The Pacific Palisades neighborhood had been closed to the public for several months after the January fire destroyed the community, but since its recent reopening, there have been sightings of new ominous visitors in the neighborhood: disaster tourists. Those bus loads.
“My office and others have received a lot of reports about commercial tour operators doing disaster tours in Pallisard, the Pacific,” Los Angeles City Councilman Traci Park said at this week’s council meeting. “They are trying to make money from destruction and the losses of other people. It’s really bad and they need to be stopped.”
To stop trends from becoming a regular occurrence with each disaster struck the area, the city council unanimously approved a “disaster tourism” bus from the fire zone and disaster zone of Pallisard.
On January 7, Palisade tore the Palisade and its surrounding areas in the Pacific Ocean, destroying more than 6,000 structures, many of which destroyed many, killing 12 people. Officials have vowed to make a quick recovery, but the reconstruction process for the worst disaster in city history is challenging and slow.
Park said tour buses are not only worried, but could be distracting and dangerous for crews who continue to work in the area.
“That’s also dangerous because we’re still actively cleaning up the fire fragments,” she said.
As a result of a vote on the park’s motion, the city’s Department of Transportation has restricted tour buses from any area that has been declared part of a natural disaster emergency, and the ban will continue during the emergency response.
The move also called on the department to consider restrictions on permanent tour buses in certain areas of the palace, given the narrow, winding and steep streets of the Palisade.
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