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New tour takes visitors into LA's ganglands
Tourists looking for a thrill in Los Angeles can now take a bus tour of the city's most dangerous ganglands. For $65, LA Gang Tours takes visitors around the city, pointing out gang graffiti and stopping at sights like the Los Angeles Riverbed, Florence Avenue, and the Pico Union Graffiti Lab. It seems tourists are always drawn to places with a dangerous auras and violent pasts, places that are the complete opposite of our comfortable lives at home. The question is, do we go to these places, places like the slums of Mumbai, the townships of Johannesburg or the streets of South Central LA, because we want to understand what life is like for the people there, or do we go to gawk or just so we can say "I've been there"? And do these tours actually help the communities that are put on display, or do they make them a spectacle?
LA Gang Tours was created by Alfred Lomas, a former gang member, who says the tour will create 10 part-time jobs for ex-gang members who will lead tours and share their own stories. He says his goal is to help residents of South Central,"to give profits from the tours back to these areas for economic growth and development, provide job/entrepreneur training, micro-financing opportunities and to specialize in educating people from around the world about the Los Angeles inner city lifestyle, gang involvement and solutions."
I'd actually be curious to take the tour, which is scheduled to run once per month. It sounds like, in this case, the tour may be run in a way that takes a more anthropological, rather than exploitative, look at the community. The tour bus is unmarked, and out of respect for area residents, riders on the tour are not permitted to take photos or video.
While in Cape Town, I had the opportunity to tour Robben Island, the prison where political "criminals" were held during apartheid. When the tour guide, himself a former prisoner, was asked why he would do this - lead tours and relive the pain of his imprisonment every day - for a living, he responded with two reasons. One, he said, was because he wanted people to know what happened. The second was that every boatload of tourists that came to the island meant one more person who would have a job.
Perhaps it's naive to think that welcoming a bus-full of tourists once a month could help solve the many problems of the area. But if offering the tours keeps one more ex-gang member employed running tours and out of gang life, well, at least it's a start.
[via Chicago Tribune]
While in Cape Town, I had the opportunity to tour Robben Island, the prison where political "criminals" were held during apartheid. When the tour guide, himself a former prisoner, was asked why he would do this - lead tours and relive the pain of his imprisonment every day - for a living, he responded with two reasons. One, he said, was because he wanted people to know what happened. The second was that every boatload of tourists that came to the island meant one more person who would have a job.
Perhaps it's naive to think that welcoming a bus-full of tourists once a month could help solve the many problems of the area. But if offering the tours keeps one more ex-gang member employed running tours and out of gang life, well, at least it's a start.
[via Chicago Tribune]
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Filed under: Learning, North America, United States
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
gobluespartyon Jan 29th 2010 2:51PM
I wouldn't take this tour I would be scared to death. I will just watch gangland on History Channle. I agree with Katie Hammel if it keeps ex-gang members to keep a job thats good and doesn't get them back into the gang life as the ex-gang members say there's only two ways living the gang life going to jail or 6 feet under.
USC grad Jan 30th 2010 11:58PM
Hey, you don't have to take a tour, just go to USC. In the heart of it all. Wanna see the battle scars?
geddy37 Jan 29th 2010 3:49PM
It's not much different from a wild animal park tour.
r Jan 30th 2010 10:24AM
reminded me of the animal park tout too, keep your windows rolled up and dont get off the bus or theyll eat you up, poverty tours are nothing new they have been around along time. Is anyone on the bus armed? a busload of rich tourest is a temptation for robbery
MikoRose Jan 29th 2010 3:56PM
Stupidest thing I've ever heard of! "Let's tour the hood". Stupid!
theovercomer99 Jan 29th 2010 4:09PM
I don't like the idea of having slugs run the tour. Ex or not. I think people would rather have the tour experience from our cleaner part of society.
Jason Jan 30th 2010 8:26AM
I thought they were still humans not animals.
lISA Jan 30th 2010 1:26PM
JASON IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT, ANIMALS ACTUALLY BEHAVE BETTER THAN GANG MEMBERS.
htcorner23 Jan 30th 2010 2:16PM
Want to be treated like a human being? Act like a human being.
jimster Jan 30th 2010 3:17PM
CLEANER?......LOL.....CARE TO ELABERATE WHO WOULD WOULD BE BETTER QUALIFIED TO LEAD SUCH A TOUR? SAY FOR INSTANCE, THE BUS BREAKS DOWN.......WHO YA GONNA CALL?.....THE POLICE WOULDN'T RESPOND ON TIME. UNLESS YOU PAY THEM OFF.....
Been there Jan 29th 2010 4:53PM
This is a STUPID and DANGEROUS idea. As a person who lives in LA I know that gang territory is not a place for anyone to "tour" and not to be taken lightly. Those people are criminals with guns who aren't afraid to kill people. As soon as they find out that bus is full of tourists... well, I guess the rest is, as a they say, news.
hdstyle1957 Jan 29th 2010 4:53PM
I wonder how long it will take before this stroke of brilliance turns bad? Really Bad.
Carman Jan 29th 2010 4:59PM
I took a tour in Chicago that showed the gangland shootings and killings from the 1920s. It even showed the location of the St. Valentine's Day massacre and the Biograph Theatre. The bus was full and the tourists loved it.
This is also a matter of timing. The 1920s was long ago.
ouy Jan 29th 2010 5:55PM
Idiotic idea. I hope they have quadrupled their insurance policy. and What reasonable company would even insure this tour company and bus??? Insanity.
NORMA C. Jan 29th 2010 5:58PM
STUPID IDEA IS ALL I CAN SAY, AND I AM A NATIVE OF THIS AREA, WAY WAY BACK IN THE 30'S BUT NOT NOW.
SaintsFan Jan 29th 2010 6:02PM
Never in my life!!! Not with all of the innocent people getting shot by gang fire, not intended for them. Oh hell to the NO!
Jason Jan 30th 2010 8:26AM
The only reason innocents are getting shot is "gangsters" can't shoot for s___.
Hussein Jan 29th 2010 6:12PM
The tourist could pay an extra fee......and they would be allowed to be armed and perform a drive-by. This way the tour business, could be very profitable.
Janice Jan 30th 2010 10:47AM
Sick !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rick Jan 29th 2010 6:44PM
i wouldnt be interested in that tour unless they guaranteed me that i would see 50 gang boys shot to death as we drive by lmao