Saggy Pants Ban Up For Vote In Wildwood, New Jersey

New Jersey Town Has Its Eye On Your Trousers

Traveling to Wildwood, N.J., this summer? You might want to pull up your pants.

The mayor has gotten behind seeing a lot less behind with a proposed ban on saggy pants on the boardwalk, the Press of Atlantic City reported. That means the waistband can be no lower than three inches below the waist.

"I'm sick of hearing people complain about the disrespectful individuals who walk around with their butts hanging out," Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. told the Press.

The matter comes up for a vote on June 12 -- plenty of time to enforce the fashion mandate for most of the Jersey Shore town's tourist season.

"If you want to be a Justin Bieber, go do it somewhere else," Troiano told "Good Day New York" in the segment above. He added that police would merely ask offenders to pull up their pants at first. If visitors should choose not to comply, they'd be asked to leave the boardwalk. And if they refuse at that point, lawbreakers could face a possible $25 to $50 ticket, he said.

The potential ordinance goes beyond curbing what Troiano called "plumber's crack." Wearing protective footwear and shirts (the latter after 8 p.m.) on the boardwalk would also be enforced, the Associated Press reported.

Troiano told News 12 that he was merely trying to restore decency. "We're not prudes," he told the station. "We're not looking to make this a Victorian-era type community."

One town already has residents tugging up droopy trousers, or else. Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana recently passed an ordinance charging $50 for the first offense.

Closer to Jersey, New York state Sen. Eric Adams recently proposed a resolution for New York City schools that would prohibit saggy pants. "This is the broken window of social behavior -- when you ignore people walking the streets showing their ass," he wrote in an essay for the New York Post. In 2010, Adams launched a Brooklyn billboard campaign (see above) admonishing young men to "Raise Your Pants. Raise Your Image."

As for whether Wildwood can improve its image through a dress code, the jury was split among beach-goers interviewed by News 12.

Up or down, one woman said, "I think all peoples' pants should always fit."

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