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Los Angeles Gang Tour Puts A Twist On Drive-Bys

Madeleine Brand

Alfred Lomas used to be in the Florencia 13 gang before he founded LA Gang Tours. Now, in addition to running the tours, Lomas also manages a mobile food bank. Ben Bergman/NPR hide caption

Alfred Lomas used to be in the Florencia 13 gang before he founded LA Gang Tours. Now, in addition to running the tours, Lomas also manages a mobile food bank.

In Los Angeles there have long been star tours where people can get a peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

But aside from being the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles also has the more dubious distinction of being famous for gangs.

Now there's a tour to show that side of the city — LA Gang Tours .

For $65 organizers promise a chance to "experience areas that were forbidden until now."

So Close, Yet So Far Away

On the tour's inaugural run, passengers settled in for a new experience.

"You go to Paris to see things and understand that culture ... and this is so close by," says Bert Rietveld, who is Dutch but has lived in Los Angeles for years. Still, he has never ventured into South Central.

"Probably because I always thought, well, you can't really go there on your own," Rietveld says. "It seemed too dangerous. I once took a wrong turn off the freeway, and I ended up in some neighborhoods where I thought [I'd] better get out of here as quickly as possible."

Stops On The Tour

The Los Angeles County Jail, which was once home to O.J. Simpson, Robert Downey Jr. and Paris Hilton

The Los Angeles River Bed, home to several L.A. tagging crews. The tour stops here for a class on the history and intricacies of tagging and graffiti.

The Metropolitan Detention Center, which houses convicted bank robbers

Site of the Symbionese Liberation Army shootout where, on May 17, 1974, a two-hour gun battle ended in the deaths of six SLA members

Florencia 13, one of the largest Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles County. Florencia 13 allegedly has ties to the Mexican mafia and was involved in the 1940s Zoot Suit Riots.

Birthplace of the Black Panther Party's L.A. chapter

Florence District, a notorious battleground for rival gangs

Florence Avenue, the site of one of the major mob uprisings during the L.A. riots of 1992

Firestone Sheriff Station was used by the National Guard as a command center during the 1965 Watts riots.

Hall of Justice Jail, which housed Charles Manson and Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan

Pico Union Graff Lab (Graffiti Lab), which is a canvas for local graffiti artists. This stop includes lunch and guest speakers who have firsthand experience in L.A.'s inner city.

Safely seated on the air conditioned bus, Rietveld is eager to learn the ins and outs of thug life.

"What are the Crips, what are the Bloods, what is grafitti?" Rietveld asks. "I had never thought about what is graffiti. I just thought it was weird paintings on the wall."

Another tour passenger, Daniel Auld, is a young backpacker from Australia. He has been traveling for nine months.

"I spent a lot of time in India, and I lived in an orphanage for a few months on this trip, so it's just a natural extension to see this part of L.A," Auld says.

'Ghettotainment'

Tour guide Alfred Lomas is covered in tattoos from his neck on down. He used to be part of the Florencia 13 gang, but he has turned his life around and now works to stop gang violence.

Lomas sees his tour as helping to reach that goal. He says the steep admission fee will go back into the community, and by bringing outsiders into gang communities, he's encouraging rebuilding and investment.

Lomas certainly isn't without his critics, who have said this tour amounts to exploitation. As some have put it, this is "ghettotainment."

In response, Lomas nixed his original plan to take the tour through housing projects and give passengers a T-shirt reading "I Got Shot in South Central" after they would have been shot at with water guns.

Still, Lomas uses the supposed danger of the tour as a marketing tactic and encourages passengers to get their picture taken with the ex-gang members he has recruited to sit next to the tourists on the bus.

"If you take a Hollywood tour, you'll probably see Brad Pitt's house, but you'll never really get a chance to take a picture with Brad Pitt," Lomas says. "Here, you have an opportunity to take pictures, to meet and interface with individuals that are influential in their gang communities but have made that effort to change."

Relatively Normal

Finally, the bus departs and Lomas takes his passengers over the Los Angeles River, which he explains is a favorite target of gang members' graffiti.

Then it passes the huge Los Angeles County jail.

"If we look to our right, you will see what is known as the unofficial jail to over 120,000 gang members," Lomas says. "I can safely say that everybody on this bus with gang intervention has been housed there at one time or another, including myself."

It's around here that the tour is ground to a halt by the most Los Angeles of experiences — bad traffic.

Lomas doesn't miss a beat. He pops in a DVD on the bus' entertainment system. It's a documentary of Los Angeles gangs.

It's all quite meta — watching a movie about Los Angeles gangs while on a tour that is supposed to show riders Los Angeles gangs.

Midway through the movie riders are interrupted by reality.

"If you look to your right, you'll see Compton Avenue with a bullet hole through it," Lomas says.

Aside from the bullet hole, this looks like a pretty unremarkable working-class neighborhood on a quiet Saturday morning. Almost no one is on the street. There's a Starbucks a couple blocks away.

Still, passengers aren't allowed to get out of the bus, and the tour moves on to something called the Pico Union Graffiti Lab, where you can legally spray-paint the walls.

The last stop on the tour, Pico Union Graffiti Lab, allows tourists to watch real graffiti artists in action and a chance to pick up some tips on this notorious art form. Ben Bergman/NPR hide caption

The last stop on the tour, Pico Union Graffiti Lab, allows tourists to watch real graffiti artists in action and a chance to pick up some tips on this notorious art form.

