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Mayor Bloomberg, you really won some votes talking about bringing back the Brooklyn trolleys, but you'd really win over the city if you allowed public drinking in parks. The NY Post reports that he recently addressed the no-drinking policy, saying, "I never understood why we don't let you drink in the park." However, he didn't show any signs that he'd be changing the policy, only saying, "We don't let you drink in the park. I mean, you go to watch the Philharmonic, you can't have a bottle of wine." In the past he has suggested that a bottle of wine while watching something akin to the Philharmonic is okay—something that was called out for being a classist sentiment. Recently Marty Markowitz was also supporting a form of drinking in public, after he was spotted with a glass of white on a stoop in Brooklyn (but he wasn't fined, like the Brooklynite drinking a beer was).
Bloomberg Talks Booze In Parks
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It's the same media that NEVER mentioned Muslims' hatred of Israel as a possible motive for 9/11.
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If you're drinking wine while having your monacle polished and top hat fluffed, well then go right ahead.
Law enforcement needs to have something called DISCRETION about who to ticket for drinking in the park. A gang of rowdy 18 year olds is very different than a couple picnicking with a bottle of wine. Allow drinking in the park, but crack down on public intoxication.
There is liability to have booze in the park. The rowdy 18 years old as well as the wine drinkers are intoxicated and may lead to more crime and accidents. A bartender/Waiter can monitored how much a person drank but not a parks dept. worker.
Marty was handing out free champagne at Prospect Park this New Year's Eve. Couldn't believe it when he handed it to me. Pounded the drink (anything to keep warm! It was dang cold that evening!), then watched some fireworks. Won my vote right there.
As much as I'd like to have a cold one in the park, it's better to just keep it banned.
quality-of-life laws are for chumps. i drink when i want where i want.
They should just make throwing up illegal. Problem solved!
I saw the opera in the park gala last summer in Prospect. Marty and Schumer were there and encouraged everyone to enjoy it with a bottle of vino, which I certainly did. I feel the current policy works just fine, where for large events and small picnics the authorities look the other way if your are not rowdy. I've never had an issue discretely enjoying some wine in Central or Prospect.
Would love to stoop drink with a cold beer - though I normally just pour it into a large coffee mug and all's fine.
I don't see public drunkenness as such a concern -- and more importantly, I'd prefer a world where we allow adults to act like adults and be responsible for themselves. There's something belittling about the idea that adult Americans are not mature enough to do something every French citizen takes for granted: have a glass of wine in the park.
Will some people be irresponsible? Sure. But here's my take on things -- there are two ways to achieve a harmonious, responsible society. One is strict laws -- in Singapore, you're harmonious and responsible, or else you're in deep shit. The other approach is societal -- to build the view that we're all in this together, and teach and learn respect for one another. Laws that remove self-determination and responsibility don't further that approach -- they impair it by teaching us that we should obey only the letter of the law, not the spirit of society. So I'm all for letting adults be adults.
I've brought a huge pitcher of sangria to a park before. A parks dept worker walked right past us, looked at the sangria, and went and told some kids whipping a frisbee around at 100 miles an hour to knock it off. Since then, I've done it at least a half-dozen times and I've never been hassled. I guess I just get lucky, or the people in charge at Thompson Square Park think the law is bullshit too.
I love how someone always finds the opportunity to trot out a "People in Europe..." anecdote. It's super cool that you spent that semester abroad, but nobody gives a fuck.
And since when has wine become the drink of choice for days in the park?? There's nothing better than a cold brew on a hot day, not a room-temp pinot!
Excuse my ignorance, but do you have a point?
Yes, yes, yes, someone mentioned Europe, so it's your chance to repeat the snide comment you heard from Dennis Miller in 1998. Congrats -- we're very proud.
But we've seriously fucked up somewhere if Europeans have more individual rights than we do. America is supposed to be about self-determination, personal freedoms, and individual responsibility. (I mean, this is the country that gave you Willie Nelson -- a man with pigtails who doesn't pay his taxes and makes his own gasoline.) You're telling me that the American people can't be trusted to have a drink in the park, but some beret-wearing Frenchman can?
Let's try being adults again...see how it feels.
Hey, it gets hot for all those bums hanging out on benches.
