Ninth Ward residents tell tour operators their dignity will not be sold

Except, of course, when it will.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans tour bus operators wanting to take visitors into the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood may soon have to pay a fee to do so.

After a meeting this month with tour operators and residents, City Councilman Ernest Charbonnet, who represents the Lower 9th Ward, has drafted an ordinance with a yet-to-be-determined fee for companies proposing to provide for-pay tours of the Hurricane Katrina-devastated neighborhood.