One of the artists here is Moz-art, who has been decorating the city with graffiti since he was a kid. He's creating what he calls a "quick burner" of an abbreviation of his name, "mo." He says he's in a crew of artists, not to be confused with a gang. He has mixed feelings about the gang tour.

"It could be looked at two ways, like we're being ... stared at like some kind of sideshow," Moz-art says. "On the flip side of that it could be looked at as a positive thing to give people a closer eye to see what goes on in the hood."

Freeway Scarier Than The Gangs

That was about as close as tourgoers got to experiencing life in the hood.

Lomas escorts everyone back on the bus after posing for pictures in front of graffiti.

After the tour, Auld, the Aussie tourist, said the trip was worthwhile.

"The most important thing about this tour is to reinforce the fact that these guys are human," Auld says.

Auld's biggest complaint: having signed a frightening release form at the outset of the tour, which warned it was inherently dangerous. Auld was hoping for a little more excitement.

"The scariest part of that tour was being on the freeway," Auld says. "I think that was the only time we were in danger the whole tour."

For his part, Lomas is happy to have the tour finish without incident. He calls today a success. The bus was nearly sold out, and he's planning another LA Gang Tour next month.

Related NPR Stories

Ex-gang members take bang out of l.a. crime, faith matters, 'father g' offers redemption from gang life, gang violence on the rise on indian reservations.

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Thinking about going on the tour with my 15 year old son. There are several things that I think might be interesting.

Visiting county jail. Do we just drive by it and say there it is or do we get to go in?

Interactions with former gang members. o.k. I don't want to meet an ex gang member putting on a show but if it is a legitimate ex gang member just interacting with us I'd appreciate that.

Is this an actual guided tour, or one you are planning yourself? The question reminds me of the Anne Hathaway film "Havoc"... Just wondering

Who is the tour operator? This has been discussed previously with the general consensus it was a waste of time and a scam.

The bad old days of L.A. gang life circa the 80s and early 90s are gone. Crime in L.A. has dropped to historically low levels. Vast stretches of the city were truly dangerous because of random violence. That's not the case anymore.

As I said, sounds like a scam and a waste of time.

Thanks guys I don't guess it is worthwhile. The one I was thinking about doing was this one.

http://www.lagangtours.com/

Taking the web page at face value, it sounds interesting.

Here is an article about it.

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=cdee5e3cf9ad69ca60330d560b148261

It's been reviewed in the L.A. Times travel section, and the travel writer (who appeared to be in his late 20's) found tourist value in it.

I go into that area on my own tours, and have friends who work in the area who have shown me around (they work in gang-prevention services), but if you wanted to see the graffiti, learn more about the territorialism of gangs, etc., it's as interesting as some other tours might be.

I don't think you get to go inside the jail, though. I can't recommend the tour from any personal experience, but OTOH, the article in the Times makes it sound like it's not just a scam. Some people think the Stars Homes tours are scams, too, it's very subjective.

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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A closer look at ‘L.A. Gang Tours’

The tongue-in-cheek headline on the front page of the Los Angeles Times last month pretty much said it all: “The ’hood as a tourist attraction.”

It was an eye-grabber, reporting the launching this month of L.A. Gang Tours. Two-hour, $65-per-adult, full-service coach bus tours similar to those conducted in Hollywood, only through what the paper described as some of the “grittiest pockets of the city, including decaying public housing, sites of deadly shootouts and streets ravaged by racial unrest.”

         There was even a detailed map, posting seven stops on the new tour from the Los Angeles River, where tourists will be able to view different styles of graffiti, to Jordan Downs, a notorious public housing project in the heart of Watts.

Among others, the paper quoted Alfred Lomas, the former gang member turned anti-poverty worker and gang interventionist who is spearheading the project backed by local businessmen. In trying to obtain a “safe passage” cease-fire agreement through Jordan Downs, the 45-year-old activist, who directs a mobile food ministry for the Christian-based nonprofit Dream Center, reportedly said to a “shot-caller” or gang leader: “I’m not saying you have to stop shooting each other. Just allow me a certain time in the day…. Just let the bus go through.”

In a lengthy interview with The Tidings, Lomas cried foul.

“Of course that’s crazy; it’s said in a different manner,” said the short, soft-spoken man, sitting at an outdoor picnic table in the center’s white stucco complex that used to be Queen of Angels Hospital. A flaming tattoo from his days as a Florencia 13 gang member rises above the collar of his rusty orange shirt.

“When you’re dealing with deep-rooted generational hatred,” he continued, “your approach has to be something that is obtainable and viable to them. It’s ridiculous for anybody to go into these areas and say you’re going to stop doing this. That’s like telling them ‘You have to stop existing,’ especially in an area that has failed them and their children. So a more creative approach, of course, is to say, ‘Look, I’m not telling you what to do. What I’m asking is, can we at least do this?’ But the eventual goal is the pursuit of peace.”

Lomas reports he’s gotten solid agreements from at least three gangs besides Florencia — South Side 18, Grape Street and East Coast Crips — to halt any activity when the tours are running from about 10 a.m. to noon. But he notes that only a small part of the route will actually go through hardcore gang territory. He likens it more to a tour of historical film locations showcasing events that have helped shape Los Angeles’ infamous gang culture.

And he stresses that in no way does it glorify gangs.

