After a brief delay while waiting to get enough members to form a voting quorum, the New Orleans City Council Mardi Gras Legislative Advisory Committee approved proposals to prohibit parade crowds from bringing upholstered furniture, generators, enclosures, and portable toilets to the parades, as well as banning open flames.
"The Department of Sanitation relayed that parade-goers will leave hot coals on the parade route that will spark fires when they are shoveled into dump trucks during the cleanup process," said Councilmember Lesli Harris. "It presents a safety hazard for parade-goers and cleanup crews."
Abandoned furniture also poses a problem.
"Parks and Parkways struggles to maintain the neutral ground with the growing amount of upholstered furniture being brought tout on the route, and furniture then inevitably becomes sanitation's problem," said Harris. "All of these issues escalate the cost of parade cleanup."
The council also approved a ban on confetti cannons after incidents where confetti hitting power lines caused short-circuits that knocked out power for thousands of Entergy customers near the parade route.
