Letter: Caddies take travelers for a ride
December 02, 2012
New Orleans is in the midst of a lot of hype, preparing for the Super Tourism Moment of a Lifetime — the 2013 Super Bowl squeezed into the middle of Mardi Gras.
A lot of “rushing” is going on in the city: The rush to get streets and sidewalks repaired. The rush to get streetcar lines down and cars rolling. The rush to get taxi cabs updated, and perhaps even repairing or replacing some of the broken and missing street lamps.
Accompanying these hasty improvements are the inevitable inconveniences, and in some cases, downright injustices to the people who reside in the city.
I wish to suggest one perhaps easy and noncontroversial improvement our city can make, both for tourists and residents alike: upgrade the luggage caddies at Louis Armstrong Airport and make them free.
It’s outrageous to have to pay $4 for a caddie for less than an hour to simply move your luggage from the baggage belt to the back of a car. In the past week, I have flown through four airports: Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans and Paris. No airport charges travelers for luggage carriers except New Orleans, and the other airports have lighter, more modern caddies.
Why can’t we do the same?
Carol Allen
retired school administrator
New Orleans