Unusual Laws
Though often mistakenly thought of as an urban myth, the municipal code bans wearing shoes having heels more than 2 inches in height or with a base of less than one square inch unless the wearer has obtained a permit for them. While the local police do not cite those in violation of the ordinance, this seemingly peculiar law was authored by the city attorney in the 1920s to defend the city from lawsuits resulting from wearers of high-heeled shoes tripping over irregular pavement distorted by tree roots. Permits are available without charge at City Hall.
Another unusual law, prohibiting selling and eating ice cream on public streets, was a focus point of Clint Eastwood's campaign for mayor in 1986. He, and the new council elected along with him, overturned the ordinance and other similar laws that they considered to be too restrictive of businesses.
Read more about this topic: Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Famous quotes containing the words unusual and/or laws:
“The probability of learning something unusual from a newspaper is far greater than that of experiencing it; in other words, it is in the realm of the abstract that the more important things happen in these times, and it is the unimportant that happens in real life.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“We are told to maintain constitutions because they are constitutions, and what is laid down in those constitutions?... Certain great fundamental ideas of right are common to the world, and ... all laws of man’s making which trample on these ideas, are null and void—wrong to obey, right to disobey. The Constitution of the United States recognizes human slavery; and makes the souls of men articles of purchase and of sale.”
—Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (1842–1932)