The ownership group of 1031 Canal Street was never held accountable.
Hard Rock Hotel, 21-October-2019. Infrogmation photo.
1031 Canal – The Hard Rock Hotel Disaster.
While city tut-tuts over the indictment of Mayor Latoya Cantrell, 1031 Canal Street remains an empty lot.
In October, 2019, construction continued at the corner of Canal and N. Rampart Streets. Developers demolished an old Woolworth’s store. They planned a hotel development. Tragedy struck on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The structure collapsed. Three workers died. Dozens received injuries. Almost six years later, no one from the ownership group has been held accountable for these deaths.
Media coverage
Imagine if WVUE-TV (FOX 8)’s Lee Zurik pursued 1031 Canal Partners with the passion he’s pursued Mayor Cantrell.Zurik would report on the progress he and his team made as they reviewed hundreds of hours of property surveillance video from the Upper Pontalba building at Jackson Square. He searched for months for anything incriminating on the mayor. Arguably his team’s work bears fruit in the federal case against Cantrell.
Then there’s WDSU-TV’s Aubrey Killion. Killion pursued defocked Catholic priest and child abuser Lawrence Hecker, even though he was in his 90s and dying. Hecker was eventually charged with child sexual assault, based on his own admissions in various interviews. Most of Killion’s coverage of the case focused on whether or not Hecker was competent to stand trial.
So, they chase the Black woman mayor’s $70,000. They hounded the senile 94-year-old priest near death. Additionally, newsrooms considered both cases more important/significant than the deaths of three construction workers. How much time did these lead investigative reporters spend on 1031 Canal? Not much. They clearly had bigger fish to fry.
This weekend local denizens of social media dance with joy at the mayor’s predicament. This morning’s Times-Picayune calls Cantrell the “lamest of lame ducks” as her term nears its end.
Local businessmen get to hide behind the relative anonymity of their corporate presence. It wouldn’t take much for the press and the Department of Justice to put the same effort in bringing those dead men some justice as they do coming for the mayor.
