Although I was only a child at the time wood stoves were being phased out in the Tahoe basin (sometime in the mid/late 90s?), I definitely felt torn between the "rustic / cabin" feeling of the ordeal and the better air quality of having them phased out. It was never so bad in the neighborhood I was in because it was mostly rich folks who came up for xmas and maybe once in the summer, but xmas was so smokey! It was even worse in areas that have some inversion layer / valley geography to hold in the smoke down close to the ground; the valleys leading up to Squaw and Alpine could get "hotboxed" with pine-flavored smoke at times!

edit: I'd take that pine smoke over the general "Essence de Diesel" that pervades the current European city I live in!