Overview
President-elect Obama called for a “new Declaration of Independence” when he was in Philadelphia on January 17, 2009 during his Whistle Stop Tour to Washington, D.C.,
“And yet while our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not. What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives - from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry - an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels.”[i]
THE DECLARATION OF TOURISM INDEPENDENCE
IN CONGRESS, March 12, 2009.
The Unanimous Declaration of THE CONSTITUTIONAL WALKING TOUR OF PHILADELPHIA,
When, in the course of an unprecedented economic crisis coupled with unfair, random, arbitrary and capricious actions by the National Park Service, it becomes necessary for one small business to dissolve the bonds which have had a material adverse effect on the overall visitor experience to America’s Birthplace at Independence National Historical Park (Independence Park) in Philadelphia for numerous reasons, including the National Park Service’s violations of the spirit of Independence Park’s enabling legislation[ii] and willful non-compliance with the Gateway [Independence] Visitor Center Authorization Act.[iii]
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all tour operators are created equal, that these qualified tour operators should be endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of operating a tour business on a level playing field free from the National Park Service’s random, arbitrary and capricious actions imposed under its wide and unchecked discretionary authority. It is the right of a tour operator which complements park relevance and enhances visitor experience to demand an immediate cessation of the intolerable acts of the National Park Service and the Independence Visitor Center.[iv] It is the vendor’s right, it is the entrepreneurs’ duty, to demand fair treatment including having the National Park Service authorize The Constitutional’s environmentally friendly walking tour to have accessibility and visibility to visitors, comparable to more favored vendors which receive such authorizations from the National Park Service. Such has been the patient sufferance of visitors; and such is now the necessity which constrains the vendors to alter their former systems – say goodbye to business as usual at Independence Park and the Independence Visitor Center, which has devolved into a Federally subsidized bus depot at the Visitor Center that preferences carbon emitting, for-profit motorized tours over The Constitutional’s green tours. The history of Independence Park is a history of the people protesting with a Declaration of Rights & Grievances against King George III over unfair taxation and unjust trade practices, leading to The Declaration of Independence, and the birth of the United States of America. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
The evolution of Independence Park and the increase in popularity of heritage tourism at America’s Birthplace have combined to subject the discriminated vendors - Tour Operators like The Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia - to the brink of shutting down, the evidence of which is stated below:
- For the National Park Service being willfully non-compliant with the 1999 Gateway Visitor Center Authorization, Public Law 106-131, for over nine years, by failing to execute a long-term detailed operating agreement with the Independence Visitor Center Corporation that would presumably set some formal ground rules for the equitable treatment and rights of vendors, including non-profit and for-profit entities that operate visitor and tour related services, at the Visitor Center.[v]
- For the National Park Service unfairly, arbitrarily and capriciously issuing written authorizations in the form of Commercial Use Authorizations (CUAs) and Special Use Permits to some “favored” third parties[vi] and not to other interested and qualified third parties such as The Constitutional Walking Tour which is complementary to the Park’s mission and visitor experience objectives, is appropriate for public use and enjoyment of the Park, is an environmentally friendly “green” tour, does not cause unacceptable impacts on the Park,[vii] and benefits the Independence Visitor Center (Visitor Center) and in turn the NPS financially from ticket sales for The Constitutional.
- For the National Park Service selectively enforcing rules and regulations including with existing Commercial Use Authorizations to preferred vendors who are given the CUAs.[viii]
- For the National Park Service issuing Commercial Use Authorizations to Ride the Ducks’ fictitious business entities such Philly Ducks, Penn Ducks and River Ducks to help Ride the Ducks circumvent the evident intent of City of Philadelphia’s laws.[ix]
- For the National Park Service and the Independence Visitor Center management randomly, arbitrarily and capriciously evicting The Constitutional from the Visitor Center in 2006 and 2007 with neither any notice nor cause following the Summer 2005 season when The Constitutional was the top selling tour at the Visitor Center sales desk.
- For the National Park Service enabling the Independence Visitor Center to require that The Constitutional sign a broad sweeping “gag order” masked as a confidentiality agreement as a required condition to negotiating a license agreement for a ticket booth comparable to what other motorized tour operators have licensed (the confidentiality terms were not a requirement of the other ticket booth licensees, and the non-disclosure terms would survive even if no license agreement was ever executed).
- For the National Park Service censoring The Constitutional’s popular marketing brochure called The Independent from being distributed on INHP grounds including at the Independence Visitor Center.
- For the National Park Service and the Visitor Center retaliating against The Constitutional in attempts to greater marginalize The Constitutional (The Constitutional’s historical sales from the Visitor Center declined approximately 77.0% from the 2005 summer tourist season to the 2008 summer tourist season, despite an overall growth in visitor traffic experienced in the Visitor Center, as reported by the NPS, and growth in The Constitutional’s other sales channels for its tour business).
The evolution of Independence Park and the increase in popularity of heritage tourism at America’s Birthplace have combined to subject the people - Visitors - to a lack of real consumer choice and artificially inflated prices, the evidence of which is stated below:
- For the National Park Service randomly, arbitrarily and capriciously giving preferential advantage to other non-motorized and motorized tours which have been granted special written authorizations and informal authorizations to conduct business practices that offer key competitive operational advantages.[x]
- For the National Park Service randomly, arbitrarily and capriciously preferencing tours which are not historically and/or contextually relevant to INHP, in addition to being detrimental to the visitor experience at Independence Park.
