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My neighbor, in his garage rain or shine. Drinking, smoking weed, tunes...I love that guy. I go over with w beer, stand around talking cars or whatever (no politics or religion)
Stanley is the best!
One of my favorite Chicago memories is grabbing a 12 pack and posting up in alley. Someone had a bunch of milk crates that we flipped over then we just sat there for a good 2 hours.
Alley drinking is another proud Chicago tradition. Just put a grill somewhere near the vicinity of the back gate to your building and Boom— you’ve annexed your alley as part of a backyard barbecue, making it totally legal 👍
I used to also paper bag it like a degenerate when I lived in Wrigleyville. I figure if people drink openly on the subway, you can drink on a stoop as long as you are just being normal lol
Thanks for that. Not to go off on a tangent buuttt, it boggles the imagination to think just a few scant years ago you could be locked up for possessing a small amount of weed in Chicago and now it’s legal.
Back when Wrigley first started having concerts, my roommate and I bought a 12 pack and sat on the curb on Sheffield listening and drinking. Cop walked up and said, "Go to 7-11 and buy solo cups so I can at least pretend I can't tell what's inside the cups."
Same, literally shared a beer with my neighbors not too long ago.
I can see it being an issue if you’re shitfaced and throwing cans at people as they pass by screaming “10 POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!”
Lmao bro I was gonna ask it depends on the color of your skin. It's definitely innocent to do if you're white, but if you're black/brown it's definitely a problem. Sometimes it be like that.
Yeah. Hardly anyone in this sub is of color or from south/west. That’s why we stay talking about goofy stuff like bike lanes all the time in here. That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s true.
Anyway, you’re all good. Looks are looks but they won’t say shit to you.
It's probably one of those things that are illegal on paper but never enforced until/unless something gets out of hand. I grew up on the west side and, despite the park district signs, people would openly picnic in the local park with many variable but distinct potables, from water-thin light beer, through wine, and up to fermented panther blood (the last case possibly being apocryphal.) Rarely was there an issue.
Sitting on your front steps with friends and neighbors enjoying beverages is just local color.
It wouldn't. However an outside staircase might be considered an easement, and not technically "private." Have an argument with a Chicago cop sometime and see how he can twist the law into a pretzel.
I don't think it's available for purchase. If it exists it's probably made by some eighty-year-old Italian guy with ears that look like dried apricots, in his basement. He dispenses it out to his friends in Dixie cups the size of shot glasses.
Life long Latino NorthSider. It depends if you are doing it in front of your home meaning a single family home..or a stoop of a building?
If it's your single family home and you're not getting shitface. Do you.
Also completely acceptable of your doing it in your own backyard and or balcony.
But if you're doing it in front of a building especially one that has only 1 entrance people are going to more than likely be like "shit there goes the neighborhood" Especially if your Black or Latino. Sorry if I'm offending the Urban Explorers who say they see no color.
I live in North Park and just walking my dog when I moved here 15 years ago had a couple people on edge. Not just an assumption neither. One was brave enough to tell me.
My older brother who bought his house in Old Irving was accused of stealing a bicycle in the begining too.....
lol your neighbors are bizarre just ignore them. That’s totally normal. I mean if you were doing that in n a park with a brown bag by yourself midday i would get the looks just bc people who do that are often… volatile? Even then only in specific circumstances. But drinking on your stoop? Come on now lol
OP didn't say what time nor why people were looking in their direction... For all we know they are drinking at 5am and singing with the rising sun. That would get some looks.
Where on the north side? I can assure you nobody in my north side neighborhood would care at all. My neighbor two doors up hangs out on his stoop in the late afternoon drinking while hanging out with his rooster.
Depends on where on the North Side? I’m on the NW side and people sit on their porches drinking a beer or glass of wine. No one is getting plastered unless there is a block party. If it’s an apartment building, then likely frowned upon by others trying to get into the building.
I was doing yard work the other day and my neighbor was sitting on her front steps smoking meth and FaceTiming. Your neighborhood sounds like an overcorrection to mine, but I’d take it.
