Carmel, California requires a permit to wear high heels within city limits

[y_p_w]

The city ordinance is still on the books. Surprised Clint Eastwood didn’t work to have it rescinded while he was mayor or on the city council. Permits are free though, and quite a few tourists stop by to get one as a souvenir.

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https://carmelbythesea.org/can-you-wear-heels-in-carmel-by-the-sea/​

Do Police Enforce The Law Banning High Heels In Carmel?​

The municipal code makes it a crime to wear some shoes while walking in Carmel, but the police do not enforce the law banning high heels. The permit is easy to get and there is no charge to get one.​

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You Can Get A Free Permit At City Hall​

If your heels are banned in Carmel and require a permit, you can get one for free at the Carmel-by-the-Sea City Hall. It’s on Monte Verde Street, between Ocean Avenue and 7th Avenue.​

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Many Monterey Peninsula tourists and visitors get a permit. Not because they want to wear heels over 2 inches high, but because they like the idea of a free souvenir from their visit to Carmel.​

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The permit is a nice, official looking certificate with your name on it, and it’s even signed by one of Carmel’s city clerks on duty. It will be a nice conversation starter at your next party or family get-together when you get back home.​

 

[benjamming]

Are the permit numbers sequential?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

In my home town there was an ordinance which said only horses or horse and carriage were allowed on Main St.

 

[ecotourist]

In Saskatoon at least as late as the 1970s there was an ordinance against galloping your horses on the old iron bridge.

 

[y_p_w]

In my home town there was an ordinance which said only horses or horse and carriage were allowed on Main St.

I read about this permit requirement in an article that also mentioned a town where there used to be a law on the books that cowboy boots could only be worn by people who owned at least two head of cattle.

 

[benjamming]

I read about this permit requirement in an article that also mentioned a town where there used to be a law on the books that cowboy boots could only be worn by people who owned at least two head of cattle.

Posers not allowed!

 

[ripcord]

All boot and no cattle

 

[walterjay]

Is this a joke?

 

[y_p_w]

Is this a joke?

It's absolutely real. City ordinance was enacted in 1963.

https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/CarmelbytheSea/html/Carmel08/Carmel0844.html​

Chapter 8.44​

Sections:​

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8.44.010 Purpose.​

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8.44.020 Permit Required.​

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8.44.030 Permit Conditions – City Nonliability.​

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8.44.010​

It is recognized that much of the charm and appeal of the City to residents and visitors alike is due to its urban forest character, featuring the maintenance of Monterey pine, oak and other native trees or shrubs throughout the City. The City has determined to maintain this character which benefits both the residents, by giving them quiet, semiforested neighborhoods in which to live, and the business community, whose prosperity is so closely linked to the attractiveness of the City to visitors. The maintenance of an urban forest throughout the City necessarily involves some informality in the lighting, location and surfacing of street and sidewalk areas, which in turn involves greater risk to those wearing high heeled shoes more adaptable to formal city life. (Ord. 87 C.S. § 1, 1963; Code 1975 § 639.1).​

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8.44.020​

The wearing of shoes with heels which measure more than two inches in height and less than one square inch of bearing surface upon the public streets and sidewalks of the City is prohibited, without the wearer’s first obtaining a permit for the wearing of such shoes. (Ord. 87 C.S. § 1, 1963; Code 1975 § 639.2).​

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8.44.030​

Any person desiring to wear shoes with heels in excess of the limitations set out in CMC 8.44.020 may do so by obtaining a permit from the City Clerk acknowledging that the permittee is familiar with the provisions of CMC 8.44.010 and by agreeing that upon the issuance of such permit s/he thereby relieves the City from any and all liability for damages to her/himself or to others caused by her/his falling upon the public streets or sidewalks of the City while wearing such shoes. (Ord. 87 C.S. § 1, 1963; Code 1975 § 639.3).​

 

[goblin]

This is amazing and should be enforced everywhere. Note that this is for heels higher than 2 inches. Those should require training and an operator license anyway.

 

[methusaleh]

This is amazing and should be enforced everywhere. Note that this is for heels higher than 2 inches. Those should require training and an operator license anyway.

That’s probably true!

I would never have an opinion on such an odd topic if I didn’t have experience.

I was raised in an upper class environment, outstanding private schools, etc. Much as we hated it at the time, almost everyone was forced by their parents to take etiquette classes. For my brother and I, it lasted roughly 2 years, probably around fifth grade. Some kids’ parents made them take far more classes than that.

Evidently some of the girls’ classes included lessons on walking in heels in various situations. I dated a girl who was not short in my opinion, she was roughly 5’4”, but she felt extremely insecure about her height. She was absolutely gorgeous looking, but that didn’t matter. She could never get over the fact that she was the shortest person in her family if only by an inch. I believe she was teased about it constantly by her cousins. So she compensated by wearing shoes with heels so high it was sometimes comical. I have to give her credit that she could wear them and keep her balance in absolutely any situation or weather. Never before and never since in my life have I ever seen someone wear shoes neither that tall nor in everyday life.

She told me her etiquette classes included the girls placing ceramic plate plates on their heads and learning to walk increasingly fast and in different situations wearing heels. If a girl broke more than one plate in a week, there are some sort of punishment. I asked my mother about this and she said it was done to some extent when she was young.

 

[97prizm]

In my home town there was an ordinance which said only horses or horse and carriage were allowed on Main St.

According to my cousin. Kentucky still has a law on the books banning putting an icecream cone in your back pocket. Apparently horses liked icecream cones and people used this to steal horses when it was peoples primary form of transportation

 

[D60]

Residents of these areas should be upset their tax dollars go toward anything like this, even if it's just the cost of printing (useless) permits.

 

[PandaBear]

Residents of these areas should be upset their tax dollars go toward anything like this, even if it's just the cost of printing (useless) permits.

It's a tourist attraction and revenue generator now.

 

[fat biker]

If I recall, and am too lazy to search..
From IIRC Gold Rush times, in California, it is against the law to sleep in the kitchen.