Perth Amboy, NJ Public Conduct: Public Alcohol Use (2026)

Article II of Chapter 137, Alcoholic Beverages, is titled Consumption in Public Places and was adopted 2-18-1975 as Ord. No. 65-75. Section 137-17 was amended 5-11-2011 by Ord. No. 1558-2011 and sets the open container rule for the City of Perth Amboy, Middlesex County. It reaches two acts: consuming alcoholic beverages, and offering them to another for consumption. The places covered are any public street, road, alley, sidewalk, park or playground, plus any land owned or occupied by the City of Perth Amboy, including the Board of Education. That last phrase pulls school grounds inside the ban.

The single exception is a sidewalk cafe. A drink served and consumed within the confines of a sidewalk cafe licensed by the City of Perth Amboy and the Alcoholic Beverage Commission is outside the prohibition. A drink carried out of the cafe boundary is not.

Three neighboring sections finish the framework. Section 137-18 bars consuming or offering alcoholic beverages in any place to which the public at large is generally invited, but it protects consumption and sale within the licensed premises of a plenary retail consumption liquor license. Section 137-19 makes it an offense to be drunk or in a state of intoxication on any public street, road, alley, sidewalk, park, playground or City-owned land, or in any private house or place to the annoyance of any person.

The beach has its own stricter rule. Section 153-1(P) permits only non-alcoholic beverages in non-disposable containers on the beach and states that possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited at all times. Beach violations fall under § 153-5, a fine not to exceed $2,000 per offense, and the Police Department of the City of Perth Amboy is directed to enforce them.

Underage drinking is handled separately in § 137-16.2, which covers possession or consumption of an alcoholic beverage by an underage person on private property: $250 for a first offense and $350 for any subsequent offense, plus a court option to suspend or postpone driving privileges for six months.