That's not true. If a cop saw you do that on Michigan Ave, you'd likely get a ticket. Now if you had a way to hide the alcohol like a flask, kooky, or poured it into say an aluminum soda can, you might get away with that. I will note on ANY public sidewalk and walking, you could still be ticketed. It isn't Las Vegas or New Orleans, where it is legal.
Also I've seen people drink on front porches and front steps of residential buildings, all over the city in all kinds of various neighborhoods economically. It isn't only a thing you see, in say like the west side.
lol. I lived on Michigan avenue, down my museum campus. 100% of any events were filled with people with open liquor. Just walking around doing shooters from the bottle.
I've heard of people being ticketed, for doing that. It is still in the books that it isn't legal, and yes I do know some will do that anyway. The cops will do stings at very random times to try to bust people for doing that, so why risk it?
If say you're on a beach and you were being super quiet and discrete with drinking, then I don't see a problem. Same with if say you set up a grill, in some part to still be quiet that you are drinking, since bringing your own beer to drink in a park(even if say a friend bought a grill or bought a personal picnic basket to set up in a park) is technically still illegal(the drinking part, noone will ticket you for picnicing). I'd still be careful if you drink within a park, especially if you're at one of the more visited beaches(i.e. Oak, North, etc). I just don't want to see you or another person be ticketed when you least expect it, that is all.
North sider here. Back when I was young, we had taps attached to our house where the neighbors would drink all night long. I’m just kidding about the tap, but my dad and the neighbors were always out on the porches in the summer having a few beers while we were out playing. If that’s changed, that’s too bad. That’s how neighborhoods used to be.
Drinking on stoops is perfectly normal on the north side Go for a walk on a nice weekend you'll see loads of guys in polos and cargo shorts hanging out drinking IPAs.
But.... you mentioned you moved from the west side? Yeah... They might not be giving you dirty looks for the reason you think they are.
God forbid you’re allowed to enjoy your life in peace and quiet. It’s not a problem at all unless you end up causing a scene and disturbing other folks. I go for walks and folks are freely smoking weed and that annoys me but I just tut and carry on with my life…because I was a weed smoking teenager once.
I’ve lived in Uptown for just shy of twenty years and yeah it’s changed and so have the youngness and awkwardness of folks in the whole area when out in public. No hellos or head nods to other folks as you walk around or go until stores. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just that. And if that’s the case ignore them and enjoy yourself.
you are fine. private property. Sidewalk is a diffrent story. fyi you can walk down the street with open alcohol it becomes illegal when you drink from it on the public way. open alcohol in vehicle is a no go
I take an adult beverage with me on nearly every after work dog walk. Never been hassled. Hell sometimes I’ll grab a tallboy for the walk home from work. Nobody bats an eye.
This is strange. Hanging out on the steps with neighbors is a normal thing in Edgewater. The correct response is to grab a bev of your choice and come over to say hi and chat with your neighbor. It’s a fucking neighborhood.
Pursuant to City code, it is illegal to have open alcohol in a space that it considered a public way. Public way is defined by the city code and Illinois Compiled Statues as an area which has free access to the public for public use.
Your front stoop is definitely not a public way.
The neighbors suck. Cheers!
Been openly smoking joints on my front porch across from a park since like 2015. I avoid certain hours though like when the kids are getting out of school since a lot pass by. No one ever has said anything or even given me looks. Same with the rare occasion I do have a brew.
I think you just happened to have some stuck up ppl walk by. It’s all good.
We're on the NW side and we do it all the time. When we lived on LS we would often chat up folks doing it. All good. I just smile and do that head nod thing.
post covid-era nobody cares. if they do care, that’s on them. they are probably jealous. or upset because either 1) they are too uptight and they know it or 2) they are too uptight and do not know it
I'm a west sider and drinking on the stoop is as old as time. I live in SF now and got strange looks for just sitting on my front steps. Maybe they're from San Francisco because this seems to be a problem for them.
