Medford, MA Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Section 74-1 of the Revised Ordinances splits Medford's open-container rule into two clauses. Subsection (a) bars any person, while in or upon a park, playground, public building or ground in the city, from consuming or possessing 'in an open or partially consumed container' any alcoholic beverage, using the state-law definition of alcoholic beverage found at M.G.L.A. c. 138, § 1. Subsection (b) is broader and simpler: no person may consume alcohol at all on any public way or way to which the public has access in the city, with no open-container qualifier, meaning even a closed bottle being actively consumed on a Medford sidewalk or street falls within the ban.

The ordinance traces back to the 1974 Revised Ordinances and was amended twice in the 1970s (Ord. No. 356 in 1975 and Ord. No. 391 in 1979), giving Medford Police a long-standing basis to clear open drinking from Medford Square, the riverside paths along the Mystic River, and access points near the Middlesex Fells inside city limits. Because § 74-1 sits in Chapter 74's general provisions rather than under a section with its own stated penalty, an officer citing this section relies on the citywide general penalty in § 1-13, a fine of up to $300.00 for each offense, with continued violation on subsequent days treated as separate offenses.