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Now you can be ticketed for jogging in a park too early/too late
This week, Peter Shankman learned some hard truths about exercising in city parks when he was given a summons for running in Central Park too early in the morning. As we've since learned, Shankman was hardly the first New Yorker to be punished for his devotion to maintaining his own physical health—hell, he wasn't the only NYer punished this week. Crown Heights resident Bill Bradley, 28, was arrested in Prospect Park this past Tuesday after he was caught running in the park at 6:15 p.m., just after sunset.
Bradley, who wrote up his story for Next City, told us he runs in the park 6 or 7 days a week (almost always at night), and hasn't had a problem with police before this. He was given a misdemeanor for "disobeying a park sign," then arrested after cops discovered he had a warrant for an unpaid summons for drinking on his own stoop. Except, of course, he had paid it: "The city, it appeared, had either not received or failed to cash my check. Municipal efficiency at its finest."
While Bradley's arrest was at least partially due to incompetence, he was surrounded by other men while spending the night at the 72nd Precinct in Sunset Park who were all there for various similar (and similarly minor) misdemeanor charges ("Unpaid speeding tickets, hopping a turnstile, outstanding summons"). His court-appointed lawyer explained:
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“I see these cases all the time,” Danny Ashworth, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and my court-appointed representation, told me over the phone yesterday. “It’s the ‘broken windows’ theory of law enforcement in action. The concept is, you catch 10,000 little fish in your net, you get a couple of big fish, too. Too bad for the little fish.”
Bradley was one of the first called before the judge on Wednesday; his ticket was dismissed immediately. If it seems somewhat coincidental that two people were ticketed for the same minor, usually overlooked offense this week, it probably isn't: "Most people who've gotten in touch think it's a bogus charge, and have mentioned end of the month quotas as a reason I didn't just get a warning," Shankman had theorized.
Like Shankman, 44-year-old UES resident Kyle Thomas was training for an Ironman competition in November 2012 when he was busted for the same offense in Central Park: "It was an egregious waste of the court's time and even the judge thought so," Thomas told us.
Thomas was running south on the West Side loop of the park near 72nd Street when he was stopped by cops around 4:45 a.m. that day, and given the misdemeanor. Thomas, who estimates he still bikes and runs four times a week at that hour, says he usually doesn't have any problem with the cops who monitor the park. He appeared in court to fight the ticket: "The judge was asleep, he was 100 years old. It was like a scene from Night Court," he told us. "I stood up said things like, ‘This is an egregious and surreptitious waste of the court's time and tax payers money, etc.’ I based my defense on the scene from Ghostbusters II, when they were in court. Lol but serious."
After his speech, he was asked to approach the judge: "He asked me if I knew that the park was officially closed [at that hour]. I told them, 'I didn’t know a park can close?' The judge said, “now you know” and it was dismissed."
Other people who exercise in the park regularly reached out to us after becoming incredulous upon reading Shankman's story: "I am in the park before 6 a.m. at least three times a week all year," UWS resident Jim Matison, 69, said. "I was there [Friday] morning in the cold at 5:45 for an hour...I am far from alone; hundreds of others are doing the same thing including numerous dog walkers. And the police see us all and never say a word." He told us:
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I have never been hassled by the police, but every year they get into the “ticket-the-bikers” madness. Running over pedestrians in crosswalks is bad (tickets are appropriate), but on some sections of the roads in the park bikers (good ones) are able to exceed the speed limit of 25 mph. Tickets have been issued to 27 mph speeders.
As we've previously reported, the NYPD does seem to start aggressively enforcing traffic laws in Central Park once a year or so with no warning—at least for bikers and runners, if not drivers.
Matison added that he noticed multiple large signs scattered about the park with rules listed along with a map: "The good news is that the rules indicate that the park closes at 1:00 a.m. There was no mention of the time it opened."
Thomas had one idea as to how the city could stop wasting city resources with these nonsense tickets: "The city could offer athletic passes kind of like the ones used to swim laps in Lasker Pool. That way both the city and residents are saved from this bureaucratic loop hole," he said.
Don't see the problem here, the NYPD's job is to issue summons for violations or make arrests for crimes. What the courts decide to do with those brought before their bench is neither here nor there.
Everyone thinks there are special rules just for them and wants the NYPD to use discretion when it comes to their situation.
Yes, NYC parks including Central Park "close". Signs are posted all over and or you can find it listed on various park's websites. IIRC for CP it is between 12M and 6AM or some such.
There is a very good reason why Prospect, Central and the other large parks are now closed overnight; they are too large to patrol in order to promise any sort of safety in the darkness. Back in the "bad old days" of NYC when you valued your life cheaply going into CP during the daylight hours, doing so after dark was just asking for trouble.
Everything from rape, murder, gay sex, mugging, assaults, etc... a whole catalog of crimes occurred in Central and other parks after dark. It is like walking in the woods alone after dark, something else one does not recommend.