Saving lives

         The tour, in fact, starts downtown at different ex-movie locales before proceeding to the concrete Los Angeles River bed to view the many tagging graffiti styles and learn about the taggers who produced them. The bus will pass by the Los Angeles County Jail, which houses more than 20,000 inmates in its facilities, as well as the federal Metropolitan Detention Center. Parts of Olvera Street, Chinatown and skid row are also on the initial planned route.

         Heading down Alameda Street and Slauson Avenue, the bus will stop at the Slauson Park Recreation Center, where Black Panthers were once heavily recruited; the nearby site of the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) shootout with police; and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Firestone substation that served as the command post during the 1965 Watts Riots.

         Then it’s up the 110 Freeway to the Pico-Union Housing Corporation, a community-based organization that sponsors a “graff” (graffiti) art lab. This is the only stop where tourists can get off the bus to mingle with residents and buy T-shirts designed by taggers, along with viewing art competitions.

         What’s not on the tour for now, according to Lomas, are visits to two public housing developments --- Pueblo del Rio and Jordan Downs --- that were featured in the Times’ map and sparked plenty of controversy. “We want to have a common ground where everyone is satisfied,” he explained. “That’s ultimately the goal.

         “My focus at this point in time is the social development of these areas that have been devastated by gang violence,” he said. “Really, it’s the result of seeing a lot of this devastation firsthand. I see firsthand the suffering of a lot of these kids who are in these areas that I serve in my food distribution. And they really have very little intervention, very little prevention efforts. Quite frankly, the previous strategies are a failure.”

         The former gang member believes the tours will bring awareness to the many ongoing struggles faced by inner-city communities as well as recent accomplishments in grassroots organizing and reduction of violent crime. He also hopes it will bring “sustainable change” through the creation of tour jobs and offshoots such as micro-loans to sponsor area enterprises, transforming former drug dealers in legitimate entrepreneurs.

         “But the first priority is saving lives. That’s our ultimate goal — public safety,” Lomas said. “It’s very important that we do this with honor and with dignity. We’ve already been able to create a dialogue with a lot of these rival gang members. So I think this is really cause for celebration.”

‘Misguided adventure’

Father Gregory Boyle has worked with current and former gang members for 25 years. The founder and executive director of nationally acclaimed Homeboys Industries doesn’t know Alfred Lomas or his work, but believes L.A Gang Tours is basically on the wrong track.

         “I think it’s kind of a misguided adventure,” the Jesuit said. “I don’t think it helps us do what we want to do, which is to truly create an environment where gangs aren’t part of the landscape. But this is actually featuring gangs, saying, ‘Over here is this gang and over here is that gang.’ It just gives them oxygen.

         “People aren’t looking for the day when gangs get along. They’re really, really longing for the day when it’s not multiple choice for their kids [about which gang to join]. And that’s the point. So if our goals are so tiny, our gains will be tiny. People who think that the highest goal is peace don’t get what the largest picture is about. Who can be against peace? But you end up treating gangs like they’re nation states or they’re valid entities.”

         Father Boyle agrees it would be beneficial if profits from the venture were poured back into poor neighborhoods. But he can’t imagine people wanting to go on such an urban tour in the first place.

         “I suppose you could get them to stop shooting, kind of a safe passage,” he said, “but I don’t think that’s the issue. How have we made our communities better? We haven’t. There’s all sorts of unintended consequences when you start to work with gangs instead of gang members.”

         Michael Wainwright of the Watts Gang Task Force, who administers a Department of Justice summer jobs program through Neighborhood Youth Achievers, has even stronger feelings against conducting gang tours. And he believes it’s “crazy” for anyone to tell gang members not to stop their shooting and killing all together, just during times when the tour buses were running.

         “That’s ludicrous, that’s ridiculous, man,” he said. “All the work that we’ve done in trying to change the mentality affecting young people concerning gangs, then you have a tour that’s going to take people around to look at them and even get a T-shirt painted by taggers.

         “I just can’t believe that, to tell you the truth. I can’t believe the city would go along with it. I can’t see the housing authority sanctioning it. I can’t see the community, the actual residents who would be subjected to being a zoo, almost, allowing this.”

         Wainwright also doesn’t see how the money is going to funnel down to Watts or any other inner-city community through micro-loans. Or foster peace on the streets. And on Lomas’ claim that the tour will humanize poverty, he chuckled and observed, “How much about the inner-city has to be publicized to know that there’s poverty here? I mean, Ray Charles can see there’s poverty here.”

         After a moment, he said, “Alfred Lomas may truly believe in all these positive outcomes, you know, but I don’t see it. I’m sorry, I don’t see it.”

Positive Goals

But at least one major player in South Los Angeles does see the positive potential of L.A. Gang Tours: L.A.P.D Captain Mark Olvera, commanding officer of the Newton Division, which takes in much of the tour’s route. Over the Thanksgiving weekend the veteran police officer went on a VIP dry run tour and is convinced tourists will not be in danger.

“It’s on major streets with tons of traffic, and no one is even going to recognize it as a ‘gang tour’ because there’s not going to be any signs or anything,” he pointed out. “So as far as the safety thing, it would be like a Metro bus going down the street.

        “People don’t shoot at buses, so I don’t think safety’s an issue besides the normal incident that might happen anyway. And like with the Hollywood tours, where you never see a star, you’re not going to see gang members. On the tour I took, I didn’t see a single one. What people are going to see is a lot of redevelopment going on in the Newton area, so it’s going to make L.A. look good.”

