner. If they do fine, kill yourself. As for smoking in public, get ready we are ready to move on that in the near future. The next initiative will be to push all smoking back onto private property. We will win that vote, you can count on it. "

Deb wrote on Feb 16, 2008 3:01 PM:

" Yes, JACQUE, people do die because smokers are behind the wheel. I work in Trauma at OHSU, and I assure you, car crashes occur all of the time because people are smoking behind the wheel and not paying attention to what they are doing (dropping, fumbling, lighting, digging in their bag for a smoke, crushing out stubs). That is also why smokers have higher auto insurance rates than nonsmokers. Your other statement in reference to `you can drink & drive' was equally as ignorant and not even worth addressing. I'm an ex smoker, I'm not here to persecute smokers. But I understand if a landlord doesn't want their property to stink & to lose value because of smoke & nicotine stains - not to mention the sky high cost of homeowners insurance due to renting to smokers. It's not worth it! I rent a home out in Portland - NONsmokers only, because I don't want anyone to destroy my property with a careless cigarette. The Next Move Will Be to ban all outside public smoking, just as Oregon and other states have done (and now it's starting in Europe). We don't want to walk through putrid secondhand smoke anymore. "

You're Screwed Granny! wrote on Feb 16, 2008 7:12 PM:

" The title says it all. T O U G H. Quit yer whining and suck up those last few breaths in a way that doesn't offend others. If you can't, then you deserve to be hauled off to jail, written tickets or whatever. They don't want you to smoke and you have no right to. Do you understand? "

No Man's Land wrote on Feb 17, 2008 3:24 PM:

" I find non smokers mean and nasty! What is your habit people? That will be the next thing that is outlawed; remember you were warned!!! Even people that are overweight are being taunted now....just wait until they are turned away from medical care, etc.

It is the principle we are discussing here...the freedom to chose; your choice of "bad or unhealthy habits"...smarten up!

You have been warned! "

Breathing fresh air is a right too wrote on Feb 17, 2008 5:37 PM:

" Since you believe that inflicting bad habits on other people is a freedom of choice, let me explain to you how 62 percent of the voters feel. We feel that you are offensive, disrespectful of our rights, and really you are ignorant beyone belief. You try to use scare tactics to supoort your beliefs. Oh next we are coming after overweight people. First of all to show you how ignorant you are, smokers make up only 17 percent of Washington's voting population and that is shrinking by the day. What do you think the percentage of overweight voters is. I would probably say higher than 50 percent. So you see there is no logic to your argument or intelligence. The government didn't pass the current law or the next one. The voters did. So show some intelligence. Oh I forgot, you probably smoke. That answers that, now doesn't it? "

To No Man's Land wrote on Feb 17, 2008 9:39 PM:

" As pointed out by Breathing fresh air, your comments make no sense whatsoever. Obviously you are a smoker feeling violated, one who likely never graduated high school. If you had, you would understand that a person's being overweight has no immediate effect upon my health and well being, whereas your smoking may kill me. So huff in your own (not rented) home and those few other places you legally can. And while you're at it, take your whining somewhere else please... "

Rythymaxe wrote on Feb 18, 2008 7:00 AM:

" No man's land is very right. We the American people pass laws that are written to take away our freedoms. We watch 30 sec. sound bites on TV and vote accordingly rather than take the time to investigate how any initative is going to truly affect us. And Deb, yes, people do fumble cigs in their cars, but tell me, did you ever make a cell call, or apply make up, or turn to yell at your children who were fighting in the back seat? If not, I applaude you. If so, finger pointing on one fact of many doesn't become people. All the lead paint we chewed as children, and all the asbestoes we breathed that comprised nearly all structures until recently (and probably still do to a point) are going to kill us faster than a cig. But, our government will blame it on second hand smoke because it involves less people who are becoming scapegoats in our land of freedom removals. Or cars, and industry pollute far more than a tobacco product, but we can't do without them, can we? So let's pick on the smokers, there's less of them and they make such an obvious target to hide the real evils of society's pollutants. "

re No Man's Land wrote on Feb 18, 2008 1:36 PM:

" Your sniveling doesn't make sense to this reader either. You have zero right negatively affect my health and well-being. Overweight people aren't much of an issue - until they start randomly suffocating others by sitting on them in public. While that doesn't happen, you and others like you continue to indignantly grasp at any straw you can, in hopes of earning back your "right" to smoke in public. Guess what - it's not going to happen. So take those last breathes where you can and while you can, ok? "

RE: re No Man's Land wrote on Feb 19, 2008 9:33 AM:

" Please learn to spell and use proper grammar. For instance, the phrase is "take those last breaths". There is a significant difference between breathes and breaths. When you stand for a position and cannot correctly state an opinion, it appears to others that your opinion is less important. A dictionary and thesaurus may be helpful to you. (Ugh! the "guess and go" generation) "

Wrong about Smoking in NV wrote on Feb 19, 2008 9:59 AM:

" Sorry to burst your bubble- but I live in Las Vegas, NV. and am a former resident of Longview, WA. It is untrue as of last year that smoking is prohibited in Nevada- it is banned!!!!! Thank god!
Nice try come again! "

re RE: No Man's Land wrote on Feb 19, 2008 1:38 PM:

" So sorry I wuz in such a hoary that I made a cuple teensy mustakes. It's not like I even care enough about the topic to waste much time on you and other wrinkle-faced black-lunged whiners around here! "

irish eyes wrote on Feb 20, 2008 9:50 PM:

" a little background: i am an ex-smoker. my mother is an ex-smoker because it killer her. she was 62. i also rent an apartment. I fully support the buildings decision to ban smoking. my landlord doesn't allow smoking. do i complain? no because it is thier property. not mine. they are not infringing upon my rights as tennant. i know that these people are older and don't like change very much but ya know what? if you did stop smoking it would greatly increase your quality of life. you would probably want to walk outside just for the fresh air! i support washington being a smoke free state. noone has the right to kill me while i eat my dinner or go shopping. i know that one argument is that they have a right too but ya know what? your right does not outweigh my right. because you are allowed to smoke in a resturant that means that i cannot go eat in that resturant? sounds like my rights are being infringed upon more than yours. i belive that the smokers that put up a big fuss about the no smoking issue are selfish and could not imagine for one moment what it is like for the rest of us. "

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