I’ve never made any claims about being a legal genius but I think picnics are now illegal in Salt Lake City, UT. If not then late night picnics are for sure.
City ordinance 11.12.080: Camping and Sleeping on Public Grounds is meant to keep the homeless from sleeping in public areas. But as the ordinance is worded the city may just have banned a great number of park related summer time activities. In part it reads, “It is unlawful for any person to … place sleeping bags, bedding or any other type of … sleeping equipment on any ‘public grounds’.”
Since the ordinance does not define the term bedding and since it bans the placement and use of said items on public grounds one can only deduce that picnics that utilize blankets are illegal in Salt Lake City.
James Thalman of the Deseret News has written an article in today’s paper about the issue. His comments focus more on how the ordinance effects the homeless rather than how it effects the weekend family picnic plans. Perhaps rightly so.
This situation definitely sounds like it is going to require an illegal picnic to raise money for the homeless. Who’s in?
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