Shut the Duck UP! - Page 17 - PhillyBlog

shuttheduckup · #**161** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tenzo

What the heck does this mean?
How do you measure it?

Thanks for asking, tenzo! It means quacking when not in a residential area, and not quacking AT people in particular...

tenzo · #**162** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuttheduckup

Thanks for asking, tenzo! It means quacking when not in a residential area, and not quacking AT people in particular...

is there an area in Philadelphia that isn't residential?

What is 'at people'? Is there a distance? I mean if I point in any direction from where I sit, I'm pointing at someone. Are you trying to make this in the same classification as assault?

Seriously, I read the petition but I'm not sure how you could stop people from making noise at people? Does this require an amendment to the constitiution. I mean it is a form of communication, kinda like calling someone mean or blowing a raspberry.

So how are you not proposing "The right to free speach except in a residential area or in a way that it comes from a specific musical instrument"?

If this passes, can I have the guy with the sax arrested if he plays 'at' me? If someone honks their car horn can we arrest them?

Trying to understand what you are trying to accomplish.

shuttheduckup · #**163** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tenzo

is there an area in Philadelphia that isn't residential?

What is 'at people'? Is there a distance? I mean if I point in any direction from where I sit, I'm pointing at someone. Are you trying to make this in the same classification as assault?

Seriously, I read the petition but I'm not sure how you could stop people from making noise at people? Does this require an amendment to the constitiution. I mean it is a form of communication, kinda like calling someone mean or blowing a raspberry.

So how are you not proposing "The right to free speach except in a residential area or in a way that it comes from a specific musical instrument"?

If this passes, can I have the guy with the sax arrested if he plays 'at' me? If someone honks their car horn can we arrest them?

Trying to understand what you are trying to accomplish.

you might be trying to make a point but all i'll tell you without answering all your really clever questions is that Newbury Street in Boston is a sanctioned no-quack-zone, actually!

Look at this article:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas..._up_that_bill/

This is what i hope for!

Walt

tenzo · #**164** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 02:04 PM

yeah that worked:

Quote:

To avoid that, some tour "conducktors" instruct passengers to do silent quacks by mimicking a duck's bill with their hands. Others tell their cargo of tourists to "moo" instead.

Well I'm afraid I cant sign a petition if the person wont tell me what the petition does.

Not sure who would

But I'm not against the petition, I just don't understand the ramificaitons enough to sign it myself.

tenzo · #**165** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 02:09 PM

Ha! I just looked at your petition. Interesting people signing up

So far you have two Scrooge McDucks and a Howard the duck

shuttheduckup · #**166** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tenzo

Ha! I just looked at your petition. Interesting people signing up

So far you have two Scrooge McDucks and a Howard the duck

whatever! as long as people are signing it I don't care what name they give...

Dave26pt2 · #**167** (**permalink**) 12-06-2007, 02:52 PM

Hehehe.. Fletch even stopped by...

Mixiboi · #**168** (**permalink**) 03-25-2008, 12:52 PM

Wow....

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news..._quackery.html

Quote:

IT'S BEEN THREE years since a city law went into effect that was supposed to create civility and fairness among motorized-tour operators that troll for customers in tourist areas.
The civility part is working well. Especially outside the Independence Visitor Center, where sidewalks used to be crammed with a hodge-podge of operators passing out brochures, hawking tickets and undercutting competitors so aggressively that visitors complained.

But the fairness part?

Not so much.

Take Ride the Ducks, for example. By now, everyone knows of the amphibious-bus tour that rides visitors around the historic district, plunges them into the Delaware River for a short boat trip and leaves them quacked-out and happy.

According to the city law, motorized tours such as Ride the Ducks are permitted just one loading zone alongside the highly visible Visitor Center. The reason is twofold: to offer tourists a variety of motorized tours to choose from, and to fairly distribute the zones among motorized-tour companies competing for the same tourist dollars.

So how come Ride the Ducks uses four loading zones - and why, frankly, does it matter?

It matters because the way Ride the Ducks is operating smacks of all that's screwed up about doing business in Philly.

On paper, Ride the Ducks' parent company, Herschend Family Entertainment, owns four Philly-based duck-boat entities: Ride the Ducks, River Ducks, Penn Ducks and Philly Ducks.

Except that all four companies use the same vehicles, tickets, tour guides and personnel. Their routes, scripts and ticket costs are the same. And an Internet search of all four companies leads to the same Web site, which markets all four companies as Ride the Ducks.

The only place where the company maintains the pretense of running four separate operations is at the loading zones alongside the Visitor Center, where city-issued markers designate one zone to each company.

"We are four different companies," Ride the Ducks spokesman Steve Dutcher told me. When I asked if I could speak with the heads of the three other companies, he paused, then said, "Look, we have the city's blessing and we have worked within the guidelines of the ordinance."

In other words, Ride the Ducks is legally skirting the law's intent, which is to ensure fairness among all motorized-tour competitors that operate around lucrative visitor areas.

The result is that people like Ann Boulais, operations manager of Philly-based American Trolley Tour, are being squeezed out of the game.

She's desperate for a single loading zone in the historic area - a zone she'd have if Ride the Ducks hadn't grabbed four.

"It's not fair," says Boulais, who is stuck selling her group tours online. "If we don't have a staging area, how do we sell our tours down there?"

Sounds like our old friend ratted on them..

Towelie · #**169** (**permalink**) 03-25-2008, 01:06 PM

I like the part where Steve Dutcher says "we are 4 different companies" then when asked for the heads of the 3 other companies, he starts with "Look..."

You know when you use "Look..." Your GUILTY!!!!

What a shady company. Who are they paying off to keep those loading zones?

Mixiboi · #**170** (**permalink**) 03-27-2008, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Towelie

I like the part where Steve Dutcher says "we are 4 different companies" then when asked for the heads of the 3 other companies, he starts with "Look..."

You know when you use "Look..." Your GUILTY!!!!

What a shady company. Who are they paying off to keep those loading zones?

The city of course...The city Accommodated the Ducks because they need four places to have four tours running. Unlike the Trolleys, they can not have more then one Duck buses idling at the spot they are given outside of the Center, thus why they were given the ok to have four spots.

Not fair? Yeah. But they city did this for a reason...It was all in the Metro...

http://www.readmetro.com/show/en/Phi.../20080326/2/1/