Critics say that recent efforts to clean up New Orlean's French Quarter threaten to turn it into a Disneyfied caricature.
"A new regime in City Hall, convinced that the district has been allowed to degenerate from a fun-loving Utopia to a lawless den of hustlers and hooligans, has launched a crusade to make it cleaner, safer and more family-friendly and to recapture it as a residential community, not just a playground for visitors.... Authorities have begun herding street performers, such as the psychics, into particular quadrants and installing iron handrails to prevent the homeless from sleeping on park benches. Police are enforcing ordinances that were ignored for decades, resulting in citations and fines against unlicensed businesses, such as tour groups that have long mesmerized visitors with tales of the spirits that haunt the city."
Thanks to Chris Steins
FULL STORY: In New Orleans, a French Quarter Revolution
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