A group of civic activists in Los Angeles plans to start giving “Gang Tours” — taking busloads of tourists through some of the most dangerous parts of the city — in hopes of “sensitizing people, connecting them to the reality of what’s on the ground.” Critics liken the tours to voyeuristic “slum tourism” in India and Rio de Janeiro. But Gang Tours organizers say they plan on using tour profits to help communities through avenues like loans for inner-city entrepreneurs and sending graffiti taggers to art school. [%comments]
Touring Gangland
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Wow. If it’s profitable I might be willing to lead a similar tour through Kabul.
Touring Chernobyl….
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/
Well at least some one has come with a great idea, gangtours.com, I can see the ads now – “attention ladies and gentlemen , and on the street corner we have some “laytinos” displaying their bright colors to the opposite sex during a rarely observed mating scene…lol
If the tourists are robbed, is the tour company liable?
While taking a tour of New Orleans, we took a side trip from the cultural and historical stuff to view the Katrina damage.
The whole tour seemed to me to be ‘See how bad we’ve got it? Vote to give us money!’.
Being of the opinion that we shouldn’t be paying to move people back into decaying ghettos under sea level, I wasn’t amused.
Sounds incredibly foolish.
Sort of like hiking along the Iran-Iraq border for fun.
Oh wait, someone actually did that too — didn’t work out so well.
This reminds me of the “Katrina Tours” of the Lower Ninth Ward that are traveling through on huge tour buses, barely slowing down and not touching upon the real causes of and things learned from the disaster. But wait, $1 of your $49 tour fee goes towards “helping.” I guess you can feel better about yourself now.
I’m waiting for a civil rights attorney or activist group to level allegations of ‘hate’ crimes against the tour operators.