stoop-112108.jpg
Hey, this is a familiar story. Guy drinks beer on stoop. Guy gets ticket. And this guy goes to court. The Daily News reports that Prospect Heights resident Kimber VanRy will be in Brooklyn Criminal Court next month to contest the $25 ticket for sipping a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on the un-gated stoop of his Sterling Street condo. “VanRy said that as one of the cops played a video game on a cell phone, the other wrote him a $25 summons for drinking on the stoop &#8212 and allegedly told him not to worry because the ticket would likely be dismissed.” He pleaded not guilty to the ticket and got it reduced to $15, but it ain’t about the money. Drinking in public is illegal, as we know, but most folks don’t think a stoop fits the city’s definition of “public” as a place where “public or a substantial group of persons has access, including, but not limited to ‘a sidewalk or a street.'” Is this an issue the council should take up?
Prospect Heights Man Cited For Drinking Beer on Stoop [NY Daily News]
Photo by yadroff.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. DIBS:

    In most of Brownstone Brooklyn, the police officers would have to walk up to the stoop to observe what kind of beer someone was drinking. Could sitting on one’s stoop, sipping a beer be the kind of thing that Jane Jacobs acolytes would say adds to the vibrancy of street life? It seems that the police officers are from the Rudy Giuliani, quality of life school. In other words, what the cop says goes, even though the police officer walked up on someone’s stoop.

    Let’s deal with REAL crime.

  2. I think it depends more on neighborhood/precinct than branding.
    As to smoking, go live in one of those gated communities in the south where it’s illegal even in your own front yard. (You probably voted for McCain too & don’t really belong in Brooklyn or north of the Mason Dixon line.)

  3. if you are going to ticket me for drinking we need to change the laws and ticket people for smoking too. smoking in public places should be outlawed just like drinking in public has been.

  4. “i think the only people really getting ticketed are the foo-foo look at me on my stoop with my imported expensive beer arent i so sophisticated and too cool types anyway. you don’t see people drinking 40’s ever getting ticketed.”

    Then maybe its brand profiling?

  5. It’s about lost revenues due to the collapse of the Mutant Asset Bubble!

    Most of the Asshats was not in New York during the good ole day of the 70’s and 80’s.

    Guess why you have to sweep 18 inches into the street? Because that was a nifty trick by Mayor Beame (Boy I’m old) when NY was going thru hard times.

    May Bloomberg will see that deficit get plug up. Go in your house and drink that beer.

    The What

    Someday this war is gonna end..

  6. people drink in public ALL the time, you just have to be sly about it if you dont want ticket. put your juize in vitamin water bottles. you can paper bag it of course but that’s a red flag. put that paper bag in a plastic bag or just carry a thin newspaper in front of it. i think the only people really getting ticketed are the foo-foo look at me on my stoop with my imported expensive beer arent i so sophisticated and too cool types anyway. you don’t see people drinking 40’s ever getting ticketed.

    *Rob*

  7. “what is the difference between someone drinking on their stoop as opposed to a diner drinking outside at a sidewalk cafe?”

    I’m very much in support of the stoop drinker and am just as guilty as he is, though wine is my drink of choice. HOWEVER, the difference with restaurants is that restaurants pay HUGE fees to do outdoor dining. Its in the 10s of thousands depending on the space.

  8. i’m definitely pulling for the guy. still, i’d prefer that the test case on this issue involve a single-family home, where there’s a stronger argument that the stoop is not “public property.” a win on that issue would provide a more solid precedent for cases involving multi-family properties. but alas, you can’t always have everything you want, especially in litigation.

    schultz, the technical difference is that a sidewalk cafe that serves booze has (or should have) a commercial liquor license. but i agree that there isn’t much of a practical difference in terms of the menace of outdoor drinking (or lack thereof).

1 3 4 5