The outdoor smoking dilemma

More than a thousand cities now ban smoking &#8212 not just indoors, but outdoors in public parks.

The City of Seattle will join that list July 1.

The City parks department approved the smoking ban Thursday night, KING 5 reports.

Deputy Parks Director Christopher Williams, who supports the ban, admits it’s not because of second-hand smoke. It’s about something deeper.

“As a public parks and recreation organization we play a huge role, a positive role, in the lives of young people and I think de-normalizing smoking is part of our mission,” he said.

So he’s recommending banning smoking as a way to protect children from negative role models. Which you’d think would be a slam dunk in Seattle because I doubt that any other city in America has as many health fanatics per-square-foot.

But the dilemma is that although Seattle is anti-smoking, it is also very anti-discrimination. And as it turns out, a lot of homeless people smoke. So in the process of protecting children from seeing smokers, there is a concern city might be sending those same children a message that it’s OK to discriminate against the homeless.

At least one city council member thinks allowing a smoking zone would be a fair compromise. The parks have off-leash area for dogs where they’re allowed to pollute at will. They allow barbeque grills &#8212 which release plumes of second-hand mesquite.

And frankly the primary offense to the nose in a public park comes not from the odd smoker. It’s coming from that building with the little man and the little woman on the door.