Real Bronx Tours has citizens of the New York borough incensed after advertising a tour special tour of the Bronx as “a ride through a real New York City ‘GHETTO,'” the New York Post reports.
For $45, tourists are taken to housing projects, a “pickpocket” park and food pantry lines. The guide, Lynn Battaglia, told one group of tourists, “If it were 1980 and you said to me, ‘Lynn, I want to die.’ My answer would be, ‘You’re in the right neighborhood,'” the Post reports.
On the tour, Battaglia also provided anecdotes about violent police and alcoholics wandering the streets.
Ruben Diaz, Bronx borough president, said he is disgusted by the theme of the tour and insinuations about the area.
“They should tell people about The Bronx that we all know, and that’s The Bronx that’s had the lowest crime rate since 1963 last year,” he said. He also said the guide is “the biggest fool on the planet.”
The tour company has not commented and does not use the word ghetto on its website.