When I first moved to the French Quarter, in the summer of 1999, I heard a local complaining about the tourists. My thought at that time was that no one living in the Quarter can really complain about tourists. They will barf on your sidewalk, they will sing drunkenly at 3 am on a weeknight, they will piss on your bumper, they will howl at all hours. Still, the whole place is about tourists: the Quarter could not survive without them.

Now, after having lived here for over eight years, they do sometimes get on my nerves. They walk too slowly when I am trying to get to Rouses (the former A&P). Really, they just stop in the middle of the sidewalk, wearing shorts, bickering, looking at a map, and they have no idea that someone like myself might actually be walking on that sidewalk for a reason.

Post-K, though, what bugs me the most is that those tourists will come to town, do their usual barf-sing-piss-and-howl routine, and think that everything is fine with New Orleans. I spoke to a man and woman in the Gumbo Shop, visiting from Houston, who said that they did not want to be one of those tourists, and for that reason they went on the disaster tour. Everyone I have spoken to has had the gut feeling that such tours are the lowest form of exploitation. But this couple’s desire to see the city, disaster and all, rather than go home an ignorant visitor, made me reconsider. Could there be something positive about such tours?

The cover of the pamphlet advertising the “Hurricane Katrina Tour” shows a big colorful hurricane about to hit the Gulf Coast and a caption: “Voted Most Creative Tour.” Very tasteful from the start. On the inside, the pamphlet has all the subtlety of a carnival barker. At the top, in catchy purple letters, it states, “America’s Greatest Catastrophe!” Yippee! We are number one!

Thirty-five dollars for adults, $28 for children. So, let’s see, a family of four would pay only $131. The word “Rebirth” can be found on this page twice, once in big letters, but none of this money is going to help rebuild; in fact, wouldn’t economics suggest that those who run this bus tour would prefer to keep the city in its state of disaster? There is no money in driving through boring, rebuilt communities with regular garbage pickup and steady schools.

To say the least, the promotion of this tour is tasteless. I have no interest in paying to find out if the tour is equally tasteless.

The man at the Gumbo Shop also told me that at one point, touring the devastation of the Lower Ninth Ward, a woman in front of her house gave the whole bus the finger. A big ol’ middle finger aimed straight at those tourists. I guess the tour does show something about the city that won’t be found in the French Quarter.

Still on this topic, Music Friday turns into Video Friday today. Behind the cut, something of a disaster tour and a thoughtful response to New Orleans today.