A pro-smokers group is fighting for the right to light up in Manhattan’s five-mile Hudson River Park, according to a new lawsuit.
Audrey Silk, of NYC Citizens Against Smoker Harassment, filed the suit against the Hudson River Park Trust, a quasi-state agency headed by Mike Bloomberg’s longtime gal pal Diana Taylor, days after the aggressive anti-cigarette mayor left office.
“I found that to be suspicious, as if he had a private plant on the board to advance his agenda,” Silk said of Taylor’s position as the president of the trust’s board.
The Manhattan Supreme Court filing Tuesday comes on the heels of an October 2013 ruling by an upstate judge overturning a ban on smoking in state parks.
Silk’s attorney, Edward Paltzik, said the 550-acre riverfront green space’s April 2013 rule banning smoking is unconstitutional because the trust needs state legislative approval.
A Hudson Park spokesman said, “The trust does not comment on pending litigation.”
Bloomberg nixed puffing in city parks, beaches and plazas in February 2011.