         Olvera, who has worked closely with Alfred Lomas and other gang interventionists, credits their efforts with a nearly 16 percent drop in crime in his division in 2009 compared to 2008. He says to get cease-fire agreements from local gangs for safe passage during the tours was an “incredible challenge.”

         “Alfred doesn’t want to be called a gang interventionist, but the ideal version of a gang interventionist is Alfred,” he said. “The work he’s done has really stopped gang retaliations from occurring after a shooting. I’ve seen him squash some pretty volatile situations between two different cultures — Hispanics and African Americans. He’s been able to go into some neighborhoods that no one has been able to go before.

         “About the tour, the goals are all positive, and he’s not trying to glorify gangs,” stressed Olvera. “Alfred’s main goal is ‘Let’s stop the gang violence.’ He wants to do the right thing. He’s the real deal.”

R.W. Dellinger

Angelus news.

R.W. Dellinger is the former Angelus features editor. In a career spanning three decades, Bob has told the story of the Church's work for justice and peace through expert analysis, and narrative and investigative reporting from the peripheries of Los Angeles. In 2018, the Catholic Press Association named him ”Writer of the Year."

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A group of civic activists, united by faith and a belief that the poor economy in the interior of Los Angeles is a social injustice, is preparing to offer bus tours of some of the grittiest pockets of the city, including decayed public housing, sites of deadly shootouts and streets ravaged by racial unrest.

After a VIP preview last weekend, L.A. Gang Tours expects to open to the public in January, giving tourists a look at the cradle of the nation’s gang culture -- the birthplace of many of the city’s gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th Street.

“This is ground zero for a lot of the bad in this city. It could be ground zero for a lot of the good too,” said Alfred Lomas, a former Florencia member who has become a leading gang intervention worker in South Los Angeles and is spearheading the tours. “This is true community empowerment.”

The nonprofit group plans to offer two-hour tours at an initial cost of $65 per adult, with profits funneled back into the community through jobs, “franchised” tours in new areas and micro-loans to inner-city entrepreneurs. Early routes will focus largely on South L.A., with forays through Watts and Florence-Firestone.

The concept appears to have no equal in L.A. -- for good reason, some might argue. It seems to echo, more than anything, the “slum tours” of such sites as India’s Dharavi township and Rio de Janeiro’s favelas . Those operations have been lauded as innovative economic tools and mechanisms for humanizing poverty -- and also attacked as exploitative and voyeuristic.

The L.A. tour comes after months of planning, and is offered in a spirit of education and public service. Lomas, who will lead tours at first, plans to talk about important chapters in the development of the city’s core, such as how racist housing restrictions shaped ethnic enclaves and the formation of gangs.

Other aspects may raise eyebrows. Selling shirts painted on the spot by a graffiti “tagger” is one thing. But one backer said he also hopes to stage dance-offs between locals; tourists would pick a winner and fork over a cash prize. It wasn’t long ago that organizers decided against a plan to have kids shoot tourists with water pistols, followed by the sale of T-shirts that read: “I Got Shot in South-Central.”

“It’s going to be fascinating -- but really controversial,” said Francisco Ortega, a field staffer with the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and a respected mediator and neighborhood advisor in South L.A. Ortega said there could be great value in “sensitizing people, connecting them to the reality of what’s on the ground.”

“But the other side is that it could come across like a zoo or something,” Ortega said. “You’re being carted about: ‘Look at that cholo over there!’ It could be perceived as demeaning for the people who are living in these conditions. I don’t know how they’re going to manage those perceptions.”

City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she has offered bus tours of South L.A. herself -- but those were for real estate leaders she was trying to persuade to invest in the neighborhood. She said South L.A. could benefit from an effort to demonstrate “the potential of the community.” But she said some aspects of this kind of tourism could go too far.

“It’s not right to put people on display,” she said.

“It depends on their intent and how they balance it,” said Councilman Bernard C. Parks.

Organizers, however, say they’ve been careful to plan tours that are respectful and neither glorify gangs nor exploit the poor.

“What matters to me is that kids get fed and families get help,” Lomas said.

The organization is bolstered by business leaders and gang experts who are contributing start-up capital and advice.

Several are connected to the Dream Center, the L.A. church ministry where Lomas directs a food bank. Lomas credits the organization with helping him to turn his life around.

Kevin Malone, a former Dodgers general manager, sits on the board of the Dream Center’s charitable arm and has become one of Lomas’ chief supporters. Malone said he has become involved in human-rights causes, such as combating human trafficking. He said the possibility of introducing self-sustaining economic development into the city’s poorest neighborhoods is no less of a human rights issue.

“I believe in this,” he said.

Other backers include Ron Noblet, a leading gang expert and an early proponent of using gang intervention to augment traditional police tactics. Noblet dismissed any potential for criticism or controversy.

“There will be a lot of people who will be delighted if he fails,” Noblet said of Lomas. “But there is clarity in the dream.”

Another backer is Terry Jensen, an owner of Seattle-based Duninger Corp., which has subsidiaries in engineering and real estate investment. Jensen is the inventor of the “Jakpak,” a jacket that turns into a tent with a built-in sleeping bag. It was designed for the homeless and communities hit by natural disasters.

Jensen, also a minister, has allowed Lomas to use his accountants and marketers. The team, he said, believes the tours could generate $1 million in profit in the first year, and that it would compete for customers with operators of celebrity-home tours in Hollywood.

“I think this will be a destination tour,” Jensen said. “I think people will come to Los Angeles to take this tour.”

