Arcadia, CA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 4240.2 sits in Part 4, Intoxication, of Chapter 2 of Article IV of the Arcadia Municipal Code. It bars any person from drinking a liquid containing more than one-half percent of alcohol by volume in or upon any public street, sidewalk, road, place, way, court, parkway, park, highway, public hall or other public place. The words "whether in any type of vehicle or not" put someone drinking in a vehicle on a public street on the same footing as someone on foot.

The test is the act of drinking in a public location and the strength of the liquid, not the type of container. The section lists parks by name beside streets and sidewalks and prints no exception for particular events or parks.

The City of Arcadia, California, rewrote the surrounding sections in 2025. The Code's editor's note records that Ord. No. 2410, adopted October 21, 2025, repealed Section 4240, which had covered prohibited intoxication in public places, and Section 4240.1, which had covered intoxication on private premises. Both now print as reserved. What remains in Part 4 is the drinking ban in Section 4240.2 and Section 4240.3, which bars a person in an intoxicated condition from entering or remaining in any public dance or club dance.

Section 4240.2 prints no penalty clause of its own, so the general penalty chapter applies. Section 1200 makes every violation of the Code a misdemeanor or an infraction at the discretion of the city attorney, and each day is a separate offense. Section 1200(c) adds that when a person under 18 is charged and a peace officer issues a notice to appear in Superior Court, the charge is an infraction unless the minor requests that a petition be filed under Section 601 or 602 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, and the court sets the fine.