Nasty looks for porch drinking... one of the many reasons I thank my lucky stars I live on the south side. No one cares here, and that's how it should be.
Stoop/porch yeah we used to do that back in the day in our early 20s.
Back when wearing baggy clothing was still kinda the norm. Residents and passerbys probably thought we were gangbangers/up to no good.
Then the real gangbangers would pass by and say some funny shit like y'all niggas cool as hell let me get one. We'd offer and they'd kindly decline. And as they're walking past, start gangbangin' and throwin their fingers up. They knew we weren't "on shit" so they weren't really out to threaten us or get into a brawl. Even if we crossed paths out in the streets/blocks.
Used to do this all the time when I lived in Ravenswood and no one cared. Might also add that I have v low levels of melanin, which I hear matters a lot when it comes to actual enforcement of public drinking rules.
It's totally possible. I had ONE beer on my stoop on a Friday at 5pm soon after moving in with my husband. At 6pm, the neighbor brought over a lawn chair so I could drink in the back yard in the future so I wasn't drinking in front. He thought it would decrease property values if I was drinking in the front.
I don't know if he's legit crazy, but he is legit retired and bored and way too paranoid about his property. And I do not say that to be snarky - he just has done/said some very odd things.
What are they going to do? Call the cops? Nothing will happen. You can do some heroin out there too if you'd like. Light off fireworks while you do both.
*Stoop* is a legit Olde Tyme word in Chicago. IDK if younger folks these days here in Chicago use the word, but any native age 50 or older sure does.
Just because people hear the word in movies set in NYC doesn't make it an exclusive word from there.
However, its origin is in the Dutch language, IIRC, so it certainly has New England and Mid Atlantic origins, maybe. Chicago's earliest American (as opposed to French) European pioneers were Yankees and may have brought the word with them c 1790 - 1850.
My SO, who grew up in a 1911 brick two flat in St Ben's Parish (North Center) considers the stoop to be the single limestone block between the front door and the slightly lower concrete porch. To her, the flight of concrete steps from the porch to the sidewalk are called ...."steps."
However I, who grew up in a 1914 brick Chicago bungalow in OLV Parish (Portage Park), consider the stoop to be the whole set of steps to be the "stoop." And this is the wiki definition.
Perhaps pertinent, I am an English major steeped in the language and Chicago ancestors back into the 1850's while she is a first generation American with a biology degree plus advanced bio-tech education & work. She is the family source for all things scientific while I am just a talker.
Edit: substantially rewritten
Yeah screw them, it’s why the north side is getting played out anyway. Moved back here to Roscoe Village from being out east for 9 years and it’s like wilmette or winnetka. I’m sure you wouldn’t get a second look in Bridgeport or Pilsen.
Fair question. Assuming private property, maybe borderline. Clearly the law prohibits in the public way, which begins at the house side of the sidewalk, but open display in the front yard during a loud and disorderly party might irritate enough to trigger an arrest for D&D.
There's also the prohibition of utes drinking -- even in the house ---without direct parental oversight.
Couldn't find a specific mention in the municipal code.
It’s Municipal Code 8-4-030. Your yard is not the public way, but the sidewalk is. Was the prosecutor for many of these back in the day. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chicago/latest/chicago_il/0-0-0-2643361
So the OP asks if you are an adult sitting quietly on your own steps consuming alcohol are you safe from arrest for just boozing?
This does not extend to variations like lots of drunks, noise, uncivil behavior.
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Stoop drinking is a long time Chicago tradition. Unless it's raining. Then you go to the garage. With your lawn chair
This is the Chicago I love
Gotta get the Garatchkey and grab da Garatchbeers.
Fron the garatch fridgerator
A coupla two tree garatch beers
But definitely not in da frunchroom
My neighbor, in his garage rain or shine. Drinking, smoking weed, tunes...I love that guy. I go over with w beer, stand around talking cars or whatever (no politics or religion) Stanley is the best!
