Resting your feet on a subway seat is subject to a $50 fine in New York, just one of several measures
that aim to make the city a more civil place.
By WINNIE HU
Published: April 16, 2006
New Yorkers are known to throw things onto the field at Yankee Stadium when the Red Sox are in town. At times they boo their own mayor at parades. Some refuse to surrender their seats to pregnant women on the subway, while others cut in line and never apologize.
But somehow a city whose residents have long been scorned for their churlish behavior is now being praised for adopting rules and laws that govern personal conduct, making New York an unlikely model for legislating courtesy and decorum.
From tighter restrictions on sports fans and car alarms to a new $50 fine on subway riders who rest their feet on a seat, New York's efforts to curb everyday annoyances and foster more civility among its residents have increasingly been studied and debated far from home.
When Chicago's aldermen wanted to keep rowdy fans from descending upon Wrigley Field, they looked to New York, Which has arrested 11 people at Yankee and Shea Stadiums under a 2004 law that makes it illegal to interfere with professional sports events.
When Boston and San Francisco lawmakers considered silencing cellphones in their movie theaters and playhouses, they, too, looked to New York, which imposed a $50 fine in 2003 on callers who brazenly dial up during movies, concerts and Broadway shows. And when community groups from Toronto to Washington looked for new ways to fight graffiti, they turned to New York, which passed a law in January that makes building owners responsible, for the first time, for cleaning up after the vandals.
With its precipitous drops in crime, New York has increasingly been able to turn its attention to policing offensive behavior, from the mere faux pas to outright misconduct that puts others at risk. And that has put it on the front line of a national crackdown on incivility.
"There's no excuse for that kind of thing," said Alderman Edward M. Burke, a leader of the Chicago City Council, who has introduced a sports fan law based on New York's. "I think it's a good idea to remind the general public of what is expected of them."
Letitia Baldrige, the White House social secretary during the Kennedy years, could not agree more. Ms. Baldrige, a former New Yorker, has heard more than her share of bellyaching over other people's rudeness.
"Most people just seem to ignore common sense and common courtesy so it does have to be legislated," she said. "To have this happen in New York is going to inspire a lot of other people. I cannot applaud it enough. My hands are tired from clapping."
The city has made sputtering attempts in the past to coax civility out of its residents. During the 2004 Republican convention, it gave protesters buttons saying "peaceful political activists." But nearly 1,800 were arrested that week. The famed Gray's Papaya hot dog chain tries a similar tack, selling "Polite New Yorker" buttons for $1. About 60 are sold a week, but most go to tourists who think they are a joke, says the owner, Nicholas Gray.
"I try to do my part," said Mr. Gray, who requires his employees to wear the button on their uniform even though he does not. "I'm not always that polite. I'm just another New Yorker."
And throughout New York's history, its political leaders have sought to restore order to the chaotic streetscape and fine-tune urban life. Fiorello H. La Guardia once banned street performances involving monkeys. Decades later, Rudolph W. Giuliani's campaign against squeegee men came to embody his philosophy that fighting crime began with the smaller, quality-of-life offenses.
But sometimes, the city's attempts to enforce the laws illuminated its hard-nosed nature: Mayor Edward I. Koch's favorite parking sign warned motorists: "Don't Even THINK of Parking Here."
Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the city has increasingly focused on social policies that were once thought to be beyond the realm of government. Mr. Bloomberg was largely responsible for the city's smoking ban, overcoming opposition from the tobacco companies and their lobbyists to clear bars, restaurants and nightclubs of a potential health hazard as well as inconsiderate smokers.
The mayor also overhauled the city's noise code for the first time in three decades, taking aim at loud nightclubs, barking dogs and even that staple of summer, the Mister Softee jingle, all in the interests of keeping the neighborhood peace.
Given the successes, some New York officials are moving to take things even further. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., of Queens, got the Council to expand his sports fan law last fall to include penalties for those who throw things onto the field or spit at the players. The 11 people who have been arrested under the original law, all during Yankees and Mets games, include one man who was sentenced to nine weekends in jail, fined $2,000, and ordered to stay out of Shea Stadium for three years.
This month, Mr. Vallone, the chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee, introduced another measure that he calls a lesson in Parenting 101: Children under the age of 10 would not be allowed in movie theaters after 10 p.m., to safeguard both the welfare of the children and the enjoyment of the other moviegoers.
It is not the first time that the city has tried to teach children — and their parents — how to behave in public. Under a code of conduct mandated by the Council since 2003, parents can be ejected from Little League games for unsportsmanlike behavior and allowed to return only after taking an anger-management class.
"There's nothing that makes you want to crawl under the bleachers faster than some parent screaming at a kid — even their own kid — in an abusive manner," said Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, of Brooklyn, who sponsored that law.
The crackdowns have left others wondering if the metropolis once known as Fun City is fun no more.
"It sounds like your City Council is getting really uptight," said Aaron Peskin, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who, along with his colleagues, has nevertheless looked to New York's laws for guidance. "It all seems a little overwrought."
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has not yet raised objections to these laws. But she cautioned that lawmakers could interfere with privacy rights or impose censorship when they, say, imposed a movie curfew on young children. "Legislation to set bedtime for Bonzo, or to interfere with how late parents can keep their child out at night, is a violation of privacy," she said.
Still, many New Yorkers say that the city is becoming a more civil place. The sports fan law, for one, is praised by Paul Lo Duca and other Mets players during a pregame video shown at Shea Stadium.
In the past, rowdy fans were simply escorted out of the stadium and released, which was "akin to a traffic summons," but now that they are faced with jail time, they think twice about misbehaving, said Robert J. Kasdon, the Mets' vice president of security. "It's the most effective law of its kind," he said. "Baseball is a family event, and this law helps us maintain that atmosphere."
Not all the city's laws have been as effective. For example, the ban on cellphones in movie theaters does not appear to ever have been enforced by the police. Some Council members and movie theater managers, though, contend that just having the law is enough in most cases to persuade moviegoers to turn off their phones.
But Peter Post, the director of the Emily Post Institute, which instructs schools, businesses and government organizations on etiquette, said that law or no law, good behavior could not simply be forced on unwilling people. Instead, he suggested that New York invest in a public relations campaign that reflected the sentiments of its residents.
"I think we've reached a tipping point with rudeness," he said. "Instead of people quietly putting up with rude behavior, they're finally saying, 'I don't have to put up with that anymore.' "
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company>
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