Category: Opinion

Quinnyon Wimberly recovered from Hard Rock Hotel ruins

(Photo: The Hard Rock Hotel collapse site. | Infrogmation/CC)
Crews recovered the body of 36-year-old Quinnyon Wimberly from the 11th floor rubble of the Hard Rock Hotel on Saturday, 303 days after the building partially collapsed and killed him.

The hotel, located on the corner of Canal and Rampart streets, collapsed on Oct. 12, 2019, killing Wimberly and two other construction workers, 49-year-old Anthony Magrette and 63-year-old Jose Ponce Arreola, and injuring a dozen more people.

Magrette’s remains were recovered the day after the collapse, while Wimberly’s remained trapped inside the hotel ruins for nearly 10 months until last weekend.

The final recovery will be Ponce, whose remains are trapped on the 8th floor of the hotel. Officials didn’t release a timeline on Ponce’s recovery.

Wimberly’s family gathered near the chainlink fence surrounding the site as the process of removing the remains at about 10:45 a.m., when a team slowly lowered his body to street level and was driven away.

The body was immediately taken to the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office where an autopsy will first be conducted and then escorted to Baton Rouge for a “thorough” forensic examination, according to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who added that the investigation could take up to two months.

“It’s necessary because we want to fully document the pain and harm that was caused,” said Cantrell, who held a press conference against the backdrop of the hotel ruins one hour after the recovery effort concluded.

Visibly weeping, Cantrell reprimanded a reporter who asked why the mayor was crying, but later apologized during the press conference. When asked by another reporter if she wants to see criminal charges, Cantrell said the case is moving through the judicial process and that the city has no control.

“I want to see justice for the family as it relates to this tragedy,” Cantrell said. “Words cannot really explain or describe, not only the pain, but the closure they’ve been wanting for 10 months.”

The process of recovering the Wimberly’s remains began with an $8.4 million city-approved demolition plan between Missouri-based Kolb Grading and Marschel Wrecking and hotel developer 1031 Canal Street Development LLC.

The proposed plan will be executed in four phases and expected to be completed by October, or close to the one year anniversary of the collapse.

Demolition started in May with the three structures adjacent to the Hard Rock Hotel site, including at 1019-1025 and 1027 Canal St., following an order by New Orleans Fire Superintendent Tim McConnell, who determined it was the safest way to demolish the hotel and recover the bodies.

The process eventually reached the Hard Rock building, where crews used excavators and other heavy equipment to dismantle the hotel piece-by-piece near Wimberly’s body, whose recovery was originally slated for July but was delayed due to weather conditions and technical problems, according to McConnell.

McConnell said Saturday’s recovery was conducted with precision and professionally by the recovery team, which included contractors and New Orleans fire, police and other emergency personnel.

The operation was a “significant” step toward closure for Wimberly’s family, said McConnell, who added the long wait has been particularly painful for the recovery team.

“It’s hard,” McConnell said. “I have several members of our department that have been here every day since the start. It has got to be emotional for them too.”

Hard Rock Hotel recovery efforts delayed due to equipment problems

French Quarter’s 10 best places to have sex in public

Public sex in the French Quarter is an activity that more or less tends to happen frequently, at all hours, anywhere, in sporadic patterns, at random, clandestinely for the most part, probably unprotected, likely under the influence of alcohol or drugs and between consenting adults—and possibly illegal.

Updated: Aug. 1, 2020, 3:26 p.m. CST: New Orleans Municipal Code 54-260 states “it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in, participate in, manage, produce, sponsor, present or exhibit obscene live conduct” including masturbation; “excretory functions;” “lewd” exhibition, actual simulated, or animated, of the genitals; and sadomasochistic abuse, among others.

If you’re gonna do it, use your best judgment and consider these top 10 spots:

Jax Brewery on the Mississippi River side. Photo: bootbearwdc | Flickr CC.

