The sign on Bourbon Street marking the site of the New Year’s Day terrorist attack that claimed 14 lives is gone. All that’s left is a rectangular rough patch where the placard was glued to the wall of the Walgreens drugstore.
The sign disappeared without public notice last week, leaving some passersby to wonder what had happened to it. Was it removed to clean off graffiti, or to be replaced with something more permanent? The answer is neither.
A sign of the times
In the early hours of Jan. 1, 2025, an attacker raced a rented truck down Bourbon Street, randomly running down pedestrians in his path. After a few blocks, the driver struck a parked vehicle and subsequently died in a shootout with police.
In the aftermath of the massacre, a memorial display went up near Bourbon and Canal streets as visitors to the notorious site expressed their grief. The unplanned array of wooden crosses, flowers, candles, photos, art and graffiti was a poignant outpouring, but eventually it had to be removed from the highly trafficked sidewalks…