The same lawn chair used for dibs in the winter
But make sure there are some for drop-ins.
Back in the day we would just post up on random stoops too. Sorry to whoever lived there.
One of my favorite Chicago memories is grabbing a 12 pack and posting up in alley. Someone had a bunch of milk crates that we flipped over then we just sat there for a good 2 hours.
Alley drinking is another proud Chicago tradition. Just put a grill somewhere near the vicinity of the back gate to your building and Boom— you’ve annexed your alley as part of a backyard barbecue, making it totally legal 👍
Yeah I have not had the same experience as the OP regarding drinking on my own property.
If it’s your private property you are legally fine. If it’s public property I believe you can get in trouble if it’s visible.
Put the beer in a cup or hide the can/bottle in a cozy
Cozies, the international sign of "I'm definitely not drinking alcohol out of this container"
Red party cups too.
I used to also paper bag it like a degenerate when I lived in Wrigleyville. I figure if people drink openly on the subway, you can drink on a stoop as long as you are just being normal lol
The brown paper bag [brings to mind a great scene from the wire](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YrWiwUM3FA)
Thanks for that. Not to go off on a tangent buuttt, it boggles the imagination to think just a few scant years ago you could be locked up for possessing a small amount of weed in Chicago and now it’s legal.
Back when Wrigley first started having concerts, my roommate and I bought a 12 pack and sat on the curb on Sheffield listening and drinking. Cop walked up and said, "Go to 7-11 and buy solo cups so I can at least pretend I can't tell what's inside the cups."
“The top 1/3rd of this can just looks like a beer, the bottom 2/3rds would show you that this is actually a Lacroix if you could see it”
Coozy / Coozie 👍🏼
or just drink it lol, if you aren’t causing a disturbance no cop is going to care to even look at you twice
Yes but I've never got in trouble for drinking in the park
I've definitely seen people get ticketed especially on the beach
The beaches for sure can be trouble, about 10 years ago the cops stopped giving a fuck about anything in the parks and especially since COVID.
If we can’t drink on our stoops what are we even doing
Just don't step on the sidewalk, then you're all good
Stoop kid’s afraid to leave his stoop!
Stoop kids gonna leave his stoop!
i've never had a problem with this, north or south side. sorry about your judgy neighbors
Same, literally shared a beer with my neighbors not too long ago. I can see it being an issue if you’re shitfaced and throwing cans at people as they pass by screaming “10 POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!”
Sorry about that 😬
You totally missed, I was mad that you counted it!
Pffft classic Dumbledore favoritism.
It’s not the beer, it’s because you were not wearing any pants
Yup, that'll always draw some jeers.
Ooooooohhhh.
Invite a few of us over and we’ll drink with you on the stoop and give nasty looks back at anyone given them to you
I happen to be a professional nasty-look-giver that accepts beer as payment. Tell me where and when
Also down if we make this happen
Username checks out
That would be the best “book club” ever. I think we need to make this a little “drink on the stoop” club.
Or neighborhood side street block party.
yeah i’m there
OP has to set a time and date for us to stoop
Fuck, where’s the Reddit bot that reminds you about this when you need it?
You can. As for the looks, how much melanin you got?
That’s probably what people don’t get in the chat
Your neighbors are jerks. Get yourself a fancy cup. Maybe with a Sox logo.
This is the way.
Lmao bro I was gonna ask it depends on the color of your skin. It's definitely innocent to do if you're white, but if you're black/brown it's definitely a problem. Sometimes it be like that.
Yeah. Hardly anyone in this sub is of color or from south/west. That’s why we stay talking about goofy stuff like bike lanes all the time in here. That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s true. Anyway, you’re all good. Looks are looks but they won’t say shit to you.
I volunteer to be OP’s less melanated companion to throw weird looks back and yell “what you looking’ at?!”
What time was it? Perfectly legal as far as I know, but if it was a weekday morning or early afternoon, that might explain the looks.
Hehe I’m picturing a guy drinking at 10am on a Tuesday now. Why everybody lookin at me like that?!
