NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Mardi Gras parade-goers will still be able to use ladders as they reach out to catch beads and other trinkets tossed from floats - but those ladders will have to be six feet from the curb.
That’s one of the new restrictions the New Orleans City Council approved Thursday in hopes of making Carnival season a little safer. Other restrictions in an ordinance given final approval prohibit barbecue grills and tents in places where they could block public rights of way. And there is a ban on privately owned portable toilets from public grounds.
Chaining ladders together will be forbidden. And the use of tiny explosive noisemakers, marketed under different names but often called “Snap’n’Pops,” is outlawed - in part because they startle horses ridden by mounted police officers.
Roping off public spaces to reserve parade-watching ground would also be outlawed under the ordinance.
The new ordinance was the result of months of work involving council members, Carnival krewe organizers and city officials. It passed unanimously, but not without complaints from a few speakers who addressed the council.
One resident, Edward Deshotel, spoke in defense of allowing people placing private portable toilets on the public parade grounds, saying the public facilities quickly become unsanitary as crowds grow.
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