Judge's Complaints Prompt City Council To Move 'Ride The Ducks' Loading Zone
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - "Ride the Ducks" are back in business in Philadelphia this summer, but they're loading passengers at a different location because of complaints from a federal judge. Council members signed off on the move Thursday.
"Ride the Ducks" operators used to load and unload their passengers on Sixth Street at the Visitor Center, across the street from the federal courthouse. But at least one federal judge complained, citing security threats to the courthouse.
A city council committee reluctantly approved moving the duck loading zone, though committee chairman Frank DiCicco openly mocked those security concerns.
"That means that they would take the explosives from a tractor-trailer, remove those explosives, put them in a Duck Boat, drive the Duck Boat up to blow up the court house," he said. "You're laughing and so am I."
So the Ducks have waddled further down Sixth Street and will load passengers between Ranstead and Chestnut, a site that DiCicco notes is much closer to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.
Reported by Mike Dunn, KYW Newsradio