Jensen acknowledged that customers will have to sign a watertight legal waiver. He said that’s why it’s important to spread the word through affected neighborhoods that the tour is coming -- and, eventually, generating jobs, grants and loans. For example, Jensen said he’d like to see some early profits send a graffiti “tagger” to art school.

“We all know that the day somebody gets hurt, it’s over,” he said. “We’re counting on the fact that the gangs aren’t going to mess in their own beds.”

There is another reason to spread the gospel: Lomas hopes to use the tours to foster peace on the streets.

In recent weeks, The Times was granted access to a series of “sit-downs” -- meetings -- seeking understandings between gangs that have historically warred: Florencia, 18th Street and Grape Street, the dominant gang in the Jordan Downs public housing development.

Other gangs are being added to the talks and will shape tour routes down the road. Lomas, for instance, hopes to include the South L.A. bus stop where five children and three adults were shot in gang crossfire last year, but needs the local gangs to sign off, giving him “safe passage.”

One “sit-down” took place in a Jordan Downs apartment that serves as the hub of the small nonprofit empire of Fred “Scorpio” Smith. The 38-year-old Smith said he joined Grape Street when he was 11 and recently completed a 13-year prison term on drug charges. Influential in Jordan Downs, he now runs a charitable organization, including a program for kids who have dropped out or have been kicked out of local schools.

A small group, led by Lomas, went to the apartment seeking approval to run the tour through Jordan Downs. At first, Smith sounded skeptical.

“A tour?” he asked incredulously. “Of the ‘hood?”

Lomas offered to hire two teens from the housing development as part-time tour employees.

“I’m not saying you have to stop shooting each other,” Lomas said. “Just allow me a certain time in the day. . . . Just let the bus go through.”

“Safe passage is a guarantee,” Smith said.

Lomas and Smith discussed a host of delicate issues: tension between African Americans and Latinos; a recent skirmish between Florencia and Grape Street. They discussed building a phone tree to open new lines of communication between their neighborhoods.

But the long-term goal, Lomas explained, is economic viability.

“People around the world have stereotyped us,” Lomas said. “I’m talking about sustainable change. But it won’t work unless we have unity.”

“The people on the ground doing the work,” Smith replied. “That’s cool. That’d be cool.”

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Scott Gold is a former senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. Scott grew up in Charlottesville, Va., then graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism and a concentration in anthropology. He wrote for newspapers in North Carolina and Florida before joining The Times in 1999. Since then, he has covered a series of national news events, including the Bush-Gore recount in 2000, the terrorist attacks in 2001, the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. He left The Times in 2015.

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Dave's Travel Corner

Seeing the World One Step at a Time

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International travel and lifestyle blog, la gangland tours.

March 21, 2011 by Dave 4 Comments

I’ll be writing a much more detailed story about this at some point because this is a great story. I had the opportunity to join one of the LA Gangland Tours. This unique organization is not glorifying gang violence and activities rather they are humanizing it, raising awareness, and raising money to work with kids before they get sucked into this “culture” as well as other preventative measures against the gangs.

Its touching to see rival gang leaders on the same bus together truly enjoying each others company. We’ve been wanting to go on one of their tours every since they started about a year and a half ago. They are still somewhat under the radar; the experience of visiting famous gang sites in town with former gang leaders, listening to their stories and insights is invaluable; their sprinkling of humor throughout the tour helps keep the tour “fun”.

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March 21, 2011 at 2:15 pm

ESTOS SON LOS EJERCICIOS QUE LE DAN PAZ A NUESTRO PLANETA!!!! TREMENDA PROPUESTA!! UN ABRAZO

March 23, 2011 at 1:02 am

Nice blog and I enjoy reading passages that helps me to improve also my blog focused to Tiradpass( one of the tourist spots and national parks of the Philippines) But it’s said to be underdeveloped. Anyone can help our town to publish it’s virgin wonders.

March 24, 2011 at 1:28 pm

This is fascinating. I had no idea these tours existed. Whoever thought up the concept must be very creative, full of hope for the people and their community, and dedicated to changing things for the better.

April 10, 2011 at 8:42 pm

That is a pretty cool Tour. Next time when we reach LA I will look for this tour.

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For $65, tourists get peek at L.A. gangland

Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe — but a world away from the glitz and glamour — a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city's gang turf.

Passengers paying $65 a head Saturday signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.

If that sounds daunting, consider the challenge facing organizers of LA Gang Tours : trying to build a thriving venture that provides a glimpse into gang life while also trying to convince people that gang-plagued communities are not as hopeless as movies depict.

"There's a fascination with gangs," said founder Alfred Lomas, a former member of the Florencia 13 gang. "We can either address the issue head-on, create awareness and discuss the positive things that go on in these communities, or we can try to sweep it under the carpet."

Several observers have questioned the premise behind the tours, and some city politicians have been more blunt.

"It's a terrible idea," City Councilman Dennis Zine said. "Is it worth that thrill for 65 bucks? You can go to a (gang) movie for a lot less and not put yourself at risk."

Gang hangouts More than 40 people brushed aside safety concerns for Saturday's maiden tour to hear how notorious gangs got started and bear witness to the struggling neighborhoods where tens of thousands of residents have been lured into gang life.

On an abbreviated advance tour Lomas provided for the news media, his unmarked chartered coach wound its way through downtown. The first sight was a stretch of concrete riverbed featured in such movies as "Terminator" and "Grease," where countless splotches of gray paint conceal graffiti that is often the mark of street gangs and tagging crews.

