EXCLUSIVE: Service industry workers tell Alex Woodward that New Orleans is failing to protect the people fueling the city’s critical tourist economy. Less than 36 hours after a massacre at the gateway to the French Quarter, New Orleans officials reopened Bourbon Street, now heavily guarded with military police, fresh barricades and 14 roses to mark the 14 people who were killed in what law enforcement officials have labeled an act of terror.
![[Temporary barriers installed on Bourbon Street’s intersections intend to prevent vehicles from entering the area]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/02/20/a19bea56946e47889ee2484cd0c63d72.jpg)
Authorities removed the remaining bodies and swept blood from the sidewalks and streets beginning at 2 a.m. Thursday. Deliveries to the street’s bars and restaurants resumed a few hours later. Several blocks of Bourbon and surrounding streets had been blocked off, businesses were closed and residents living in the footprint of an active crime scene were navigating police tape and barricades after a driver plowed a pickup truck into a crowd shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Thousands of workers — still checking on the safety of friends and colleagues — are now returning to the bars, restaurants, music venues, hotels, gift shops and other businesses that keep the city’s tourism economy running. One French Quarter worker told The Independent she was dreading returning to work.
“My anxiety is at an all-time high,” she said. “Thankfully I have health insurance through my spouse, but a lot of hospitality workers are uninsured and underpaid. Having to risk your life for a job that most likely doesn’t care about you is awful. Praying for us all.”.
