"Alcohol ban?"
Ban alcohol. Legalize pot.
That is all.
(Bob's dogs:Squirrels!)
I don't think alcohol is allowed in any public park here without getting a permit from the city. I imagine that's the case in most cities.
This is the big current local controversy: "A ban on all cellphones behind the wheel, including the use of hands-free mobile devices by drivers, was passed by Chapel Hill Town Council in a 5-4 vote Monday."
3.last: whoah, that's awesome. I hope they lead the nation on that.
3.first: yeah, same here. I have no idea how it works on rivers, but nobody goes tubin' in the Charles so it would be a little different anyhow.
I swear the ban is actually about:
1. poor, brown people being scary, and
2. the parks being overused.
Not actually because of violence or conflict.
I wonder what the rules are here. I routinely see grill parties in Prospect Park with booze, and I've brought wine to drink in Central Park picnics. Plenty of cops around both places and they don't seem to care. The only times I've seen them talk about it is for public concerts.
4.1: It's the first such law in the nation to cover hands-free devices. The law establishes it as a secondary offense, such that you won't get pulled just for talking on a phone. If you do get pulled for a traffic violation and you were talking on the phone while you were committing the violation, it's an additional $25 fine.
There just is no well-organized advocacy system for keeping cheap freedoms available to poor people.
In the super-Jesusy county where I grew up, the Baptists, who are the single largest organised political force there that isn't a business, got Sunday alcohol sales banned. Everyone groaned about it for several years, until finally an ad-hoc coalition of voters got it on the ballot and struck down. Most of my friends who had never voted before or since turned out just for that.
I wasn't in town when it happened, I just heard about it in the legends they tell around the campfire, though I'd love to know the backstory on how it got organised...
6: Alcohol is prohibited in all NYC parks.
It used to be that alcohol couldn't be sold on Sundays until 1:00 pm in NC. Then we got an NFL team whose games usually start at 1:00 on Sundays, and apparently the Lord told the General Assembly that He was okay with sales starting at noon.
I am interested in seeing a law banning little dogs on your lap while you drive.
I picnic in parks with alcohol all the time; I've never had a cop object, and I've always assumed the worst that would happen is being told to stop and pour the drinks out.
Are any poor brown people for/against the ban?
No idea. I just know the composition of the people in the park.
14: 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 1.4% calcium, 1.1% phosphorus.
12: They'll write you a ticket in Chicago, unless you're drinking your booze from a plastic cup or out of a brown paper bag. I remember once ages ago sitting with helpy-chalk and CA and some others (including my puppy) in Grant Park for the symphony when a cop came by and spotted a stray uncovered beer. She asked whose it was, ticket book out, and rob said, "The dog's." She thought that was funny, and so left us alone, after making rob pour the beer in a cup.
10 puts me in mind of those infuriating billboards where god is all "Meet me at my house before the game" only in this instance, god adds "oh p.s. bring some beer" which makes it a little less grating. But then there's football and I'm out again.
"Thou hast kept the good beer until halftime."
We got Sunday alcohol a few years back, but no legal drinking in any of the parks I can think of except at large functions where the drinks are being sold by someone who's presumably sending money back to the city.
You all don't seem particularly enraged on my behalf.
I'm sorry Texas might catch up with the rest of the country regarding alcohol in public parks, heebie.
Meanwhile in Berlin, the city is half-heartedly considering banning drinking on public transport.
I'm sorry your God beat your libertarians a long time ago.
Seriously though, I suspect the alcohol-in-parks prohibitions are the sort of thing that mostly gets ignored by The Man until somebody causes a problem.
They currently patrol the Kid's Park very closely for alcohol, which is reasonable, but an annoying precedent.
Seriously though, I suspect the alcohol-in-parks prohibitions are the sort of thing that mostly gets ignored by The Man until somebody causes a problem has dark skin.
So no one is talking about this in terms of banning alcohol near or on any body of water larger than a puddle? That move would have my vote.
Why would you want to ruin my summer?
Alcohol is banned in parks here, which gives the cops a nice excuse for booting the annoying winos and alcoholics from my local park. I don't think any of the (nearly 100% nonwhite) local families throwing a birthday party or having a picnic have problems.
Alcohol use is involved in up to half of adolescent and adult deaths associated with water recreation and about one in five reported boating fatalities.
one in five reported boating fatalities.
I would have guessed that percentage to be much higher. I guess there are a lot of incompetent sailors out there.