After that, it was on to the Central Jail, home to many a thug, past Skid Row's squalor and homeless masses and into South Los Angeles, breeding ground for some of the city's deadliest gangs.

Motoring through an industrial area, the bus enters the Florence-Firestone neighborhood, close to the birthplace of the Crips and current home to Florencia 13, a Latino gang that was accused by federal prosecutors of racist attacks against black residents.

Gray warehouses soon merge with single-story stucco homes as the bus heads south. Few gangsters risk hanging out on street corners, as local rules mean they could get arrested even for congregating, but graffiti on walls, road signs and convenience storefronts betray the presence of Florencia 13 and other gangs.

Creating jobs Lomas, 45, a respected activist who has worked with the faith-based Los Angeles Dream Center to distribute hundreds of tons of food to low-income families across the inner city, left gang life about five years ago.

He stresses the aim of his nonprofit company is to bring jobs to communities along the route and to reinvest money through micro-loans and scholarships, though he's not sure how the tour will accomplish that. He also eventually wants to start a gallery and gang museum.

He said the tour will create 10 part-time jobs, mainly for ex-gang members working as guides and talking about their own struggles and efforts to reduce violence. The tour is initially scheduled to run once a month.

No tour quite like this runs elsewhere in the country. Chicago has a prohibition-era gangster tour, and another Los Angeles group buses people to infamous crime scenes, including the Black Dahlia murder.

Lomas faces a quandary as he tries to show the troubled history of the area once known as South Central, before politicians renamed it South Los Angeles in 2003 in an attempt to change its deep association with urban strife.

The tour is billed as "the first in the history of Los Angeles to experience areas that were forbidden." But tour leaders don't want it to be voyeuristic and sensational.

"We ain't going on no tour saying, 'Look at them Crips, look at them Bloods, look at them crack heads,'" said Frederick "Scorpio" Smith, an ex-Crip helping narrate, who helped broker the cease-fire among the Grape Street Crips, 18th Street, F13 and the East Coast Crips.

No photos, please Out of sensitivity to residents, passengers are banned from shooting photographs or video from the bus. The only place that is allowed is near the end of the trip, when they can step off the bus and film an outdoor area where graffiti is allowed.

Stretches of the tour have almost nothing to do with gangs, but instead exploit famous chapters of violence in the city's history, such as a deadly 1974 shootout between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army and the site of the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King beating.

If done right, the tour could highlight the decades-long struggle to solve the gang problem, said civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice.

Gang crime has fallen in recent years, but groups continue to grow and gain influence. Over the past quarter century, officials in Los Angeles County have spent $25 billion fighting gangs only to see the number of gangsters double to as many as 90,000 and a six-fold increase in the number of gangs.

"If it is carried out well and carefully and carried out with the consent of the community, it could teach people about the very entrenched culture that gangs now have in Los Angeles," Rice said.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she would rather tourists see the development potential in the neighborhoods that make up part of her district. About two years ago, she organized her own tour in the area for about 200 real estate agents and business representatives, resulting in the development of buildings with homes and businesses.

"I'd prefer we focus on showing the community in a positive light," she said.

LA EASTSIDE

Life beyond the river.

LA Gang Tours

I’ve been on many tours in the Los Angeles area most of them have been usually run by the Los Angeles Conservancy . I usually expect people my age to think it is lame or cheesy to go on a tour, but I figure I get to learn new facts and history regarding my own city. The majority of the things I’ve learned on these tours most people who grew up in Los Angeles don’t even know or bother to know. I take it as an educational experience in our own backyard.

More after the jump

Recently on the news, I saw a new kind of tour called ” LA Gang Tours” and right away I was like “this is dope” regardless if some people might say it’s controversial or exploiting the poor etc etc. I don’t trip on that. I grew up in the hood been poor or know people from hoods. I have had friends that been to jail or prison.  I have been to most of these places, but never in this type of way. It is excellent for historical and archiving purposes in my eyes at least. The price is a bit expensive but if it goes back to the community or If I get a good experience from it, then let it be. I told a few of my friends and everybody surprisingly is down with it (even joking that they are going to bring a Mickey’s 40 oz with them). Usually when I have taken tours in the past honestly, it’s usually an older white crowd. But I don’t mind, I am down to roll down the hood with a little old granny. Hey, I might even see someone I know and wave to them from the bus, lol.

The tours are said to be starting in January so keep posted if you are interested.

Video News Link

LA Gang Tour Website

LA Times article on ” LA Gang Tours ”

• The Los Angeles County Jail
• The Los Angeles River Bed
• The Metropolitan Detention Center
• Pueblos Housing Project
• The Symbionese Liberation Army Shoot Out
• Florencia 13
• Birthplace of Black Panther Party
• Florence District
• Florence Avenue
• Firestone Sheriff Station
• Jordan Downs Housing Projects
• Hall of Justice Jail
• Pico Union Graff Lab (Graffiti Lab)

Doña Junta

27 thoughts on “ LA Gang Tours ”

i saw the story in the news as well. Its an interesting idea- hey why not, right?

As a latino,his-panic,I would not pay for it. I would DIY- do it for FREE myself. I think the best time for this would be Spring and Summer time. The perfect and most interested “target audience” i think would be Asian tourists,especially the Japanese.

Hey “LA Gang Tours” could even set up, “re-create” some “reality” a la MTV’s THE HILLS. A chola walking down the barrio, a vato cruising in his firme low-rider down the boulevard. 🙂 So you would at least get to see and feel like you got your moneys worth.