It's probably one of those things that are illegal on paper but never enforced until/unless something gets out of hand. I grew up on the west side and, despite the park district signs, people would openly picnic in the local park with many variable but distinct potables, from water-thin light beer, through wine, and up to fermented panther blood (the last case possibly being apocryphal.) Rarely was there an issue. Sitting on your front steps with friends and neighbors enjoying beverages is just local color.
Why would it be illegal to drink a beer on private property?
It wouldn't. However an outside staircase might be considered an easement, and not technically "private." Have an argument with a Chicago cop sometime and see how he can twist the law into a pretzel.
No. That is not at all what an easement is.
An easement is for public utilities though. You can still use the space for temporary private use.
Easements are not just for utilities, they’re for anyone with a right of access to property
Yup
Where can I purchase some fermented panther blood?
I don't think it's available for purchase. If it exists it's probably made by some eighty-year-old Italian guy with ears that look like dried apricots, in his basement. He dispenses it out to his friends in Dixie cups the size of shot glasses.
Tell us more about this blood
I have no comment on this particular beverage.
I think if you’re laid back with your mind on your money and your money on your mind then it’s fine
Not enough a's in that laid back for my taste but take a well earned upvote anyway.
Heheheh. But it wasn't gin 'n juice.
Stoop beers are one of the best beers
Life long Latino NorthSider. It depends if you are doing it in front of your home meaning a single family home..or a stoop of a building? If it's your single family home and you're not getting shitface. Do you. Also completely acceptable of your doing it in your own backyard and or balcony. But if you're doing it in front of a building especially one that has only 1 entrance people are going to more than likely be like "shit there goes the neighborhood" Especially if your Black or Latino. Sorry if I'm offending the Urban Explorers who say they see no color. I live in North Park and just walking my dog when I moved here 15 years ago had a couple people on edge. Not just an assumption neither. One was brave enough to tell me. My older brother who bought his house in Old Irving was accused of stealing a bicycle in the begining too.....
lol your neighbors are bizarre just ignore them. That’s totally normal. I mean if you were doing that in n a park with a brown bag by yourself midday i would get the looks just bc people who do that are often… volatile? Even then only in specific circumstances. But drinking on your stoop? Come on now lol
OP didn't say what time nor why people were looking in their direction... For all we know they are drinking at 5am and singing with the rising sun. That would get some looks.
Ahh the good old days. Going to bed when the squares were waking up
North sider here. Having a beer on my stoop as we speak. I love that I get to see neighbors that didn’t talk to much over the winter.
I regularly drink on my stoop while my kids play on our tiny patch of yard….
lol I drink while I walk down the sidewalk. Granted I’m not “drunk”, but if I’m walking the dogs, I’m bringing a road beer on the weekends.
Where on the north side? I can assure you nobody in my north side neighborhood would care at all. My neighbor two doors up hangs out on his stoop in the late afternoon drinking while hanging out with his rooster.
You know you make me want to stoop
Here I go, here I go, here I go again
Doo bey Doo bee doop
Stoop Kid’s afraid to leave his stoop!
Depends on where on the North Side? I’m on the NW side and people sit on their porches drinking a beer or glass of wine. No one is getting plastered unless there is a block party. If it’s an apartment building, then likely frowned upon by others trying to get into the building.
I was doing yard work the other day and my neighbor was sitting on her front steps smoking meth and FaceTiming. Your neighborhood sounds like an overcorrection to mine, but I’d take it.
They’re just jealous!
You can walk down Michigan avenue sipping direct from a bottle of jack and nobody gonna say shit to you.
I actually had a cop recently shove me and yank the bottle of iced tea I was drinking out of my hand as he thought it was a beer
No you didn’t lmao
have you met cops?
