by ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News

Posted on February 17, 2010 at 10:13 PM

******

SEATTLE - If you've been keeping up on what is permitted in Seattle parks, guns are okay. Spitting is also okay. Smoking? Not so fast.

Starting on April 1, you could get kicked out of a Seattle park for smoking. It's not an April fool's joke. The Seattle Parks and Recreation superintendent decided to ban smoking, despite recommendations from the Board of Park Commissioners.

Tonight, at Victor Steinbrueck Park along Seattle's waterfront, you could find a number of visitors smoking while enjoying the sunset. But come April 1, no more. Even non-smokers are surprised.

I guess the superintendent is on a power trip and does not care what the Board suggested they should do.

Last week, the Board of Park Commissioners decided against a smoking ban. But today, Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher issued a memo, stating he decided to "prohibit smoking, chewing or other tobacco use anywhere on [Seattle] Parks and Recreation property."

City Retracts Blanket Ban on Smoking in Parks
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 5:50 PM
Tim Gallagher, the superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation, announced this evening that he would retract a smoking ban that applied to all places in Seattle's 400 parks. The blanket smoking ban, which Gallagher decreed only yesterday, would have allowed police to kick out people found using any tobacco products from city parks.

Instead, Gallhager is adopting the recommendation of the Board of Park Commissioners, which advised rules to prohibit "smoking, chewing, or other tobacco use ... within 25 feet of other park patrons and in play areas, beaches, or playgrounds.”

“Based on the input from the public that followed my initial decision, I have decided that a gradual approach to a smoking ban is reasonable,” Gallagher said in a statement released by his spokeswoman.

I guess the input had something to do about keeping a job