Duluth, MN Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Duluth's loitering rule lives inside Chapter 26, Harbors, Docks and Bridges, not in the citywide offenses chapter. Section 26-49 states the prohibition in a single sentence: no person or vehicle shall loiter upon the bridge or either of the approaches thereto, referring back to the Aerial Lift Bridge that the article's earlier sections describe and regulate. The rule dates to Ordinance No. 4716, adopted April 23, 1930, the same ordinance that built out the bridge's entire operating code: raising the span in an emergency (Section 26-42), sounding warning blasts before the span lifts (Section 26-50), requiring vehicles to stop at least ten feet from the bridge gates (Section 26-52), and barring anyone from remaining on the span once it is elevated or about to be elevated except by special permit from the chief bridge tender (Section 26-53).

Read together with those neighboring sections, the loitering ban functions as a public-safety measure for the bridge crossing rather than a general anti-loitering law for city sidewalks or parks; Duluth's code does not carry a separate loitering ordinance covering other public places. A related provision in the same article, Section 26-58, more broadly bars interfering with, obstructing, disrupting or delaying the safe operation of the Aerial Lift Bridge, reinforcing the same underlying concern about pedestrian and vehicle safety around the lift span.