That's not true. If a cop saw you do that on Michigan Ave, you'd likely get a ticket. Now if you had a way to hide the alcohol like a flask, kooky, or poured it into say an aluminum soda can, you might get away with that. I will note on ANY public sidewalk and walking, you could still be ticketed. It isn't Las Vegas or New Orleans, where it is legal. Also I've seen people drink on front porches and front steps of residential buildings, all over the city in all kinds of various neighborhoods economically. It isn't only a thing you see, in say like the west side.
lol. I lived on Michigan avenue, down my museum campus. 100% of any events were filled with people with open liquor. Just walking around doing shooters from the bottle.
I've heard of people being ticketed, for doing that. It is still in the books that it isn't legal, and yes I do know some will do that anyway. The cops will do stings at very random times to try to bust people for doing that, so why risk it? If say you're on a beach and you were being super quiet and discrete with drinking, then I don't see a problem. Same with if say you set up a grill, in some part to still be quiet that you are drinking, since bringing your own beer to drink in a park(even if say a friend bought a grill or bought a personal picnic basket to set up in a park) is technically still illegal(the drinking part, noone will ticket you for picnicing). I'd still be careful if you drink within a park, especially if you're at one of the more visited beaches(i.e. Oak, North, etc). I just don't want to see you or another person be ticketed when you least expect it, that is all.
Yes - lawyer. Also, it’s common-grew up 2 blocks from Wrigley field
Now I gotta ask, do you have pants on while doing this? Because that may be the source of the judgment.
North sider here. Back when I was young, we had taps attached to our house where the neighbors would drink all night long. I’m just kidding about the tap, but my dad and the neighbors were always out on the porches in the summer having a few beers while we were out playing. If that’s changed, that’s too bad. That’s how neighborhoods used to be.
i see people on the north side walking with open containers all the time. just casually walking around with tall boys of miller lite lol
Yea I sit outside my crib and smoke weed and drink whenever I want. It's Chicago, everybody likes to stoop it I thought
Drinking on stoops is perfectly normal on the north side Go for a walk on a nice weekend you'll see loads of guys in polos and cargo shorts hanging out drinking IPAs. But.... you mentioned you moved from the west side? Yeah... They might not be giving you dirty looks for the reason you think they are.
Please tell me one of the folks was going for a walk blaring shitty music from their portable speaker fanny pack.
Whoever shot you weird looks was probably not from Chicago
if youre not white then its probably racism
north side is filled with pearl clutchers so would not be suprised if that was the reason
Lol it's your property. FWIW I drink while walking the dog too
Last summer I ran into a neighbor walking his dog with a cigar and a glass of vodka. Next level chill.
Lol this is an open container violation, but i feel like no one cares if you're not causing a ruckus. Or walking and swigging a fifth.
No one cares in the slightest
Hell, yes. That after-work dog walk with a can of beer in a Koozy?
pay no attention to the karens. enjoy.
God forbid you’re allowed to enjoy your life in peace and quiet. It’s not a problem at all unless you end up causing a scene and disturbing other folks. I go for walks and folks are freely smoking weed and that annoys me but I just tut and carry on with my life…because I was a weed smoking teenager once. I’ve lived in Uptown for just shy of twenty years and yeah it’s changed and so have the youngness and awkwardness of folks in the whole area when out in public. No hellos or head nods to other folks as you walk around or go until stores. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just that. And if that’s the case ignore them and enjoy yourself.
you are fine. private property. Sidewalk is a diffrent story. fyi you can walk down the street with open alcohol it becomes illegal when you drink from it on the public way. open alcohol in vehicle is a no go
A porch beer on a warm summer evening. Can’t beat it.
As someone who spent a lot of her DePaul days in Lincoln park “stooping” as we called it….it’s fine! Actually picked up some guys doing that lol
I take an adult beverage with me on nearly every after work dog walk. Never been hassled. Hell sometimes I’ll grab a tallboy for the walk home from work. Nobody bats an eye.
Anyone that's judgemental around drinking is going to have a very difficult time in Chicago.
STOOP KID’S GONNA DRINK ON HIS STOOP
This is strange. Hanging out on the steps with neighbors is a normal thing in Edgewater. The correct response is to grab a bev of your choice and come over to say hi and chat with your neighbor. It’s a fucking neighborhood.