1. The Mississippi River side of Jax Brewery at night
Some of the concrete planters could provide good cover. Beware of the random straggler.

Photography prohibition is strictly enforced inside The Dungeon. Photo: Pamela Carls | Flickr CC.

2. The cages at The Dungeon
The cages are on the second floor of The Dungeon. You might get away with having sex in the cages, you might not. Photography is strictly prohibited inside the bar without permission.

The Royal Sonesta Hotel. Photo: nathanmac87 | Flickr CC.

3. The Bourbon Street balconies of the Royal Sonesta Hotel
Perhaps this is synonymous with any hotel balcony on Bourbon Street.

Aftermath of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse on Oct. 21, 2019. Photo: Infrogmation | Flickr CC.

4. The Hard Rock Hotel ruins
Not recommended, but included for obvious reasons.

The intersection of Ursuline and Decatur streets. Photo: Ken Lund | CC Flickr.

5. Anywhere on Decatur Street at night
Such a wide variety of places: Jackson Square, Washington Artillery Park, the nearby French Market, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, etc.

The Andrew Jackson statue in the French Quarter. Photo: Tim Wilson | Flickr CC.

6. On the Andrew Jackson statue
Why-in-hell-not?

Photo: Infrogrmation | Wikimedia Commons.

7. Governor Nicholls Street Wharf at night
It’s a fairly secluded spot where nobody will mess with you. If the tide is low, you might actually get to have sex on the beach.

Woldenberg Park. Photo: Infrogmation | Flickr CC.

8. Woldenberg Park
It’s probably best to do it here at night, but you never know. Nevertheless, there’s a nice riverfront view.

The Battle of Liberty Place monument was removed on April 24, 2017. Photo: Infrogmation | CC Flickr.

9. In the spot where the monument commemorating the Battle of Liberty Place once existed on Badine Street
Erected in 1891, the monument commemorated the Battle of Liberty Place, an attempted insurrection of the white supremacist Crescent City White League against Louisiana Reconstructionist government forces on Sept. 14, 1874. More than 30 people were killed, including seven police officers.

The monument was removed from its Badine Street location on April 24, 2017 amid controversy.

St. Anthony’s Garden at St. Louis Cathedral. Photo: Kimberly Vardeman | Flickr CC.

10. St. Anthony’s Garden
More power to you if you can make it over the fence, just don’t get caught.

Honorable mention: Aunt Tiki’s, The Abbey Bar, Bienville monument.

Comments? Feedback? Disagree with the list? Want to include an entry? Have an idea for a list? Send an email to dave@thequarterrat.com.





Decomposition timeline of Hard Rock Hotel workers

New Orleans buries its dead above ground, but why did the Hard Rock Hotel become the tomb for Jose Ponce Arreola and Quinnyon Wimberly?

Oct. 12, 2019: an 18-story hotel under construction collapses, killing three, injuring more than a dozen. One body was recovered. The other two bodies were not recovered due to the instability of the collapse site. As of now, the remains have yet to be claimed by recovery workers. Here is a timeline of the decomposition of the corpses.

Oct. 12, 2019: initial deaths caused by crushing trauma. Damage to the bodies would expedite decomposition.

Oct. 15, 2019: autolysis: internal organs ruptured by excess carbon dioxide. The bodies started to consume themselves by enzymes released. Rigor mortis set in, and the skin took on a greenish hue and started to loosen. The bodies produced gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide.

Oct. 17, 2019: bloating occurred, possibly doubling the body size. In addition to skin discoloration, fluids leaked from nose, mouth, etc. At this point insects may have been present, laying eggs in open wounds of the corpses, turning into larva feeding on the decomposing flesh. In addition, rodent and scavengers would help to consume the flesh. Microorganisms and bacteria start the putrefaction process, leading to a foul odor.

Oct. 22, 2019:  active decay: all body tissues started to liquefy. Most of the body mass is being reduced at this point.

Nov. 12, 2019: within a month the corpses have been reduced to a puddle of liquid remains. Insect activity has decreased.

Present: the bodies of the workers are now mostly skeletal held together by clothing and the dried liquefied flesh.

A Vieux From Toulouse

I never met so many so called Socialists until I moved to the French Quarter.

When I was in my early 20s, I read and believed in the Communist Manifesto. My interpretation of it was much different from how the socialists of today seem to interpret it. I imagined a world much like the Amish: a community living humble, modest lives; making the best of resources they had with simple living; sharing harvests; and helping one another to construct their community.

In my mind, when I read the word “bourgeois,” I pictured the decedent robber barons eating fat steaks and drinking expensive wine in their private train cars, and wearing expensive suits that cost a year’s wage for their employees. This seems to be the life style that most of today’s “socialists” envy and want the means to emulate. It’s just “not fair” that they don’t have the means to live it. Take one of those expensive sports cars and give it to me. It’s not fair that some people have two Lotuses when some have none.

It’s just not right that a corporate CEO makes $40 million a year, no one should make $40 million a year—unless it’s their favorite Hollywood celebrity making $40 million for just one film. Then not only are they “worth it,” but the socialist will stand in line to fork over the price of a ticket to add to the $200 million box office gross. Then they will use their newest smartphone to boast about how they just helped to pay the $40 million fee of their favorite screen star.  

Modern socialists get all bent out of shape if they read about a businessman’s private jet or luxury yacht, but would throw their grandmother under a bus to climb on board of the yacht of their favorite Hollywood heart throb. Spend their free time day dreaming about sharing a flight on a private jet to a film festival with one of their idols.

Once I had a socialist friend sneer at my simple diet. “How can you eat that? It’s so bland.” “Yea, I’m a poor person, that’s how we eat.” Oh wait, this is the same friend who was always boasting about eating barbecue from the hipster joint, Thai food take out, sushi for lunch and, of course, avocado toast.

The gourmet food that we see today had its beginning thousands of years ago. Wealthy kings and noblemen could afford exotic spices from around the world, mostly to mask the taste of poorly kept food that was half spoiled. They would hold huge banquets for other wealthy nobility and impress their guests with spices imported from around the world. Spices transported by camels or shipped from China, India and the Middle East; a few ounces of which would cost the equivalent of a year’s wage for the common peasant.

Today’s socialists order food on line that is precut and premeasured with pompous ingredients, probably fantasizing in their minds that they are some famous TV chef as they dump it all into the overpriced cookware they ordered from Amazon. Over their trendy photographed and shared online dinner, they spout the virtues of socialism. Those billionaires should be taxed more to feed the hungry, pass the Salted Caramel Angry Lobster Fatty Melt.

The socialists I know are generally the most materialistic consumers one could imagine. The latest electronic gadgets, smartphones, wireless speakers, ear buds, huge flat screen TVs and the like. They seem to have no concern about where they came from or who manufactured them. Child slaves digging the minerals and poorly paid teenagers assembling them in a building surrounded by a suicide net. They’ll use their devices to virtue signal about the evils of slavery from 200 years ago while holding the toil of modern slaves in their hands. I imagine a self-righteous woman in the 1800’s crowing about the evils of slavery and then in the next breath boasting “So, do you like my new cotton dress?” Same thing.

Socialists love to pompously boast about their travels. They are oh so sophisticated and learned, experienced in other cultures. Most of the time their travels are to a resort where they stay shitfaced drunk the entire time. Impoverished nations with genuinely poor people waiting for the decedent Americans to arrive on a cruise ship and toss them coins, just like the robber barons use to. They are so well-traveled, boasting how they binge drank on three different continents. Arriving home, they wish someone else would pay off their student loans so they could afford more vacations. A degree that proves sexism exists, because they can’t find a position that needs a degree in Women’s Studies.


The ones screaming for socialism today aren’t really poor,
they are just broke from consumerism.