I too think arresting someone for an infraction is way overkill. If they have been flagrant violators over time, perhaps. I sure wouldn’t enforce that for a one time infraction as long as the person was reasoned and responded to my request to conform to the law without incident.
From what I’ve been reading, this is Guilliani’s “broken windows” policy being taken too far. Jaywalking, sidewalk grilling, peddling wares, etc, have all been thrown into the mix. Its gone way beyond the original scope of the law.