Somebody already has a nationwide idea, gangtours.com,unbelievable!

I know free would of been good,but having someone who knows the history and knows the people in order to be cool at some of these spots is hard. As long as it goes back to the community that will justify the cost.

I’m back and forth. I’m like you and I think this tour is dope, but at the same time I do get the feeling that people who don’t understand/comprehend the gang life/culture won’t see it the same way we do you know ? It’s back and forth, but a great idea to help out the communities none the less.

this is whack. Who is the tour quide? ex or wannabe cops? The cops still love the idea that black panthers were gang members. I highly doubt this is set up to help out communities.

Albeit, I agree with Random about the ambivalency, I do find it strikingly interesting. I am intrigued at what history will be told, how it will be told and also how the tour will be conducted as well. 65 dollars is a little steep but I am sure many have spent, countless amount of times, 65 dollars on lame things. LOL

I somewhat can not help to almost feel a tadbit offended but at the same time think it is a dope concept. As said, I am curious and curious to know who will actually muster up to come. I’m in.

Ima do it. WTH! LOL

I think this is a great idea, however, it doesn’t go far enough. I am a latina, I lived in east LA in the 50’s and 60’s and my dream has always been to help the latino people. As a business owner, I hired alot of latino employees. Now is the time to expand my ideas and to raise funds (I can do this)for the betterment of the latin people. I need contacts that I can work with to expand these ideas, please contact me and give me names of people that I can work with to make this happen. Waiting to hear from you soon.

see my message previousley submited

I’ll take you around South Central, skid row, compton, swapmeets, alleys, everywhere you have always wanted to go but were too scared to do by yourself..for half the price!!!

Black Panthers a gang? Good eye, Cajeta.

You can always just watch Gangland on the History channel. They even have a guy in every episode who has a bandana around his mouth, talks in a robotic voice and says, “we don’t care who you are, you come through our hood, and it’s on. If we’ve got knives, we’ll stab you. Guns, we’ll shoot you. Doesn’t matter. We’re terrorists. And the only way to stop us is to vote for your local police department to get more funds, otherwise, we’re going to kill you, right through your t.v. set, fool!”.

The tour is run by an ex gang memeber not cops check the video n see. Yes I can go my self n take pics which is fine not because I am scared but not everyone knows the history. I gone to tours in Angelino Heights n nobody says nada cus its a nice,pretty Victorian house area. I take photos of the streets and gutters all the time places most people won’t go to so why not but I understand the street and yes some people that might take the tour could be niave about but that’s up to the individual.

I stopped in the Hollywood Hostel once about 10 years ago to drop off some samplers and was shocked to find that one of the tours they offered was a “Boys In The Hood” tour of South Central, Watts and Compton areas showing where they filmed scenes from a bunch of movies and where a bunch of rap videos were shot. I found it in poor taste because I imagined a bunch of European backpackers rolling through the hood in a van like some kind of fucked up safari. The guy at the desk at the hostel told me it was their most popular tour at the time.

heres your comment lol

I read about this the other day in the news, i’m pretty skeptical about this. Namely unlike tours done by the Conservancy or other nonprofit which maybe free or inexpensive this tour somewhat expensive, more than those Starline Hollywood tours. I understand that the profits go back to the community, but the steep price leads me to question who is the tour aimed at with a $65 fee. Unlike the LA Conservancy tours which actually walk around the designated area and explore it. The LA Gang Tour is done from the comfort of a charter bus. Makes me draw comparison to the Wild Animal tours in the San Deigo. Thou, it may provide an great opportunity for outsiders to get a look into the reality of life in these areas and really understand the struggle that these residents face, a 2 hour tour in a charter bus of that vast of an area makes me skeptical.

I think this tour could work. There are always going to be tasteless tours. This is different because of who is putting it together, what his goals are, and what kind of work it takes to make a tour such as this possible – maybe it’s operating on a bunch of different levels, and it can be a real learning experience for the tourists.

I just don’t get his point on listing the Black Panther Party’s HQ as a gang location.

Lastima that they aren’t coming through my town. Although I never really considered us the hood, but a lot of others do.

You know how you ride that train at Knott’s Berry Farm and the robbers show up on the train and stage a robbery? I think it should be part of the tour. It would be great to gather some homies at select stops and have them “stage” something.

I read all of the other opinions on it. And I can agree w/ pretty much each one. To be able to learn the history of Los Angeles would be great. To realize some buildings I see all the time actually were landmarks for some reason or another is appealing. I guess it would also depend on how they advertise what they are trying to do. I wouldnt want it to seem like a zoo experience where the people, in these “hoods” are the main attraction. Yes we are low income. Some are in gangs, lets not forget it IS dangerous out there most of the time! Yet, some of us have actually done something w/ our lives while others are stuck in the gang lifestyle. I think it would be a good eye opener to some who take the tour and realize another way of living. To people like me who already know what its like to live in the ghetto, it would be interesting to see someone shed another light on it and I think it would really change our outlook on where we come from and be a reality check to others.

Dona Junta, i know exactly what you mean about getting to know what you think you know. Last year i took a tour in Guadalajara, my girl was new there and i wanted to show her around all these great building but i didnt know shit bout them. I decided to take the tour and i was amazed at all the things i learned and how much history that city has.