Alcohol is banned in parks here, which gives the cops a nice excuse for booting the annoying winos and alcoholics from my local park. I don't think any of the (nearly 100% nonwhite) local families throwing a birthday party or having a picnic have problems.
It'll just take one crusading and/or racist cop to upset this happy equilibrium.
Hard to tell, but it's plausible to me that the support for the law could stem largely from the people who use the park. Here I'm not sure of the law, but if I told my students I sometimes have a glass of wine with dinner fully half of them would think I have an alcohol problem, drinking alone like that.
I would have guessed that percentage to be much higher.
If "boating fatalities" means "recreational boating fatalities", I agree..... if it potentially means "washed over the side of a trawler on the George's Bank", then I could see the one-in-five.
But haven't we reason to believe that your students have limited exposure to your alcohol-drinking folkways?
BETTER DROWNED THAN SOBER IF NOT SOBER WON'T DROWN WAIT WHAT?
I'll bet enforcement would be a very big problem with banning alcohol on a body of water. Even if a river/lake/whatever doesn't span jurisdictions - and many do, and the bigger they are the more dangerous they are - it would be particularly hard for a cop to catch someone with a drink in their hand.
I mean, I'm sure some people would love to ban alcohol on boats and by rivers the same as they've done in parks and there's a good chance of someone proposing a ban every time there's a particularly sad-sounding water accident. But beachside bans can be enforced perfectly well by the restrictions on alcohol in parks, and boat beverage bans would be laughable in most places.
Boating While Impaired is a criminal offense pretty much everywhere, isn't it?
I feel like I've been to parks where glass containers were banned but cans of beer were fine. But I can't actually think of a specific example.
Oh I know! A campsite on Chincoteague. I have no idea if that was public or private land though.
Alcohol seems to be aggressively policed in parks here, but we've still got crazy blue laws left over from when this town was a hotbed of anti-Semitism, so what're ya gonna do?
I've never heard of anyone who wasn't a wino or a rum-dum actually getting busted for public consumption around here, except for big house parties in Dinkytown where the underage drinkers spill out of the house and into the street. That's pretty predictable though.
Definitely no glass containers in the BWCAW or tubing down the Apple River.
I feel like I've been to parks where glass containers were banned but cans of beer were fine.
This is currently the case.
Most state parks are "no public consumption" - pour it in a Solo cup, and don't appear visibly drunk. I'd be fine with that.
UC Davis is technically a dry campus. The town did not ban open containers, so families might drink a bit with the prepared foods in the park on the nights when there was a farmer's market. They voted to ban it. One of the cited concerns was that allowing it would attract vagrants
A friend of mine got a citation for drinking wine in Central Park, but he's sort of stupid about dealing with police.
Too bad he wasn't in one of those rented rowboats. You should plant the seed in his head.
You should plant the seed in his head.
IYKWIM.
I was a little surprised to read that it's legal to drink on all rivers in Texas. Lubbock was a dry county when we lived there; I suspect it still is. It has some lakes, but no rivers that I know of. Still, given the dryness of the county I doubt it was legal to drink on any bodies of water, much less anywhere else (it wasn't so dry that there weren't bars, you just couldn't buy alcohol for home consumption in the county--there was a strip of drive through liquor stores on the county line; the liquor store owners were the main people whose interest it was in to keep the county dry, and of course you were allowed to drive to the liquor store, bring your drinks home, and drink there--I heard the situation was much worse in some smaller surrounding towns). Perhaps stranded in Lubbock has further information on the situation there.
You'd probably get a citation for that too.
Still, given the dryness of the county I doubt it was legal to drink on any bodies of water
As we've discussed before, navigable waters are usually under state jurisdiction and local ordinances don't necessarily apply there. From heebie's description that sounds like what's going on with these drinking laws in Texas.
53: Lubbock's no longer dry, as of May 2009. We got here that August, though, so I can't really speak to the difference before and after. Still plenty of drunks on the road, that's for sure.
Further to 31: my friends have gotten citations for having alcohol in the park. While being white and further to being white, while playing croquet.
I read this post and then, meaning to comment on it, clicked on "The Big Dry Up" in the recent comments sidebar.
Hi, 2!
Kalimotxo is a low-profile means to getting your crunk on in the park. I thought it was spelled Calimocho, but apparently it's Basque.
