'Disaster Tourists' Flock to Lower Ninth Ward

Fox News ^ | 3/8/06 | Michael Y. Park

[conservatrice]

NEW ORLEANS — It was the epicenter of disaster, and now it’s a tourist attraction. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans is still the site of unsalvageable wrecks — homes completely unanchored from their foundations, upside-down and rusted-out pickup trucks, spray-painted symbols denoting the number of dead that rescue workers found inside. But the area is on the rise — and perhaps the best indication that it’s a much different time from August 2005 is the crowds of disaster tourists, out-of-towners in four-wheel-drive trucks and chartered buses surveying for themselves the damage they had seen on television. Disaster tourism has even become a booming business for international tour bus operator Gray Line, which charges $35 to take out-of-towners on an air-conditioned trek through and past areas that became nationally recognized landmarks on cable news months before — the Superdome, I-10, the waterlogged houses whose roofs have since been covered over with the unmistakable blue tarp of disaster-relief agencies. But not the Lower Ninth Ward, which the city has asked Gray Line to stay away from. Instead of the big red buses, it’s smaller, independent groups in rented trucks, or government officials in black convoys. Residents and newcomers alike are ambivalent about the idea of disaster tourism. “When we started seeing all the people in trucks gawking at the broken houses, and when we realized the entire population of the Ninth Ward was 100 percent tourists, that’s when I started feeling a little nauseous,” said one visitor from New York. “I mean, it made me feel weird about doing it myself, too.”

[conservatrice]

This makes me uneasy. If these people can afford to take a trip to the coast, they should be joining a group and rolling up their sleeves to help out while they are there, instead of just gawking at other people's misery. I can understand the curiosity (I certainly did some "sightseeing" while I was down there for relief work), but they should at least DO something while they are there. There's plenty of work to be done and will be for years.

[martin_fierro]

There's plenty of work to be done and will be for years.

Especially after the next hurricane hits in about 5 months.

[rightwinggoth]

Sad that the sh!tbox neighborhoods of da Lowa Nine are only worth visiting after they get obliterated.

[TexasCajun]

I say unload them and make them clean and pick up debris for a few hours to really "Feel New Orleans' Pain".

[cake_crumb]

Vicarious thrill. No compassion. No empathy anymore. Shows how low this society has sunk.

Realty TV, 25 hour cable news hype and syndicated daytime talk shows have turned rubbernecking literal or metaphorical train wrecks into our number one national past time and finished the job of public desensitization begun in the late 60's by the same people now in positions of power and authority.

[cake_crumb]

I say unload them and make them clean and pick up debris for a few hours to really "Feel New Orleans' Pain".

They feel New Orleans' pain alright. They seem to like it.

[OldFriend]

People are still flocking to the WTC site in NYC.

I see nothing wrong with this altho I myself have never gone there nor do I intend to.

Just about everyone else I know has visited the site. Many have taken pictures almost from the first moment people could get near.

Not for me, but I don't condemn others for visiting a part of history.

[finnman69]

What do you think most of the visitors at Ground Zero were doing and still do today?

NYC build observation platforms to help people see the destroyed WTC building be removed.


It's no different.

[finnman69]

Long line forms at Ground Zero platform

NEW YORK (CNN) --Thousands of people are putting in long hours to reach the new viewing platform overlooking the former World Trade Center site.

The line has snaked for blocks through lower Manhattan as people wait their turn to witness the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

"I'd say it's the most important nation-shaping event in my lifetime," said David Crosby, a New Orleans, Louisiana, pastor who waited patiently last week to see the site first-hand.

Standing just a few steps away were Dorothy and Sherman Dillard of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who also waited their turn to reach the platform at Church and Fulton streets.

"I can feel it at a distance, but I really want to feel it up close," Dorothy Dillard said.

The new platform is the first of four planned for the site, which officials said are being built to give the public a safe location to view the devastation without getting in the way of the recovery effort.

"It's just a moment in history, and I think it helps to solidify all the events here," said Tim Bosi, a telephone equipment salesman.

Mariel Fernandez, an executive assistant from Paterson, New Jersey, brought relatives from Puerto Rico to Ground Zero.

"It's like a hole. It looks like hell," said Fernandez, who wrote a memorial on the bare plywood of the viewing platform. "It looks bad."

Others who approached the site remembered friends, loved ones and colleagues killed when the planes crashed into the twin towers.

One man penned a tribute to Joseph Agnello, a firefighter with Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn Heights. His remains, along with those of Peter Vega and Lt. Robert Regan, were recovered on New Year's Day.

"It's opened old wounds," firefighter Anthony Carbone said. "You start to get to that point when time heals a little bit, but the fact of the matter is that you really want them back, you really want them out of there, you want to be able to place them in a grave and know that there's a place to rest for them."

The design and construction of the platforms were funded privately through a foundation set up by four architects. No completion date is set for the other three platforms, so the long waits may continue.

[conservatrice]

I don't think there is anything wrong with viewing the destruction, per se. In fact, I walked past the WTC site (for the first time) just a few weeks ago, but I wasn't there gawking at it when it was still a pile of rubble, getting in the way of the work that needed to be done.

There is one difference between the Coast and WTC. The WTC had plenty of volunteers to help with the cleanup. It happened 4.5 years ago, and it is a spotless site. Nothing else needs to be done until it is rebuilt. But down on the Coast, there are still stray animals wandering around in packs, garbage hanging from trees, a noxious smell in the air, and abandoned vehicles everywhere, just to name a few things. Most houses still have blue tarps on them to keep out the rain. It's still a real mess.

[CajunConservative]

Spending their money is helping those who are doing the tours be able to stay in business. Sure it would be nice if everyone would roll up their sleeves and clean up. Perhaps many will feel like doing something more but don't knock their economic assistance. They are giving a big shot in the area's economy. They need the money there to survive.

[conservatrice]

Good point.