New York, NY Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Administrative Code § 10-136 does not ban panhandling outright; ordinary asking or begging in public remains legal. What it prohibits is soliciting 'in an aggressive manner,' a term the section defines in four ways: approaching, speaking to, or following a person if that conduct is intended or likely to make a reasonable person fear bodily harm, property damage, or a penal law offense, or to feel intimidated into giving money, or to suffer unreasonable inconvenience, annoyance or alarm; intentionally touching a person or an occupied vehicle without consent while soliciting; intentionally blocking or interfering with a pedestrian's or vehicle's safe passage, including forcing someone to take evasive action; or using violent or threatening gestures toward the person solicited.

The ban applies in any 'public place,' defined broadly to include streets, parking lots, transportation facilities, parks, playgrounds, and the common areas of apartment houses and hotels. Separately, subdivision b(2) bars any solicitation within ten feet of a bank or check-cashing business entrance during its business hours, or within ten feet of an ATM while it is available for customer use; where the ATM sits inside an ATM facility, the ten feet is measured from that facility's entrance. Subdivision b(3) extends the aggressive-manner ban to anyone who approaches a stopped vehicle's occupant to solicit or offer a service, except lawful tow operators and emergency repairs the driver requested.

An exemption in subdivision c covers unenclosed ATMs inside a supermarket, airport or school that operate only during the host building's regular hours. Violating any part of the section is a misdemeanor, punishable under subdivision d by up to sixteen days' imprisonment, a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, or both.