Front yard grilling etiquette
Greetings all. I live in an apartment in Carroll Gardens — one with a deep front yard. With the weather finally turning and with no direct access to either the backyard or the roof — I’m looking for some guidance on front yard grilling etiquette. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone doing this on my…
Greetings all. I live in an apartment in Carroll Gardens — one with a deep front yard. With the weather finally turning and with no direct access to either the backyard or the roof — I’m looking for some guidance on front yard grilling etiquette. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone doing this on my block however with so much front yard space and so little grilling options I’m wondering if this is kosher. I’d be using a smallish weber charcoal grill. I’m even willing to share with neighbors to buy some good will!
why not just ask your next door neighbors if they mind?
i think as long as it’s not going on all day all night and
your respectful about it. People in CG use their front
yards for socializing plenty.
This is hilarious. With the good weather, pretty much every family in Bushwick has been living on their stoop all weekend, grilling, the kids on scooters running back and forth in front of the house, and speakers blasting music out the window. This is the New York way. People do a lot of stoop sitting in Carroll Gardens too. Check President St. near the BQE if you want to see some grilling. The six families without back yards are more likely. It’s nicer to do it in the front where it won’t go in people’s windows than in the back yard where it will anyway.
I was maybe a little snarky yesterday. A little. Basically, there’s privacy, yes, but there’s also general tidiness. But also there is no accounting for some people.
My aunt lives in a subdivision that has rules against hanging laundry in your backyard, or in your garage if you leave the door open.
My roommate in college was always fixing cars on the lawn. The neighbors were not fans of this practice at all.
I can appreciate the neighbors who hated Steve’s Cadillac dissembly, but do not understand the laundry thing at all. Aunt lives in the dessert, even. So you have to use a dryer even though your clothes will dry in seconds on the line. That is offensive to me.
zuffy: if you don’t like the guys grilling in frontyard and if the guys look like would not listen to your asking them nicely. I would go with plan (b): call 311 and report a grill which is too close to the structure. Firemen will arrive and write them a ticket. firemen proly will not even get out of the truck: it is right there next to the road.
Thanks all for your comments. As per my initial leaning we probably won’t be grilling in our front yard. However as I type on this 80+ degree day I smell charcoal from two neighboring backyards — is it annoying? Mildly. If anyone here wants to take a stab explaining the difference (real or perceived) between front and backyard laws and or etiquette regarding this issue, I’m all ears. The only difference I see is that backyard activities afford some privacy.
I don’t live in CG but live in Bensonhurst. I was pretty pissed off last year when a few houses down from us decided to grill in their front porch. Worse of all, all of us have an awning in our porch. The smoke would travel sideway instead of up. By the time I realized the morons was grilling in the front, the smell of charcoal was got into my house already. They have a backyard, I don’t understand why they didn’t grill there instead.
ando, Brklyndave specifically asked about what the “etiquette” was and we answered him — do you understand the definition of the word?. People in CG sit outside on their stoops and talk to their neighbors all the time, but they don’t grill there. We’re answering his question — if he doesn’t care about etiquette he can certainly go ahead and grill, but then why did he even bother to ask the question?
Hey Brklyndave, I say screw them all. Every person on here who says otherwise is a TOOL.
I think you got your answer. Some people think that grilling in the front yard is “Washington Heights,” which I think was meant as a synonym for “Dominican” which I think was meant as a synonym for “crass.” And yes: some of your neighbors agree. Grilling in the front yard is “not done,” this isn’t *that* kind of neighborhood.
Other people grill in their front yards and sit on their stoops and talk to their neighbors. Some people straddle these camps.
The only way to find out is to go for it.
Search these forums for some background on open container laws, though. The story seems to be that as long as there’s a fence around you, you don’t have an open container. But if your stoop is un-gated and open to the street, technically, you are drinking “in public,” which the NYPD does frown upon.
And, my final advice and neighborly request as a fellow breather of air around this town … learn to build your BBQ fire without lighter fluid. You can buy a “chimney” that will facilitate this. Newspaper and kindling below, coals on top, and you get your fire going that way. Far less damaging to air quality.