Coney Island is Smoking

Coney Island is known for many things--prime among them the Cyclone and boardwalk--but it also turns out that Brooklyn's Riviera is home to more heavy smokers than another other part of the borough. Maybe, it's that fine salt water air, or just the opportunity to stroll along the boardwalk, but more than 25,000 Coney Islanders smoke more than a half-pack a day, according to the Department of Health. Put another way, 23 percent of Coney residents smoke, as opposed to 17 percent of those living in Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights.

The Brooklyn Papers' Sara Vogel, who reported the story, suggests that demographics are at work. Twenty-six percent of Coney residents live below the povery line. "Poverty and smoking often go hand in hand," Vogel writes.