Gang Wars: This ain't your father's gun show

You’ve heard of Star Wars? A new travel group in Los Angeles is about to turn that phrase on its head.

For years, tourists have hopped on buses and toured celebrities’ homes — much to the dismay of many celebrities. Our particular tour caught a glimpse of Nicholas Cage walking out his front door — that is until he spied our big wheels on the curb, and he ducked back inside the mansion. We sat there almost 30 minutes trying to outlast Mr. Cage’s need to go wherever he was headed originally, but eventually we had to roll on. He won that round, if you call being trapped inside a mansion winning.

Hugh Hefner fought back, installing a security system at his home that included a cursing rock that announced to tour buses guides to “get the f— off my property.” Tour guides love to set it off for their passengers’ entertainment.

Now a non-profit group known as LA Gang Tours will begin offering a similar agenda in January, but this time the theme is gang related. According to the press release, this stroll will be “a true first-hand encounter of the history and origin of high-profile gang areas and the top crime scene locations.” Think LA County Jail, the L.A. River, the Metropolitan Detention Center, Skid Row, Florencia 13, Florence Avenue, and the Pico Union Graff Lab.

The men behind this idea are civic activists who believe  the poor economy in the interior of Los Angeles is a social injustice, as they like to phrase it. The hope is that Gang Tours can create jobs for folks in South Central Los Angeles and give back to the community overall. You can’t change without some green.

Of course, the real question is whether the idea will bring in real dollars. Sure, people play gang strategy games on the Internet, and the National Geographic Channel saw fit to make this a show topic. But there’s still a distance between the consumer and violence. In this version, participants shell out $65  to wear a flak jacket and sign a waiver on your life during the next few hours. Organizers say they’ve struck a deal with the gangs not to shoot off their guns between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., when they might hit one of these paying guests.

Even the founder, Alfred Lomas, a guy who turned his life around from the gang wars to a food ministry, understands the skepticism. “Well, the purpose of going into [Florencia] is that when this idea was first birthed, it was the result really of what’s known as a one-dimensional approach to a three-dimensional problem. And that is that for generations and decades now, our approach is putting people away in jail, incarcerating them. There’s no prevention, very little intervention, and the gangs are actually growing,” he tried to explain to CNN when its reporter came calling. Somehow, getting them to cooperate on this tour project brings awareness of the problem and that translates into change.

Tourists and gangs don't mix

God bless Mr. Lomas’ heart, because such loyalty and dedication is humbling. But I’m more in line with Dennis Zine, the Los Angeles city councilman who rebutted, “I think it’s a crazy idea. I think that if something moves forward on that, you’re going to jeopardize a lot of people. What are those gang members going to do when they see people coming by and looking at them and gawking at them?”

So while I’ll gladly recommend Alcatraz tours to clients,  hook up travelers with Chicago‘s crime history, and encourage people to take London Walk’s Jack the Ripper tour, I won’t make a peep about LA Gang Wars to my LA-bound clients. I don’t know that I have enough insurance to protect me in the case of an unfortunate incident. That, and the f-word is not entertaining in this setting.

Photography: Michael (mx5tx), DieselDemon

2009 Roundup

The past 12 months have brought massive change for the travel industry, with a new President and a new legislative agenda, the recession and its massive impact on airline fees and hotel revenues, the H1N1 swine flu, and massive projects like CityCenter.

The shift in consumer preferences too was equally momentous, with the top consumer travel stories for 2009 showing a tilt in favor of budget travel.

Here’s a roundup of the top travel stories for 2009 which ended up as the most viewed articles published by various travel media outlets.

U.S. Travel Association - List of the most accessed articles in the U.S. Travel News Brief. The list is topped by an NYT story about hotels facing an uncertain future.

More stories in the list on the recession’s impact, cancelled meetings and the negative perceptions over business travel (AIG Effect). A couple of stories on President Obama’s election and his policies for the travel sector. One article about the Travel Promotion Act and one on the launch of DiscoverAmerica.com. See the full list here.

Travel Weekly – Travel Weekly’s top 10 2009 stories list is more of a roundup of the top issues, including airline fees, United’s merchant fee tiff, tarmac time, AIG Effect, H1N1 Swine flu, Alaska cruises, OTA hotel taxes, Travel Promotion Act, and the launch of the two biggest game-changers – Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas and MGM Mirage’s CityCenter in Las Vegas. Read the details here.

New York Times – The NYT published its own list of top travel stories and slideshows for 2009. Their list is topped by Frugal Traveler Matt Gross’ guide for the Frugal Pleasures of Paris in Summer. 

Bing Travel – Bing’s list of top slideshows and articles in 2009 was topped by an article by Peter Greenberg on How to avoid staying in a Filthy Hotel Room.

Yahoo! Travel – Yahoo’s list of top 10 travel destinations for 2009, based on consumer interest and activity, is a big story all by itself, which underlines the shift in favor of budget travel. The 2008 list had New York in 2nd place, with Paris and Honolulu claiming the 5th & 6th spots. The 2009 list is topped by Vegas and Miami, with the more expensive New York dropping down to 6th, Honolulu to the 9th spot and Paris coming in last.

