Duluth, MN Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Duluth Legislative Code section 34-25 flatly bans urinating or defecating upon any street, alley, sidewalk, or parking area, whether publicly or privately owned, as well as any playground, pier, beach, lakeshore, pathway, golf course or public park, or areas appurtenant to those locations. The section adds a catch-all: no person may urinate or defecate in any area open to public view, so the rule reaches private property visible from the street just as it reaches city land. The ordinance traces to Ord. No. 5618 and was renumbered and amended by Ord.

No. 8451 in 1979 and Ord. No. 8468 the same year. A companion rule inside the parks chapter, section 35-8(a)(3), separately bars urinating or defecating anywhere but a proper toilet facility within any park or on publicly owned property, and DTA transit rules at section 34-7(a)(3) bar the same conduct on buses, in DTA facilities and at bus shelters, showing the city layered the same prohibition into its transit and parks codes rather than leaving section 34-25 to cover every public setting alone. Duluth Police Department enforces section 34-25 as a Chapter 34 miscellaneous offense.

Because the section sits in Chapter 34 rather than Chapter 12's administrative-penalty schedule, a citation runs through the general municipal offense process rather than an administrative ticket.