South Bronx Ghetto Bus Tours Promoted To White European Tourists
South Bronx Ghetto Bus Tours Promoted To White European Tourists
By Glenn Minnis
South Bronx ghetto bus tours are promoted to white European tourist a chance to see city’s darkest side from a safe distance.
A New York City Tour bus company has been forced to cease with its “ghetto bus” sightseer tours, after outraged Bronx area residents blasted the treks through their neighborhood as racist and offensive.
Red Bronx Tours promoted the tours to mostly White European and Australian tourists as a chance to see the South Bronx “from a safe distance.” Advertisements further described the neighborhood as “one of the city’s darkest areas” and charged riders a whopping $45 per tour.
At least three times a week, the bus zigzagged its way past food-pantry lines, several housing projects and a stretch of neighborhood it billed to passengers as “Pickpocket Park.”
Tourists were also sold the concept of an intimate, first-hand look at the borough, with intimate details about its 1970s and 80s history, which is described on its tour web site as “notorious for drugs, gangs, crime and murders.”
No mention was ever made about the borough and one of the areas in the tour’s direct path also serving as the childhood neighborhood of former Secretary of State Colin Powell of current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
During one drive past a neighborhood food line, a rider told the New York Post guide Lynn Battaglia smugly joked: “If it was the1980s, and you said to me ‘Lynn, I want to die.’ My answer would be, you’re in the right neighborhood.”
South Bronx ghetto tours promoted to white European tourists.At least three times a week, the bus zigzagged its way past food-pantry lines, several housing projects and a stretch of neighborhood it billed to passengers as “Pickpocket Park.” Photo Credit: blackmediascoop.com
Later, as the bus made its way past yet another food pantry line, Battaglia added “I don’t know what that line’s about, but every Wednesday we see it. We see them go in with empty carts, and see them come out with full carts.”
A few days later, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito both took exception with the way their still revitalizing neighborhood was being portrayed.
“We strongly urge you to stop profiting off of a tour that misrepresents the Bronx as a haven for poverty and crime, while mocking everything from our landmarks to the less fortunate members of our community who are availing themselves of food assistance programs,” said Diaz Jr.
Added Grammy-nominated musician Bobby Sanabria: “Those days are over, the Bronx is rising again.” Sanabria is now a part of a team of area residents now kick-starting a counter-campaign to what they term their unfair negative image.
NYC & Company, the city’s tourism bureau, has since booted Real Bronx Tours from the bureau’s official membership and has also launched a promotion touting the South Bronx as “one of our safest, most exciting boroughs,” home of some of the city’s finest Art Deco architecture and the Yankees.
“We’ve had enough of the gawkers who come to ghettoize us,” says Al Quinones, caretaker of a community park that features a garden with fruit trees and a stone outdoor amphitheater. “Their timing was bad. The Bronx is not burning, not now. Now, it’s resurgence.”
Feature Photo Credit: wiznation.com