Strange But True Laws In New York

• A fine of $25 can be levied for flirting. This old law specifically prohibits men from turning around on any city street and looking “at a woman in that way.” A second conviction for a crime of this magnitude calls for the violating male to be forced to wear a “pair of horse-blinders” wherever and whenever he goes outside for a stroll.
• A license must be purchased before hanging clothes on a clothesline.
• A person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in his/her pocket.
• Before the enactment of the 1978 law that made it mandatory for dog owners in New York City to clean up after their pets, approximately 40 million pounds of dog excrement were deposited on the streets every year.
• Citizens may not greet each other by “putting one’s thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers”.
• Donkeys are not allowed to sleep in bathtubs in Brooklyn, N.Y.
• In Carmel, N.Y., a man can’t go outside while wearing a jacket and pants that do not match.
• In Greene, New York, During a concert, it is illegal to eat peanuts and walk backwards on the sidewalks.
• In New York, you can teach your pet parrot to speak, but not to squawk.
• In New York City you need a permit to transport carbonated beverages.
• In New York City it is illegal for a man to give ‘The Standard Lear’ to a woman. Violators are forced to wear horse blinders.
• In New York City, it’s illegal to throw swill into the street.
• In New York City it’s illegal to shake a dust mop out a window.
• In New York State it is still illegal to shoot a rabbit from a moving trolley car.
• In Ocean City, New York It is illegal to eat in the street in residential neighborhoods, and the only beverage you can drink on the beach is water in a clear plastic bottle.
• In Ocean City New York, It is illegal for men to go topless in the center of town.
• In Staten Island, New York, It is illegal for a father to call his son a “faggot” or “queer” in an effort to curb “girlie behavior.”
• In Staten Island, New York, You may only water your lawn if the hose is held in your hand.
• In Tonawanda, New York homeless people may not start a fire in the park unless they intend to cook food.
• It is against the law to throw a ball at someone’s head for fun.
• It is illegal for a woman to be on the street wearing “body hugging clothing.”
• It is illegal to jump off the Empire State building.
• It’s illegal in New York to start any kind of public performance, show, play, game or what have you, until after 1:05 p.m.
• Jaywalking is legal, as long as it’s not diagonal. That is, you can cross the street out of the crosswalk, but you can’t cross a street diagonally.
• Members of nine New York Indian tribes are exempt from the city’s eight percent parking tax.
• New York and a handful of other states require that toilets be evenly divided among men and women in public theaters or arenas.
• You may not smoke within 100 feet of the entrance to a public building.
• Women may go topless in public, providing it is not being used as a business.
• New York City may be the theater capital of the country, but it’s illegal to have a puppet show in your window and a violation can land you in the snoozer for 30 days.
• New Yorkers cannot dissolve a marriage for irreconcilable differences, unless they both agree to it.
• Ocean City: It is illegal to eat in the street in residential neighborhoods, and the only beverage you can drink on the beach is water in a clear plastic bottle.
• Slippers are not to be worn after 10:00 P.M.
• Staten Island: You may only water your lawn if the hose is held in your hand.
• The New York City Transit Authority has ruled that women can ride the city subways topless. New York law dictates that if a man can be somewhere without a shirt, a woman gets the same right. The decision came after arrests of women testing the ordinance on the subways. A transit police spokesman said they would comply with the new rule, but “if they were violating any other rules, like sitting on a subway bench topless smoking a cigarette, then we would take action.” Smoking is not allowed in the subways.
• The New York State Senate passed a resolution to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 1955 world championship and expressed a longing that someday the Dodgers will return to “their one and only true home.”
• The penalty for jumping off a building is death.
• To cut down on its once-horrific graffiti problem, New York City several years ago made it illegal to carry an open can of spray paint.
• While riding in an elevator, one must talk to no one, and fold his hands while looking toward the door.