- For the National Park Service fostering a “polluted” environment that stifles innovation, limits consumer choice, and drives up tour prices – all adversely affecting the visitor experience.
- For the National Park Service fostering a polluted environment (air and noise) with motorized tour operators using various vehicles for their tours including World War II era DUKW (duck boat) amphibious vehicles, authentic London double decker buses and Victorian trolleys - These motorized vehicles provide tours on thematic vehicles having no contextual relevance to the historical interpretation of Independence National Historical Park (in the 1700s-1800s).
We, THE CONSTITUTIONAL WALKING TOUR, therefore do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people who visit America’s Birthplace and who attempt to operate a small business showcasing America’s Birthplace, solemnly publish and declare, that THE CONSTITUTIONAL will work to absolve the public from these problems by appealing to Congress and other government officials for long overdue oversight on the National Park Service. THE CONSTITUTIONAL pledges to act as the people’s most eco-friendly tour in Philadelphia from this day forward –
Where Every Day is Independence Day!™
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Exhibits:
[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/us/politics/17text-obama.html?ref=politics
[ii] “
Independence National Historical Park Act of 1948” - U.S. Code, Title 16, Chapter 1, Subchapter LI.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/16/ch1schLI.html
[iii] Public Law 106-131, December 1999,
http://www.theconstitutional.com/news/inhp/Gateway%20Visitor%20Center%20Authorization%20Act%2012-7-99.pdf
[iv] The Independence Visitor Center was built on land owned by the Federal government and administered by the National Park Service. The NPS has contracted with a private entity, Independence Visitor Center Corporation, to operate the facility, and the NPS has supported the Visitor Center with Federal appropriations of $6.4 million since 2001 that has primarily been disbursed with annual appropriations of $850,000.00. The Visitor Center is approximately 50,000 square feet in size, and is marketed as the “largest facility of its kind in the world.” The Visitor Center was designed and intended to serve as a tourism hub and the primary point of orientation and visitor services for the Park and surrounding environs. The Visitor Center is the only official on-site ticketing location for visitors to pick up tickets to Independence Hall. The Visitor Center promotes the notion that that visitors need to “Start at the Center” in order to experience the “best way to see Philly.” For details, see
http://www.theconstitutional.com/news/inhp/INHP-Payments-to-IVCC.pdf
[v] In lieu of a long term detailed operating agreement, the NPS issued a bare-bones temporary Special Use Permit to the IVCC in November 2001 and then has extended it 20 separate times “to allow additional time to finalize a formal [management] Agreement.” What is also even more curious about the repeated renewals of the Special Use Permit is that according to all of the audited financial statements of the IVCC since at least 2003, the NPS and IVCC have “substantially established a management agreement” that “calls for the NPS to make an annual payment of $850,000.00 to IVCC in exchange for the services provided by the IVCC more fully described in the agreement.” While more than $6.4 million has been spent by the Federal government to fund the IVCC’s operations since 2001, the NPS and IVCC have not executed a management agreement, and the operating agreement, which is supposedly done, is confidential and not available for public inspection.
[vi] Ride the Ducks, Philly Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), River Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), Penn Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), 76 Carriage Company, Inc. (doing business as Philadelphia Trolley Works), Philadelphia Trolley Works (including its Franklin Footsteps walking tour), Big Bus Tours (Philadelphia Trolley Works doing business as), Lights of Liberty Inc. (walking tour), Historic Philadelphia, Inc. (including its walking tours), etc.
[vii] Management Policies 2006, National Park Service, Section 10, page 144 - Commercial Visitor Services, ISBN 0-16-076874-8,
http://www.nps.gov/policy/MP2006.pdf
[viii] Ride the Ducks, Philly Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), River Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), Penn Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), 76 Carriage Company, Inc. (doing business as Philadelphia Trolley Works), Philadelphia Trolley Works (including its Franklin Footsteps walking tour), Big Bus Tours (Philadelphia Trolley Works doing business as), Lights of Liberty Inc. (walking tour), Historic Philadelphia, Inc. (including its walking tours), etc.
[ix] Section 1, Title 9, Chapter 9-400 Carriers, of The Philadelphia Code, Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions, as amended on January 24, 2006. and “When Ducks Act Like Hogs: Tour-Bus Quackery,” Ronnie Polaneczky, Philadelphia Daily News, March 25, 2009,
http://www.theconstitutional.com/news/inhp/Daily%20News%20Article%20Ride%20the%20Ducks%203-25-08.pdf
[x] Ride the Ducks, Philly Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), River Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), Penn Ducks (Ride the Ducks doing business as), 76 Carriage Company, Inc. (doing business as Philadelphia Trolley Works), Philadelphia Trolley Works (including its Franklin Footsteps walking tour), Big Bus Tours (Philadelphia Trolley Works doing business as), Lights of Liberty Inc. (walking tour), Historic Philadelphia, Inc. (including its walking tours), etc.