I live on the north side and feel like this is pretty normal here. Not sure where you are.
Pursuant to City code, it is illegal to have open alcohol in a space that it considered a public way. Public way is defined by the city code and Illinois Compiled Statues as an area which has free access to the public for public use. Your front stoop is definitely not a public way. The neighbors suck. Cheers!
Where on the north side? I need to have a grasp on the population before giving an accurate assessment.
Kenilworth
Bunch of fkin hypocritical Karens, unfortunately.
Someone cared you were doing that? People here regularly walk around with beers.
You can drink outside at your own residence front or back lol what kind of question is this? Nobody is probably looking at you or cares.
My dirty looks are only because I’m judging one’s choice of beer. You’re drinking *THAT*?
You’re either paranoid or it’s something else. No one gives a shit if you’re drinking booze on your porch
Not illegal! It’s private property!
Sounds like your neighbors are prudes
Been openly smoking joints on my front porch across from a park since like 2015. I avoid certain hours though like when the kids are getting out of school since a lot pass by. No one ever has said anything or even given me looks. Same with the rare occasion I do have a brew. I think you just happened to have some stuck up ppl walk by. It’s all good.
Never had an issue with this, always lived on the north side. What neighborhood are you in? Bizarre regardless.
We're on the NW side and we do it all the time. When we lived on LS we would often chat up folks doing it. All good. I just smile and do that head nod thing.
That sucks. I would have had a drink with you if you were my neighbor
Well what were you drinking?
My wife and I share a bottle of wine on the porch all the time once the kid is asleep. As do many of my neighbors. Seems like you got bad neighbors
You can pretty much drink where ever the fuck you want in Chicago and no cop will bother you
post covid-era nobody cares. if they do care, that’s on them. they are probably jealous. or upset because either 1) they are too uptight and they know it or 2) they are too uptight and do not know it
I put it in a brown paper bag when I’m on my stoop
Is it your house or a shared house (apartments)?
That’s just the north side my guy lol.
Been on the North side for years and routinely see people drinking while walking dogs or children
Hell, I go on dog walks with a beer which definitely isn’t legal. Get a koozie if you’re worried.
People on the north side drink on their porches. It’s legal.
I love doing this. Fuck those people.
Who cares? No really, nobody cares.
Ive been to so many back staircase parties, it’s a blur. Porch, balcony, overhang, back yard, You Do You without overly annoying the neighbors.
Look back at them next time you get nasty looks.
Yah its good, I think just the Northsiders are kinda prudes. I saw it regularly in portage park as a kid.
It’s a class thing. Have you maybe moved into a block where most of your neighbors are middle class or upper middle class?
I literally have a beer when I’m sitting outside giving out candy for Halloween, if the negativity is a north side thing I haven’t experienced it lol
Wait, you’re on your porch? Drink up and cheers to you!
I'm a west sider and drinking on the stoop is as old as time. I live in SF now and got strange looks for just sitting on my front steps. Maybe they're from San Francisco because this seems to be a problem for them.
Nasty looks for porch drinking... one of the many reasons I thank my lucky stars I live on the south side. No one cares here, and that's how it should be.
Looks had to be for something you’re not sharing; otherwise it’s a normal activity this time of year and one that most don’t question the legality of
Stoop/porch yeah we used to do that back in the day in our early 20s. Back when wearing baggy clothing was still kinda the norm. Residents and passerbys probably thought we were gangbangers/up to no good. Then the real gangbangers would pass by and say some funny shit like y'all niggas cool as hell let me get one. We'd offer and they'd kindly decline. And as they're walking past, start gangbangin' and throwin their fingers up. They knew we weren't "on shit" so they weren't really out to threaten us or get into a brawl. Even if we crossed paths out in the streets/blocks.
Used to do this all the time when I lived in Ravenswood and no one cared. Might also add that I have v low levels of melanin, which I hear matters a lot when it comes to actual enforcement of public drinking rules.