Im not sure about the gang tour, plus its way to expensive, but you are right, theres more than just tagged walls and deteriorated neighborhoods, theres history and facts behind all this, and that alone its probably worth your 65 bucks. ,

FOR THE HEARING AND VOCALLY IMPAIRED, A VEHICLE WITH DARK TINTED WINDOWS WILL BE PROVIDED FOR YOUR SAFETY

PLEASE NO SIGN LANGUAGE WHILE EXPLORING THE HOOD

wtf….

How about a tour that takes you to the locations of high profile police beatings and shootings in the city. If you are lucky or slow enough you could get a beating too. Then we can sell them a CD with the beating caught on tape, we’ll make it look as if it is recorded by an onlooker, with subtitled text to make out what is being screamed or said.

To the person who is starting this gang tour.

I really hope no one gets hurt, you idiot!

The thing I don’t like about it is that before they see their first gang member or even gang graffiti, they’re going to see a hundred displays of impoverished conditions. Homelessness, drug addicts, junk on the sidewalks, children running around and having to grow up in these conditions. Would any of this bother them? Or would it all be worth the price of admission if they just got to see one gang member? There’s nothing wrong with learning. But I don’t know about a person who’s only interested in gangs, and not the conditions that surround gangs and in many cases lead to their existence.

I guess it really depends on how the tour is managed and the type of people that are going to go to the tour. The stereotype might be backpacking, white tourist that most of you are mentioning, but I guess we will have to wait and see for this particular tour. The tour do not mean it is going to be some clown session and everybody is going to be pointing and laughing at the poor from a bus that just seems like some exaggeration.Who knows if that will really be their first time in the hood. There might be other interested students like me who genuinely want to know the history. Like I said before I been on a ton of tours if diff so called pretty areas after a while that can be boring. That is just me I love shit like this I don’t agree it should be this expensive be I am giving it the benefit of the doubt that the funds will go back to the community. Again for everybody saying they will give a free tour themselves I am down if you really mean what you say, but I expect to know whats up historically with the areas weather it’s real facts or people that lived it. Shoot me a message when you have the list set up and the flash cards ready lol.

During the last American Planning Association conference in Los Angeles, i gave similar hood tours to make some $$$. They werent “gang tours” per se, they were tours of La’s working class areas, discussed from a socio-historical perspective with analysis on the dynamics and nuances told by a native and insider.

my goal was basically to expose policy makers and planners to the barrio and give them an accurate analysis of the dynamics of the communities they should be serving from aperson from it. Unfortunately few planners are from the barrio, and they need to see things from a barrio resident’s POV, given in a format for planners in technical jargon.

I layed out the history of the area, development and occupation patterns, and how that is relevant to current dynamics. I included some gang and drug stuff (1st crack alley in US, imperial projects- got a hood pass too), but the goal and outcome was far from exploitative.

if done right I see this being beneficial to all members involved and the communities they serve, i also see plenty of bad that can be done.

but people need to be exposed to this shite, but the issue is truly a double edged sword.

I did a DTLA tour (broadway, los callejones), Eastlos and south La tours. I made about $600, charging $20 a head in my little white van.

Someone please post when these “tours” are rolling through town. I wanna get some homies together and rock that tour bus like the LAKERS just won the championship.

Welcome to the hood!

^LOL@ rockero!

I reside in the city of Compton. I have been to South LA few times. You could see a great difference from one side of 105 freeway(Willowbrook area) and the other side (Watts). For instance, Compton Ave, the Willowbrook Side has nice homes with no few iron gates and the other side (Watts)has the projects.

As a daily LA Times reader once in a while you come with some “scratch your head” articles. Well “LA GANG TOUR” was one of them. I was thinking the same way as the LA Council Member. South LA is in need of supermarkets and economic engines. Which is true. Not a liquor store in almost every two streets. With the tour, the investors would not see South LA as an attractive area. But again, the tours could bring jobs or keep jobs. I say this as a result that if they expect tourist coming from out of the country for this tour, the tourist would need a place to stay. Hotels employed people who live in South LA.

The tour could open eyes to elected city officials and residents and business of LA to help SOUTH LA become a better safer place to live. They could see that South LA is in need of investments.

Growing up in the side of Compton I grew up was not easy. The alley near my house was full of gangsters and graffiti and Compton was plain ugly. Today, you could go to the same alley without any gangsters drinking and the majority of the alley with any graffiti.

I now could shop for a plasma T.V without going out of Compton, buy coffee from the new 7-Eleven or go to eat at T.G.I.F Restaurant. Compton now has a Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, Ross, Staples, Part City, T.G.I.F Restaurant, 24 Hour Fitness Center, Tag it, Del Taco and not official but I heard that maybe even Red Lobster may open in the new mega shopping center. This mega shopping center has created 1,000 new jobs for the community. Not to mentioned beautify the area. Jobs that were needed in the community. In addition, it created revenue for the city. Compton is one of the few cities in LA County that is not layoff people. In the near future Burlington Coat Factory would open in Compton bringing an estimate of 60 new jobs and TJMAXX (maybe).

If investors invest in South LA they could hire people which a lot of people in South LA are unemployed.

I have been to South LA few times and I have not seen any national retailer in South LA, just Liqour Stores. Nor have a seen or heard someone getting shot or rob. So South LA is not as bad as people say to be.

Hopefully the tour could bring a great change South LA (Jobs, programs for the youth, peace etc.) and not go from bad to worse. 🙂

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LA Gang Tours

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2301 Bellevue Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90026

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