They currently patrol the Kid's Park very closely for alcohol, which is reasonable, but an annoying precedent.
reminds me of the joke about the instructions on some medication - "Do not consume alcohol. Keep away from children" at which my mum said that if she could manage the second, she'd have no problem with the first.
Alcohol is banned in parks here, which gives the cops a nice excuse for booting the annoying winos and alcoholics from my local park. I don't think any of the (nearly 100% nonwhite) local families throwing a birthday party or having a picnic have problems.
That's pretty much how it operates around my area. I'm not walking around soccer games and such looking for people with a beer. But looking the other way on one of the transients downing a fifth isn't wise as I'll just end up back out on him as a bunch of tax revenue goes up in smoke when he goes to jail or the hospital.
And also the joke about the instructions on a box of suppositories "Insert four inches up the rectum. Keep out of the reach of children".
||
Maybe the problem in Sanford isn't the cops.
Trayvon Martin Investigator Wanted Manslaughter Charge
The lead homicide investigator in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin recommended that neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter the night of the shooting, multiple sources told ABC News. But Sanford, Fla., Investigator Chris Serino was instructed to not press charges against Zimmerman because the state attorney's office headed by Norman Wolfinger determined there wasn't enough evidence to lead to a conviction, the sources told ABC News.
|>
Hanging out by the river sounds like a better way to spend the summer than whatever we do.
In the UK places have to be specially marked if you can't drink there. People drink on the Underground (mostly Australian visitors, giddy with the freedom, in my experience), in the parks, or just walking down the street. It now feels odd to have it any other way.
Not so much on the Underground (or the Overground, or any public transport other than the riverboats) any more. Banning it was one of Boris Johnson's first acts as Mayor.
3.2: Are they also planning to prohibit police officers and taxi drivers from talking to their dispatchers while driving? Or is it just those evil hands-free cell phones that must be banned, while two-way radio is perfectly ok?
(The larger point, aside from the one about we view newer technology differently from equivalent older stuff that we take for granted, is that the content of conversations matters a lot in how much distraction is involved. Breaking up with your girlfriend while driving is a bad idea whether you do it in person or by cell phone. Telling your wife "I'm at Henderson and Fourth, and should be home in 15 minutes" shouldn't be any more distracting than the same conversation on the part of the taxi driver talking with his/her dispatcher. )
68: it's still entirely OK on longer-distance trains, worth pointing out. And on the Friday night train from Aberdeen it's effectively compulsory (returning offshore oil workers, HULLOOOOO!)
On the other hand, on the Sunday afternoon train to Aberdeen it is generally forbidden.
Aren't there some UK towns that have US style "no open containers" rules? I seem to remember Coventry and Winchester being among them.
Also, what's the deal with this "drinking from a cup is OK but not from a bottle" thing? What's the rationale?
Two different rationales, depending on the circumstances. There's "no glass containers because of broken glass" which applies in some parks. And there's "if it's in a cup, maybe it's a soda, so the cop isn't going to hassle you if you're not making trouble. If it's a beer bottle, he doesn't have the option of overlooking it."
What's the rationale?
If you've got a glass you're either drinking at a street front cafe or you're a family on an organised picnic. If you're drinking from the bottle you can be assumed to be either under age or homeless.
You asked for the rationale...
Glasgow had a total ban on park-drinking. That was at the same time as the 'curfew', so I don't know if they've relaxed it since. People flouted it a bit, but I certainly know middle-class wine-and-picnic types who got moved on in Kelvingrove park, so the cops did enforce it.
On the other hand, on the Sunday afternoon train to Aberdeen it is generally forbidden.
No; they're not on shore for the weekend, they work two weeks on, two weeks off.
I think the rationale is "We want the park to look plausibly alcohol free to our sweet children."
So that tee-totaler parents don't have to have conversations about alcohol to their kids.
I'm routinely shocked at how much of life seems to be dictated by conversations parents don't want to have with their kids.
Or not even tee-totaler parents. Anyone who's squeamish about their kids seeing alcohol being consumed responsibly.
What's the rationale?
it looks less vulgar.
I think the rationale is "We want the park to look plausibly alcohol free to our sweet children."
Probably part of it but it's really about being able to do something about, as Halford said, annoying winos and drunks who's sole goal is to drink themselves into a stupor.
I think the no visible intoxication part of it is fine. As is no glass bottles. But requiring the beer to be poured into a Solo cup is annoying.
