Chapter 8.44 of Carmel’s municipal code covers shoes. In summary, it prohibits wearing heels higher than two inches with less than one square inch of bearing surface on public streets and sidewalks unless the wearer first obtains a permit. The permit comes from City Hall and amounts to an acknowledgment of the risk and a release of the city from liability for falls.
A Time Out writer who obtained a permit describes it as a 1960s law that is not seriously enforced. The reason usually given is the uneven sidewalks, with tree roots lifting paving, and the city’s wish to avoid lawsuits over falls.
By the code’s wording, the rule applies only to heels that are both tall and narrow, so it concerns the heel’s contact area as well as its height.