New Orleans mayor slams campaign donors lack of demolition plans for the Hard Rock Hotel
The New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel partially collapsed on October 12, 2019. Two of the deceased construction worker bodies remain buried in the rubble. One corpse is literally hanging over Canal Street to this day. Mardi Gras season began February 1 and the Rock and Roll Half Marathon proceeded, as planned, the weekend of February 9. Both events had to reroute due to the bodies remaining in the crumbled site.
Experts predict that Mardi Gras was the sole culprit of the mass spread of the deadly coronavirus disease with no mention of the thousands of attendees of the marathon, who flew in from around the world, to participate.
By New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s estimate, the city generates nearly $50 million from Mardi Gras, which is equivalent to two months of operating costs. The city now stands at a nearly $150 million deficit.
Related: New Orleans residents in an uproar over exposed body at Hard Rock Hotel site
Before the COVID-19 virus penetrated U.S. soil, the plan was to implode the Hard Rock to bring the men’s bodies down. Those plans were in motion as developers and regular Cantrell campaign donors, 1031 Canal Development LLC, found a contractor to do the work. Cantrell has received nearly $70,000 from those associated with the LLC, Mohan Kailas, in particular.
Now that the developers are ready, Cantrell’s office has issued a press release stating that no formal plan exists, six months after the fact.