Drinking all over the city is easy, from the subway to the parks to the beach. The newfound popularity of the "Kleen Kanteen" makes it even easier. Everyone carries one of those around. Could be filled with cold water? could be a nice frothy brew? Could be filled with some 151 and Hi-C... no one will ever know. Think about it.
Yep!
Exactly!
But shhhhh man, you're gonna ruin it!
Streets is watching!
The biggest mistake was Giulani cracking down on the 'paper bag' law. You used to be able to drink whatever you wanted as long as it was in a paper bag, so technically the cops didn't know what it was. Yes, it was a big wink wink cat and mouse legal dodge, but it worked great. People could drink without getting paranoid and the police could concentrate on real crime.
I'm all for the drinking in public. But be warned. Britain has no laws about it in most places and it gets ugly. Really ugly, violence, serious injury.
So yes to open containers and yes to the drunk tank if you can't behave. I wouldn't want the parks turned into bars.
I think the biggest problem in the UK is that bars close at 11pm, which causes people to try to cram all their drinking into a compressed period of time.
Britain actually changed their drinking laws several years ago. Bars, pubs and clubs can now apply to stay open and serve alcohol for a couple of extra hours (until 2am-ish), or for 24 hours; depending on the extended license applied for.
Yeah, that isn't the best way to control people's drinking.
Exactly, longacre. In most European countries, drinking in public space is legal, and things are fine.
The main problem with Britons is that they become neanderthals as soon as the first sip hits their lips
ah yes, first the Bloomy bait....
Once in a while, on really hot days, I pour a beer into my Sigg water bottle and take my dog to the dog park. Dog is happy. I'm happy. Good for all.
Can we just get rid of this 18th century puritanical law already?
The problem here ultimately lies in the very US concept of liability. In most of the rest of the world, if someone gets drunk and hurts themselves, it's their own damned fault. In the US, it's the trees fault for being in the way of a drunk person.
The simple fact is, it's just an extension of nanny-state BS. Americans ( sorry Canada, middle America and all of south America not you guys ) have a natural and overwhelming drive to NOT be accountable for their own actions. We need to change that. And a lot of things will fall right into place and America will be for the better because of it.
"I never understood why we don't let you drink in the park."
Well Bloomy, it's probably because your predecessor, on whose coat-tails you rode in on, prefers to have the police waste resources on nonsense like drinking in public rather than fight real crime. It just so happens that the reduction in crime, which coincided with Giuliani's administration, has nothing to do with 'broken windows' bullshit theory but has everything to do with the economy and people having jobs.
People love alcohol only for the buzz and catering to borderline alcoholics is never a smart idea.
many runners only run for the "buzz." should parks stop catering to them too? how did you get from buzz to borderline alcoholic in a grand total of 3 words?
So much for the principle of equal protection...
Odd wine and cheese pairing in the photo...
Before the Guliani paper bag/bottle crackdown I remember a lot of women were afraid of walking around because of packs of drunk guys hanging around with paperbags in their hands. You didn't have to be detective to know what was going on. Any REASONABLE person knew what was going on and that it wasn't a positive thing.
Can you imagine a Friday and Saturday night in the ghetto if public drinking were allowed. How many people have to be shot or stabbed before it is banned again? The ghetto dwellers can't control their liquor so they ruin it for the rest of us (again.)
this article is about drinking in parks. thanks anyway for your stupid rant. do you know the website for aryan nation? i'm sure a few of the other gothamist posters could point you in the right direction.
( just google "Idaho". )
Oh I'm sorry, I meant to say:
Can you imagine a Friday and Saturday night in a PARK located in the ghetto if public drinking were allowed...
Just what we need, a bunch of drunks barfing in Bethesda Fountain and then stumbling into the lake and drowning.
Public drinking should be allowed, but public drunkenness and/or disturbing the peace (or similar) should be enforced strictly. Then, you can drink in public, but get drunk and act a fool and you're gettin' a summons.
Please...it's not about 'classism.'
A janitor drinking wine, listening to the philharmonic is less likely to cause a ruckus than a lawyer drinking a forty with his buddies.
If there was a way to allow public drinking under certain circumstances that would be a great plus...