Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

Even though NY just got into it a few years ago, it's difficult for me to remember going to a restaurant and having to sit near a patron who was smoking. I think that at least there was a smoking and non-smoking section before smoking was totally eliminated.

Unfortunately, NJ and PA are not as progressive on the smoking issue, so smoking is everywhere. I went to a diner and THREE people at a table about 6 feet away were chain smoking. I had a similar experience at a local food court up the block. Absolutely disgusting. I especially despise the smoking around office buildings. MUST smokers stand immediately in front of or near the exits so that I have to pass through a cloud of smoke to get in or out of a building? At the back entrance to my job, there's a little alcove for them to smoke in. I think there should be one everywhere. Go on...smoke yourselves into oblivion and leave me out of it.
I was ecstatic when the head honcho at work sent the following email:

Simply put, the smokers in this Department will not have a place to smoke in the courtyard if they do not assume responsibility for their litter. It is dispiriting to everyone to walk to work through a gauntlet of discarded cigarette butts, many ornamenting sign holders and other fixtures surrounding the designated smoking area as if to trumpet disdain for the building we share. It would be appalling in any professional setting, but it is especially so in an agency charged with protecting the environment and cultivating an ethic of stewardship. A department, I should note, whose recent rules specifically highlight street litter as a component of polluted runoff from stormwater.

Enough's enough.