NYC Mayor Sparks Debate on Beer and Wine

[DUreader]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2900576,00.html


The whole mess started on the Fourth of July,
when people hosting a fund-raiser on Rockaway
Beach in Brooklyn for memorials to World Trade
Center victims were rousted by police for drinking
beer.

The city's open-container law bans alcohol in
parks and beaches.

A few days later, thousands of people sipped wine
in Central and Prospect parks as they listened to
the New York Philharmonic, the nation's oldest
orchestra, during free performances followed by
fireworks. Police did not issue a single citation.

A photograph on the front page of the Daily News
the morning after the Prospect Park concert
showed Bloomberg sitting on the lawn next to
music lovers imbibing wine. One concertgoer,
according to the paper, even offered the mayor a
shot of vodka - which was politely declined.

[Romulus]

1. pit of a city

I'm sooo glad I left NYC 14 years ago and never looked back. Despite it's "liberal" facade, that is the most class-divided place I have ever experienced in the U.S. It is a right-wing-wacko's wet dream: as long as you have money, you can have all the "rights" that you want. As long as you can afford to live in Manhattan between Battery Park City and E/W 90th streets, the place is your oyster. Woe to those serfs unfortunate enough to live elsewhere on the island or in the other boroughs (as those Brooklynites found out). More racist than anyplace in the South where I've been living (TX, NC, VA).

I'm just glad people are starting to speak up.

[chasqui]

3. Sounds like the other large democratic city

Chicago has a similar set of double standards. The good neighborhoods are aggressively policed, and as a result enjoy from low crime. That alongside Mayor Daley's campaign to gentrify the city, this place is becoming a shadow of the gritty blue collar town that was the engine for labor causes worldwide. Now it is becoming something more like what this article describes about New York.
There are even rumours of people sipping wine at the bleachers in Wrigley Field.
That last sentence was a joke.

[ChrisNYC]

5. I happen to live in the blessed zone

As your describe it, and I managed to get an open container citation a year or so ago for walking up the block with a beer in my hand. (Was walking from my apartment to a friends apartment) So while I think the law is rather lame, it does get enforced in Manhattan.

[NYC]

9. Brown paper bag.

When I was a kid, the only people on the streets were "winos". Every one of them knew to drink out of a brown paper bag.

[NYC]

2. Billionaire Bloomberg did mention that people drown at the beach,

but nobody ever "drowned in a tuba" -- regarding drinking at concerts in Central Park.

[IndianaGreen]

4. To think that Al Sharpton endorsed this moron

for Mayor...

[robcon]

10. Sharpton did not endorse Bloomberg in 2001 election.

In fact he urged his followers not to vote at all, because he was mad at Mark Green's abuse of Fernando Ferrer in the primary. He has never endorsed a Repug, as far as I know.

[Bandit]

6. Remember Bloomburg ran as a Republican so is picking up their traits

The law is for other lessor people not Republicans. I hope they fry his ass for this one. I have nothing against open container laws I just object to Republican double standards. He was photographed breaking the law. He should pay.

[Maeve]

7. Shades of Oklahoma in the early '80's!

OK had the longest remnant of Prohibition, with "no liquor by-the-drink" laws (you had to buy a bottle and the barkeep would charge you to pour from you own bottle). It was widely ignored or "managed" and refered to as "liquor by the wink".
I sat in a nice OKC restaurant one day during this period and ordered a totally illegal glass of wine to go with lunch--two tables from the governor of the state!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

8. Rich people in NYC still allowed to smoke in bars

Interesting, huh? The super-fancy Park Plaza still allows their customers to smoke, while Bloomberg is busy sending cops to bust regular bars where customers are smoking.

When Giuliani was married at Gracie Mansion, public property, Bloomberg allowed the guests to smoke - a violation of the law.

Remember when Hastert (I think) was asked to put out his cigarette inside the federal building, and he said "I am the federal government"?

The hypocrisy of rich people is pretty amazing huh? Laws are just for us normal folks.