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Dear PoP – Alcohol in Parks?
“Dear PoP,
I don’t know how much you know about parks and recreation, but essentially, I’m helping putting together an adult Field Day event at a Park and I’m curious as to the alcohol consumption laws within public parks that have been rented for the day. The Parks and Recreations office is difficult to get in touch with, and although I eventually will consult with them, I wanted to reach out to you and see if you have had prior experience/knowledge with situations such as this. If you get a chance, hit me back and let me know if you have any insight on the situation.”
I’ve actually got a question like this quite a few times. The easy answer is that alcohol is not allowed in any DC Parks. Having said that, obviously people have snuck it in on many occasions. Sadly the nickname for the park at 11th and Monroe St, NW is the “Drunk Park”. On normal days I’d say it is not a good idea to bring alcohol into the park. However, I’m intrigued that the Park is going to be rented out. I wasn’t even aware that one could rent out a park. Even so, I’d imagine the liability would not permit drinking in the park.
Unofficially, I think there is a big difference between responsible and irresponsible drinking at a park. For example the drinking at jazz in the sculpture garden seems to be respectful and under control. If you have a bunch of people getting wasted or passing out, even if they are adults, it is not appropriate in a park or anywhere in public in my opinion.
What do you guys think – should drinking be allowed in a park if the park is rented out for an event and is for adults only?
Category: Dear PoPville, parks
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Alcohol is prohibited, but I think they should do like VA and allow you to request an alcohol permit for private affairs.
Agree. If there is a process for getting what you want, you’re less likely to do it illegally. Even if it means paying a fee to do so.
Just bring your booze and don’t be obvious about it. Half the parks in DC are filled with adults toting coolers of coors lite every weekend.
No drinking means no drinking. What’s so hard to figure out about this? If you must get a buzz on in public then rent a private space — or invite all your alcoholic friends over to your own damn house.
Settle down. Have a drink.
+
HAH! Amen.
just because you’d like to have a beer in the park while you watch your friends play volleyball on a sunny day doesn’t make you an alcoholic. Loosen up, have some fun.
I say let people apply for a permit, if that’s what’s gonna make the conservos around here happy. But banning it entirely without recourse is just way too uptight (though not at all surprising for this area). Loosen the butt plugs a couple of turns, people!
Agreed. Why is DC so uptight about alcohol anyway? Liquor stores closed on Sundays? No sales after 10 (or 11?). Please tell the Baptists or Methodists or whover is behind all this to settle down.
Clearly you’ve not visited too many places throughout the United States.
While DC’s liquor laws are more strict than other places, they are way more lax than many, many other places too….but that’s okay, we here in DC love it when newcomers move here and then complain about how everything is better everywhere else in the country. It amuses us.
This comment is nonsense. You are simultaneously accusing someone of being from somewhere other than DC and also not ever having been to places other than DC. See kids, this is what alcohol does to your brain.
happy to oblige!
just curious, though: in all the many, many places around the US that you’ve visited/lived in, you’ve never had a complaint about how things happen there? Never compared it unfavorably to DC?
I think DC is uptight, that all. The fact that other places also have sticks up their butts doesn’t change my opinion.
I’m speaking in general terms, of course. I don’t mean to offend the many cool, relaxed people in DC, many of whom are on this list.
wow. @Ann Nonomous, that response seems completely out of line. It is a valid question and one I asked this time last summer. We rented a park for an outside morning wedding and wanted to do a mimosa cocktail hour before hand. After alot of back and forth we were told it was illegal and their were no permits we could acquire to make it other wise. I’d like to think that in my case (and probably the this questioner) that we were not alcoholics with ‘alcoholic friends.’
We were trying to get a permit for a federal park. So i wish you good luck with your DC park.
Hi, today is the last day to comment on the Morgan Sea Food liquor license. If you have an opinion on this, you can email ABRA. Addresses below.
margaret.fowler@dc.gov
cynthia.simms@dc.gov
+1
So long as you put your drink in a brown paper bag, you’re fine. Or maybe that’s just for street corners.
They let kids run around with guns and ammo and form corporate-profit-and-scare-tactic-entities known as “crews”, but we can’t have a frickin’ beer. Jeeze! What a town!
you can get an alcohol permit for some areas in Rock Creek Park
If that is so, it would be from the national park service, which is a different jurisdiction.
The tiny green space at the corner of Park and 16th must have an “alcohol required” policy, since the only people I ever see in there are swigging their Odessa pints and pissing in trashcans in full view.
If you ask permission to bring alcohol, someone will tell you no and watch you like a hawk. If you just do it and act like you own the place, nobody will say a thing.
YES – drinking should be allowed if the park is rented/rentable for private events.
Ann’s vision must be clouded because clearly she missed the question… “rented out for private event.”
Just tell each of your guests to bring a brown paper bag.
Brown paper bags aren’t very eco-friendly, though. Perhaps some corner store that cares about the environment will start handing out reusable booze-concealing bags.
Free coozies for the bums!
Don’t risk it. Years ago a family friend had their family reunion at Fort Dupont park and they got busted for having alcohol on the premises. I am pretty sure they were fined and it put a damper on the actual event.
I think the park at the corner of 11th and Monroe is now know as the Lead Poisoned Drunk Park. Soon, it will be hard to tell if its the alcohol or the lead causing the irreverent remarks and random swaying of its regulars.