CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Wednesday, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee decided to put a hold on discussing a proposed ordinance that could ban smoking at all city parks in Corpus Christi.
Project H.O.P.E, a local coalition, proposed the idea to the committee back in May. The coalition is a youth program within the Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation that's aimed at addressing the use and misuse of alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs in the Coastal Bend, including Nueces County.
During Wednesday's meeting, the coalition's coordinator, Johnathan Martinez, emphasized how toxic cigarettes and vaping are for the community, especially the youth of the community.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee mentioned their decision to table the discussion of the potential ordinance in hope of gathering more information and statistics surrounding other cities that have implemented this ban.
"They’re going to educate themselves a little bit by studying other cities that have passed these ordinances, Robert Dodd, City of Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation Director, "They just want to be informed and they want to know the logistics behind enforcing the law.”
But it wasn’t just Project H.O.P.E. asking for the change of rules. 14-year-old Rukmini Surnedi also shared her push to ban smoking at city parks. She created a
non-profit organization called Generation Vaping Free in hopes of educating more people about the dangers of smoking and vaping.
“As a younger kid, I loved playing in parks and I had so many fond memories of that," Surnedi said, "I don’t want younger kids in younger generations to have to deal with smoking and vaping in those parks because there’s so much toxicity with all the different chemicals.”
In April, Project H.O.P.E. coordinated a seven-park clean-up, where they collected more than 500 cigarette butts at each park —proving why they believe this matter should move forward. Although the future of the ordinance was put on pause during Wednesday’s meeting, Project H.O.P.E. says this is just another chance for them to go back and do more research to support their proposal.
“Them tabling for next month just gives us more opportunity to give us more time to collect our data," Martinez said, "Get more people who are on our side to speak why it’s important to them also and come to these meetings so we can show them the need for this no smoking in parks.”
Other cities like Houston, Dallas, and Austin have already implemented a smoking ban at their city parks.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee plans to meet next month to continue the discussion on the potential ordinance before possibly proposing a resolution to city officials.
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