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Quiet In The Quarter

Walking tours are an increasingly popular tourist draw in New Orleans' French Quarter, but they're also creating tension between sightseers and residents, who find the sidewalk-choking crowds annoying.

Walking tours are an increasingly popular tourist draw in New Orleans' French Quarter, but they're also creating tension between sightseers and residents, who find the sidewalk-choking crowds annoying.

In July, the city council sided with the locals. It passed a new law that limits each tour to 28 people and requires groups to keep at least 50 feet apart. Guides are no longer allowed to use voice amplifiers, and all groups must disband by 10 p.m. "The tours were completely out of hand," says Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, a council member whose district includes the French Quarter. "Some groups got to be as large as 75 or 100 people. They'd stand under people's balconies at midnight with loud voices."

Sometimes residents up on their balconies returned the rudeness. According to Sidney Smith, the owner of Haunted History Tours, guides were hosed with water and even had kitty litter dumped on their heads. Now, he says, the new rules are forcing tour operators to split up groups that want to be together and costing operators hundreds of dollars a week to hire more guides. What's more, the curfew hits companies that run "haunted" tours such as his especially hard because they are scarier--and more fun for tourists--late at night.

The walking tour crackdown is one of several "quality of life" initiatives Clarkson is pushing in the French Quarter. She's herded tarot card readers and psychics into a limited zone, made park benches less inviting for the homeless to sleep on, and unclogged storm drains so that trash doesn't float down Bourbon Street during heavy rains.

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