Worldhum – Worldhum’s list of 21 most read features of 2009 are topped by two posts for introverted travelers by Sophia Dembling. The list also includes articles about twitter tips from tweeting travelers, and one about the perils of travel writing.

Baltimore Sun – The Baltimore Sun’s list includes two accidents which completely enthralled the travel media for days - Capt. Sully Sullenberger’s Hudson Miracle (USAirways Flight 1549) and the tragic Air France Flight 447, which vanished in the Atlantic enroute to Paris from Rio.

Photo by Optical_illusion (thanks to Britt)

The Department of Homeland Security has served Travel Troubleshooter Christopher Elliott with a subpoena in order to find out who sent him a TSA Security Directive outlining new regulations set into effect in response to the Christmas terror incident onboard Northwest Flight 253.

Christopher Elliott

On Dec 27, 2009, Elliott (see TI100 profile) published the full text of the TSA Security Directive SD 1544-09-06 authorizing pat-downs, physical inspections. Two days on, Elliott now says that he was visited by Special Agent Robert Flaherty from the TSA Office of Inspection in Orlando.

The agent had with him a subpoena which says that Elliott is supposed to hand over – no later than Dec 31 – “All documents, emails, and/or faxsimile transmissions (sic) in your control possession or control concerning your receipt of TSA Security Directive 1544-09-06 dated December 25, 2009.”

Elliott didn’t comply immediately, and he hasn’t revealed what he’s going to do, other than discuss it with his lawyer. The subpoena mentions that the TSA needs the information as part of an ‘ongoing investigation.’

(Update 1: Dec 30, 2009 - Steven Frischling, a self employed photographer, also got a visit from two TSA Special Agents, for the same reason. Apparently the feds have now confiscated his computer.)

(Update 2: Dec 31, 2009 - Wired has more details – The directive was sent to Frischling anonymously from someone using a Gmail account, who claims to have been hired by the TSA as a screener in 2009. Frischling says the TSA agents who visited him were armed and threatened to get him fired from his job as a blogger for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

They wanted to get an image of Frischling’s harddrive, so they went and bought one, but couldn’t get it to work when they came back. Even worse, they damaged his laptop’s keyboard in the process. The TSA needs to give their agents some IT training too, in addition to media relations, and finding leakers…. )  

(Update 3: Dec 31, 2009 - The TSA has withdrawn its subpoenas to both Elliott and Frischling. They have also offered to buy Frischling a new computer. Elliott says that he was first granted an extension on the deadline, and that his intention was to challenge the subpoena in court.)

Earlier this month, the TSA accidently posted its airport screening procedures manual on the internet, to the Federal Business Opportunities web site. The 93-page manual revealed that only 20% of checked bags are to be hand searched for explosives and revealed in detail the limitations of x-ray screening machines.

ABC News has a quote from Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security who says that ”The TSA should immediately convene an internal investigation and discipline those responsible.” The TSA says that a full review of this incident is underway.

Last year, the TSA instigated another leak investigation to find out who told CNN that less than 1 percent of the nation’s daily flights carry armed federal air marshals. According to CNN, TSA Spokesman Christopher White said a TSA investigator was looking into the “possible unauthorized release of sensitive and classified information to the news media by covered parties.”

Maybe if the TSA was just as dedicated in weeding out terrorists as it is in going after internal document leaks and the news media, they would have a better chance of keeping the skies safe.

In response to the Christmas terror attack on Northwest Flight 253 and the resultant calls for enhanced screening of passengers, the U.S. Travel Association wants policymakers to embrace screening techniques that meet a three-part test: strengthen security, balance travelers’ privacy needs and improve traveler facilitation.

Millimeter Wave images

The USTA specifically mentions “whole body imaging” (WBI) and increased use of canine security as examples of promising security measures in need of greater analysis.

Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said that “We must find new screening techniques that strengthen security, protect privacy and reduce wait times and other hassles for travelers.”

Dow added that the entire debate on whole body imaging had so far been focused on the privacy aspect, and the technology has not received the necessary analysis based on its effectiveness, including the security benefits, reduction in wait times and potential for reducing travelers’ hassles at security checkpoints.

And perhaps the most important part of U.S. Travel’s response is their call for Congress to “allocate undesignated stimulus dollars to the immediate deployment of screening techniques.”

The airline industry is already awaiting a federal response for their request for $6.4 billion from the TARP bailout fund, to be spent on aviation infrastructure and upgrades related to the shift from a land-based navigation system to a satellite based one. The Aerospace Industries Association estimates that the funding, if approved, could lead to the creation of 150,000 new jobs.

U.S. Travel’s request for an immediate transfer of stimulus dollars towards deployment of screening techniques would be hard for Congress to ignore or decline under the current circumstances, with the public demanding some action from Congress and the White House.

And if and when Congress grants the fund transfer, it should set the precedent and clear the decks for the $6.4b request from the TARP fund towards NEXTGEN.