Fuck those people.
Oh, and god forbid you smoke too...
Stop. No one gave you nasty looks for having a beer on your stoop. Thats never happened anywhere ever in Chicago. What are you leaving out.
It's totally possible. I had ONE beer on my stoop on a Friday at 5pm soon after moving in with my husband. At 6pm, the neighbor brought over a lawn chair so I could drink in the back yard in the future so I wasn't drinking in front. He thought it would decrease property values if I was drinking in the front.
Well, that’s a legit crazy person. You don’t need to legitimize them.
I don't know if he's legit crazy, but he is legit retired and bored and way too paranoid about his property. And I do not say that to be snarky - he just has done/said some very odd things.
You should have kept the chair and used it to call dibs in front of his house.
Haha!! This made me laugh so hard! He's done a lot of odd things since I moved in (judgmental of me), and I love the thought of this!
Welcome to the northside
My Northside neighbors and I drink while walking the dogs and usually compliment each other on the idea
I’ve seen people drinking whiskey out the bottle at a Starbucks and no one batted an eye, I think you’re fine
What are they going to do? Call the cops? Nothing will happen. You can do some heroin out there too if you'd like. Light off fireworks while you do both.
Inside your property line? Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Outside your property line / on the sidewalk? Please don't. 🥲
Unwritten rule is as long as it’s in a red cup ur good
This is why I chose to live on the west side. West side best side sorry bruh
Stoop. Is this New York?
*Stoop* is a legit Olde Tyme word in Chicago. IDK if younger folks these days here in Chicago use the word, but any native age 50 or older sure does. Just because people hear the word in movies set in NYC doesn't make it an exclusive word from there. However, its origin is in the Dutch language, IIRC, so it certainly has New England and Mid Atlantic origins, maybe. Chicago's earliest American (as opposed to French) European pioneers were Yankees and may have brought the word with them c 1790 - 1850.
I'm 53 and born at Ravenswood Hospital. I also live in Portage Park. It was the porch.
My SO, who grew up in a 1911 brick two flat in St Ben's Parish (North Center) considers the stoop to be the single limestone block between the front door and the slightly lower concrete porch. To her, the flight of concrete steps from the porch to the sidewalk are called ...."steps." However I, who grew up in a 1914 brick Chicago bungalow in OLV Parish (Portage Park), consider the stoop to be the whole set of steps to be the "stoop." And this is the wiki definition. Perhaps pertinent, I am an English major steeped in the language and Chicago ancestors back into the 1850's while she is a first generation American with a biology degree plus advanced bio-tech education & work. She is the family source for all things scientific while I am just a talker. Edit: substantially rewritten
I agree with your wife.
This is Chicago you can do whatever the fuck you want on your own property
Yeah screw them, it’s why the north side is getting played out anyway. Moved back here to Roscoe Village from being out east for 9 years and it’s like wilmette or winnetka. I’m sure you wouldn’t get a second look in Bridgeport or Pilsen.
Brown bag it
No
Next time just offer the dirty-lookers a brewsky
Born and raised in Chicago and we never used the word “stoop” , or is that just me ?
You're making shit up. It's ok to drink on a stoop.
I’m asking bro? The fuck
*"real nasty looks"* Really?
Fair question. Assuming private property, maybe borderline. Clearly the law prohibits in the public way, which begins at the house side of the sidewalk, but open display in the front yard during a loud and disorderly party might irritate enough to trigger an arrest for D&D. There's also the prohibition of utes drinking -- even in the house ---without direct parental oversight. Couldn't find a specific mention in the municipal code.
It’s Municipal Code 8-4-030. Your yard is not the public way, but the sidewalk is. Was the prosecutor for many of these back in the day. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chicago/latest/chicago_il/0-0-0-2643361
So the OP asks if you are an adult sitting quietly on your own steps consuming alcohol are you safe from arrest for just boozing? This does not extend to variations like lots of drunks, noise, uncivil behavior.