Following a devastating blaze in January, Pacific Palisades communities were closed to the public for months. However, since the neighborhood’s recent reopening, residents have reported seeing a new and unsettling type of visitor: disaster tourists. They’re busloads.
At a council hearing this week, Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park stated that her office and others have gotten a lot of reports regarding commercial tour operators offering disaster tours in the Pacific Palisades. They want to make money off of damage and other people’s losses. It must be stopped since it is extremely disgusting.
The City Council overwhelmingly approved limiting disaster tourism buses from the Palisades fire zone and any disaster zone in an effort to prevent the tendency from becoming the norm whenever a tragedy occurs in the area.
The Palisades fire, which raged over the Pacific Palisades and its environs on January 7, destroyed almost 6,000 buildings, many of them residences, and claimed 12 lives. Rebuilding after the largest calamity in the city’s history has been difficult and slow, despite leaders’ promises of a quick recovery.
According to Park, the tour busses were not only disturbing, but they might also be dangerous and distracting for the teams that were still working nearby.
We’re still busy clearing fire debris, so it’s also… risky,” she said.
The city’s Department of Transportation will prohibit tour busses from entering any region designated as a natural disaster emergency as a result of the vote on Park’s motion. This prohibition will remain in effect for the duration of the emergency response.
Given that the Palisades’ steep, winding, and narrow lanes may have been unsuitable for large buses even prior to the fire, the motion also asked the department to explore imposing permanent tour bus limitations in specific regions of the Palisades when the emergency has ended.
More to Read
-
Voices
-
-
