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Talking Trash: Throwing Out the Big Apple

Urban Investigations

Let's Hang Out

In 2010, the New York State Supreme Court found that the NYPD continued to enforce loitering laws that were ruled unconstitutional back in the 1980s. Have things changed in the past 10 years? What’s loitering? Who has the right to hang out in public space? How do loitering laws impact New Yorkers?

In the winter of 2018 CUP collaborated with Teaching Artist Stephen Kwok and public high school students from Life Sciences Secondary School to investigate these questions. Students created public art interventions, surveyed community members near their school, and interviewed key stakeholders working on the issue. This booklet is a guide to what students learned about NYC’s loitering laws, how they impact communities, and how these policies and their enforcement could be transformed.