The irritating thing about bans like the one in 75 is that they seem to have coincided with a collective decision by the police never to arrest anyone for being drunk and disorderly or drunk and incapable (or their Scots equivalents in this case I suppose). AFAIK this is because you have to supervise them constantly in the cells in case they choke or something.
Yeah, the cup thing is stupid. Even worse are the smoking bans in parks. It's outdoors you fucking killjoys. Let people actually do something enjoyable in the park. The world's going to shit, at least let people have a smoke.
annoying winos and drunks who's sole goal is to drink themselves into a stupor.
This seems unfair because winos pay taxes too. Maybe they should get special parks for being in a stupor.
On the other hand, I love smoking bans in parks. Parks should have nice, fresh air, not smell like somebody's ashtray.
Good luck with that in Central Park. The northern half smelled of traffic fumes and the southern half smelled of faeces, last time I was there.
Next will come the gated parks in the suburbs where drinking is legal, but you must be a member of the "park community" to enter. I sympathize with your (impending) loss, HG.
I checked our city park rules:
For groups of two or more, a $200 deposit will be required for a Beer and Wine Permit. Alcohol use in Caras, Kiwanis, and McCormick Park require a $10 fee in addition to the $200 deposit. Only beer and wine are allowed in parks. No alcoholic beverages are permitted in the following parks and trails: Greenough Park, Missoula Skatepark, Westside Park, Memorial Rose Garden, Jacob's Island, Clark Fork Natural Area River Front Park System, Kim Williams Nature Trail, Gregory Park, beneath the Orange Street Bridge and the area west of the bridge, or any park that does not have public restrooms available. Alcohol permitted in other parks by permit only.
No glass beverage containers allowed in City parks. Your deposit will be refunded only if you remove your trash from the park, do not damage, and follow the alcohol policies.
No glass beverage containers allowed in City parks.
So what are you meant to carry your beer and wine in, if not bottles?
Empty and wash the hell out of all of your shampoo bottles.
Don't tell PGD you're doing that to your wine.
The northern half smelled of traffic fumes and the southern half smelled of faeces, last time I was there.
After the cigarettes, we will come for the cars and the dogs.
I love my city, but no one ever said it smelled good.
I love my _______, but no one ever said it smelled good.
Come to think, it works for my dog too.
96: Not actually true.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Love-the-Smell-of-New-York-City/266786202993
99: Just wait 'til Newt's a teenager.
At ten, his hair still smells like hay.
I will say that lacrosse gear smell is entirely less horrible than hockey pad smell.
88: that wouldn't explain the traffic fumes.
So what are you meant to carry your beer and wine in, if not bottles?
Beer in kegs, wine in oak casks.
Pace Diogenes, in your cupped hands.
Also, technically, the US Army Corps of Engineers has regulatory jurisdiction over all navigable waterways of the US.
So what are you meant to carry your beer and wine in, if not bottles?
Well, if you really want to class it up...
I will say that lacrosse gear smell is entirely less horrible than hockey pad smell.
Snob.
108: So we just need to establish for them that glass, urine, and vomit, in water, fortify concrete.
So what are you meant to carry your beer and wine in, if not bottles?
You know what really blends in a park?
112: I'd totally bring that to the park. "Pass the squirrel, mate. I'm parched."
At the wilder park this morning I says to the doggies "Fucking Turkeys can't fly, can they?" cause if those things twenty foot away aren't eagles, those are the biggest widest-wing-spanned fattest hawks I have ever seen.
Turkeys can fly. I've made them do it.
No; they're not on shore for the weekend, they work two weeks on, two weeks off.
Nah, generally the train back to Aberdeen after away games is dry; the roar of approval from the home support when they announce this half-way through the second half is one of the great joys-in-other's-sorrows things.
Clearly you're supposed to use the Beer Belly or their subsidiary product the Wine Rack.
I would totally bring one of my kegs to a park. Ideally on a small hand truck, but whatever.
I would totally bring one of my kegs to a park. Ideally on a small hand truck, but whatever.
Let's do this.
I just put a keg of what is supposedly an Irish red ale on; it will be good and ready in a couple of weeks.
In New York City, every beverage you buy from a bodega comes in a small paper bag. I don't often buy juice or soda from bodegas, but when I do, I drink it out of the paper bag to help with the camouflage.
I don't often buy juice or soda from bodegas, but when I do, I drink it out of the paper bag while reeling around shouting at passers-by to help with the camouflage.
Thanks to 119, I am now seeing tons of google ads for the Beer Belly and the Wine Rack.