Persons unwilling to wait for the cross town buses late at night have been given summons for being "in" CP after closing for walking along the transverses.
Now that judges have informed both persons officially they "know" the parks are closed during certain hours. Let us see if they are issued tickets again for the same offence.
Except, of course, he had paid it: "The city, it appeared, had either not received or failed to cash my check.
I call BS on him for this ^^ If you send a check to anyone and you see it hasn't been cashed within a reasonable time frame, wouldn't you look into it? Call them to find out if they received it? Why haven't they cashed it?
As for their whining? NYC parks have crystal clear hours of operation. Just because his ticket was dismissed doesn't mean he didn't do something wrong. It only means the courts didn't want to be bothered with it.
I call BS on him for this ^^ If you send a check to anyone and you see it hasn't been cashed within a reasonable time frame, wouldn't you look into it? Call them to find out if they received it? Why haven't they cashed it?
As for their whining? NYC parks have crystal clear hours of operation. Just because his ticket was dismissed doesn't mean he didn't do something wrong. It only means the courts didn't want to be bothered with it.
Everyone and their mother tries that "check was mailed" thing on credit card companies, landlords, mortgage payments, etc... and it does not work 99.9% of the time. Maybe for a credit account if you have an excellent on-time payment history, but otherwise.....
Yes, NYC parks including Central Park "close". Signs are posted all over and or you can find it listed on various park's websites. IIRC for CP it is between 12M and 6AM or some such.
Here are the hours:
New York City Parks are closed to the public daily from 1 – 5 a.m.
The Vale of Cashmere and the Park's wooded areas, including those with nature trails, close at sunset.
I don't think the sunset closing time is obvious, I think many would have assumed the whole park is at the same hours; open till 1 am.
Have been biking in Central Park (doing loops) late, say after 9PM and even then you want to take care around the northern most reaches. Have also gone during the summer at around 11PM, and was amazed at how many persons were out at that hour. Apparently serious joggers and bikers prefer later hours as the loop is less crowded with tourists, and those blasted women in groups pushing prams among other pests.
When you are out that late in CP it becomes very apparent how dark and wooded the place truly is; again especially as you go north of 86th Street. However there are regular and plentiful NYPD patrols and you find them stationed at various points around the loop/park. The later it gets they will stop you and advise it is getting on and you should consider packing it up for the night, especially for lone females.
Have seen persons living near or on Fifth or CPW nip in very late to take "Fido" for his last walk of the day. Most of the times the barely go a few feet into the part and let the dog do it's thing, then that is that.
From what one has heard there is *still* somewhat of a problem with persons seeking "nature" sex going into the park during off hours. Suppose given cramped Manhattan apartments and streets that are never deserted (makes back seat doings kind of off limits), can understand the idea.
Honestly not even the NYPD knows who or what is in the wooded areas of CP after dark. Coyotes and large rats probably are the least of anyone's worries. Cannot prove it of course but there probably are homeless or whatever camping out under cover of darkness. If you were going to find vampires or something that probably would be the place as well.
From what one has heard there is *still* somewhat of a problem with persons seeking "nature" sex going into the park during off hours.
I had a friend who did that when he was college aged. Went while it was closed. Wasn't local, though his girlfriend was (though more southern Brooklyn than Manhattan).
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Originally Posted by BugsyPal
Cannot prove it of course but there probably are homeless or whatever camping out under cover of darkness. If you were going to find vampires or something that probably would be the place as well.
I saw a racoon at 6 pm. The census says 25 people live in Central Park.
Here is another thing; after a certain time (1AM?) only one MTA bus runs each of the crosstown routes that go through the park. So if you miss that bus you might as well hail a taxi or something as it will be a long wait until the next.
Now say you are at CPW and 96th Street and only need to get to 89th and Lexington or even at Broadway and West 79th Street. If you are young and reasonably healthy you can walk through the park to reach the east or west side in the time it takes to wait for the next bus. Am sure this is why so many persons simply "risk" walking through CP late at night.
I had a friend who did that when he was college aged. Went while it was closed. Wasn't local, though his girlfriend was (though more southern Brooklyn than Manhattan).
I saw a racoon at 6 pm. The census says 25 people live in Central Park.
A few years ago asked a gay friend who lives on the UWS if *that* sort of thing (anonymous gay relations) still went on in CP (the Rambles was famous for this back in the day), and his reply was pretty much yes. Anything from married men looking for a quick hook-up to gay men just wanting to get their freak on still will hit the park. That or they meet someone around that area and just start walking. For some reason this seems more common on UWS than UES.
Now on the UES you get lots of young kids even those from those nice homes on Park, Madison, and Fifth Avenues going into CP for the same reason young persons have always gone into the woods for such things. Privacy and lack of other options. There aren't many short stay motels in that area of Manhattan, so unless they have access to a car (you should see what I see coming home very late at night, *LOL*) there is always CP.
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