SEATTLE, Wash. — As of Monday, July 6, 2015, all Seattle parks will be smoke-free. The smoking ban in parks assists Seattle Park and Recreation's mission to provide healthful and welcoming places for all residents to enjoy.
The Seattle Board of Park Commissioners unanimously recommended to approve a parks-wide smoking ban in May. The new rule expands the existing smoking ban from within 25 feet of another park visitor to no smoking on any publically accessible park land.
The parks-wide ban is smiliar to rules in more than 1,000 other cities nationwide - including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Portland.
Enforcement of the rule will be entrusted to Park Rangers and Seattle police officers. Rangers will firt approach smokers with information on where they can legally smoke. The next level of enforcement would be a verbal warning, followed by a written warning. Seattle Parks expects a large percentage of smokers to voluntarily comply with the verbal requests or verbal warnings.
To report a non-emergency nuisance activity, the public should call the Seattle Police non-emergency line at 206-625-5011.
Smoking is allowed on public rights-of-way, including sidewalks. For more information about the smoking ban, please visit the Seattle Parks and Recreation website at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/smokingban/.
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