Is Your Stoop Private Property?
Maybe not, based on this tale of post-DNC speech imbibing on a Park Slope stoop that resulted in a $25 ticket. Here’s the tale from Park Slope Parents: My husband was IMing and having a beer last night on our stoop after Biden’s speech…NYPD roll up in a patrol car and busted him for an…
Maybe not, based on this tale of post-DNC speech imbibing on a Park Slope stoop that resulted in a $25 ticket. Here’s the tale from Park Slope Parents:
My husband was IMing and having a beer last night on our stoop after Biden’s speech…NYPD roll up in a patrol car and busted him for an open container violation for 25 bucks…he was very polite and told the NYPD he was appreciative of their presence, but asked asked about the public/private space concept, and he explained that if I was behind a fence or gate I would be ok. Since we don’t have a gate, the set-back from the sidewalk didn’t matter.
I was reading a bit about this online today…there is some opinion that the officer needs to report the actual brand of the alcohol being consumed or it won’t hold up in court. The cop actually asked him “What kind of beer are you drinking?” which I thought was odd at the time, but he didn’t write the brand on the ticket. Anyhow, the cops were polite and my husband was polite and overall just a goofy story…we’ll probably just write the check for $25 and mail it in rather than burning up a bunch of time contesting the thing.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Park Slope Row. Photo by senatorpeter6.
no one has asked the most important question of all: is it legal to poop on your own stoop?
Foolproof way to drink in public.
Use your kids sippy cup.
Just keep a copy of your property survey in your pocket, and make sure you stay off the part of your stoop, if any, that extends into the mapped street.
I’d prefer the cops pay more attention to the hypodermic needle and condom wrappers I’ve found recently in my front yard, than to the beer in my hand.
arkady: that’s not correct. your “ownership” starts wherever the property line starts. but as z and others have pointed out, that’s not the same as an exclusive right to it, or the right to do whatever you want in that space. whether part of your property can also be considered “public” in some circumstances, or whether someone else has access to it for specific purposes (public utilities, the mail delivery), or whether the government can penalize you for not maintaining it in a certain way is a matter of the individual codes and the courts’ interpretations of them. it doesn’t mean cops and other agencies don’t sometimes interpret those codes overbroadly, but you have to decide whether it’s worth it to you to fight the interpretation or not.
He got the ticket because he is a Democrat.
Just thought of something else…..the public nudity/indecency/sex question and its relevance to your stoop and your gated/fenced front yard.
Discuss.
I’d like to clarify the “public space” and “fence” issue…
1. Does it mean that I can sit on the ground level in the fenced (3′ high) garden area and drink?
2. As others have mentioned, does a chain or a rope across the front constitute a fence??? Not that I think I’d ever string a rope across the fence to have a drink.
3. Could you put up a “baby gate” that would constitute a fence…and look even more ridiculous.
I think I’ll try more often to drink on my stoop. It’d be worth the $25 to find out the answers to all of these questions…assuming the cops know!!! And’ I’d get a really cool ticket to frame next to my Hong Kong arrest report for having no ID on me.
I got one of those. It was dismissed via mail, and never had to go to court. I also didn’t have to option to NOT go to Court. There must be a lot of different kinds of open container tickets.