Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Food
NYPD Still Ticketing New Yorkers For Drinking On Stoops
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 10, 2012
Modified Jul 11, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 10, 2012
Modified Jul 11, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Now that the NYPD has turned New York City into a crime-free oasis where nobody locks their doors at night or jacks up the bass on their Hyundais above a whisper, it makes sense that focus would turn to more minor violations that mar our urban utopia. Take Brooklyn law student Andrew Rausa, who was imbibing alcohol in public view on the stoop of his Boerum Hill building on the Fourth of July. Harmless celebration of America's freedom, or a broken bottle tearing at the very fabric of civilized society? Guess which one the NYPD chose!
“You’re all getting summonses for drinking in public,” Mr. Rausa recalls one of the officers announcing from the other side of the wrought-iron gate in front of the brownstone on Douglass Street in Boerum Hill. “We were all kind of stunned for a second,” Mr. Rausa said in an interview on Tuesday. “It happened over the gate. It was a very tangible physical divide — when they said the words ‘public property,’ it just didn’t make any sense.”
Aw, "sense." In an attempt to make it, Rausa looked up the actual statute on his cell phone and showed one of the officers that the law applies to areas "to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access," not a private stoop behind a gate. But the constable was not particularly interested in being educated on the law, surprising no one. "My issue is not some yuppie, I-think-I’m-above-the-law-issue, it’s the fact that I brought to the attention of the police officer that he was not in the right and he was not receptive at all," Rausa tells the Times, adorably.
He plans to fight the $25 summons in court, following in the well-lubricated footsteps of Kimber VanRy, who was busted for drinking a Sierra Nevada on his own Sterling Place stoop in the summer of 2008. The case was dismissed on a technicality, leaving the enforcement of stoop drinking to remain a legal grey area in NYC. Your best bet if you want to safely enjoy a beer outside the apartment you pay obscene sums of money for is to run for Borough President.
Tagged
boerum hill
brooklyn
drinking
nypd
public drinking
stoop drinking
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE food
10 dishes that demonstrate the delicious diversity of curry in New York City
The global dish is shapeshifting and ubiquitous.
By
Robert Sietsema
Published Sep 12, 2026
Frozen yogurt is back in New York City. So are the super long lines.
Is it worth the high price and ridiculous wait? Gothamist needed to find out.
By
Sonia Rao
Food
Frozen yogurt is back in New York City. So are the super long lines.
Is it worth the high price and ridiculous wait? Gothamist needed to find out.
By
Sonia Rao
5 NYC banana puddings as good as Magnolia's
By
Hannah Frishberg
Where to eat in Greenpoint, Brooklyn right now, from Polish to Sichuan to Iberian
By
Robert Sietsema
Can a congressional candidate's dumpling diplomacy win over Queens’ immigrant communities?
By
Caroline Shin
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .