[StBernard] Taco Bell restaurants in N.O. East, St. Bernard rotting away

[Westley Annis]

It has been eighteen months since Katrina devastated homes and businesses in
the city and still hundreds of places remain closed. 
 
Many local mom and pop shops don't have the funds to reopen and their places
remain abandoned. But most of the national chains that do business in the
city of New Orleans and in other devastated areas have either gutted,
demolished or reopened their stores. 
 
With one notable exception: At least four Taco Bell restaurants in New
Orleans East and St. Bernard remain much as they were when Katrina hit -
laying wide open with rotted food, broken glass and piles of garbage. 
 
Taco shells still lay on the counters, mostly turning a moldy blue. Cob webs
cover the soda machines, packets of hot sauce are strewn on the ground and
some food remained in the deep fryers. What was inside the stores either
floated or was dragged outside, and the smell is hard to take. 
 
The putrid conditions lie in contrast to Taco Bell's fast food competitors,
many of whom have reopened, and all that Eyewitness News saw, had either
been taken down, or at the very least gutted. 
 
Next to one closed down Taco Bell in New Orleans East, a local fast food
chain - Burger Orleans - has come back and owner Peter Nguyen says that
despite what you would think, the closed down competitor is not good for his
business. 
 
"They have the money. They don't want to come back. I have no idea," he
said. 
Taco Bell is part of a company called Yum Incorporated, based in Kentucky. 
 
Tuesday they issued a statement to Eyewitness News saying they were looking
into the issue, but that they were only reopening restaurants that made
business sense. 
Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis said there is no excuse to not at least
have stabilized the situation. 
 
"Certainly we would have hoped after the storm, the minimum of boarding up
and stabilizing would have been done." 
 
Parishes like St. Bernard have condemned and fined some of the businesses
that haven't at least gutted their stores, but he said the issues aren't
always so cut and dried, even with what appear to be rich national chains. 
 
"What we've found is some of the franchises are individually owned and don't
have the financial backing we would expect," said Councilman Craig Taffaro. 
 
Here's the skinny:  http://www.yum.com/
They own KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers and A&W Root Beer.
 
Craig,  Somehow someone is responsible for this mess.  If this was an
individual franchisee who can't repair the business, then the corporate
entity should have to do something with this.
 
JLY