II.2.5.g. CHANGE THAT IS BAD AND GOOD

MENU: 2.3.5.g. Change that is bad & good

 BIG MONEY WIPES OUT LOCAL CULTURE HERE TOO, BUT SOCIAL SERVICES AND CREATIVE NEWCOMERS BRING A (MOSTLY) HAPPY MIX 

Bank ad next to the Barbès metro

In brief

• Empty lots and new building

• A Moroccan restaurant changes hands 

• Fast-food chicken replaces a convivial bar

• French and African specialties spring up

• Social services, key to the mix

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Empty lots and new building

EMPTY LOTS AND NEW BUILDING

    

STREET SCENES

Transformation

(Corner rues Cavé / Myrha)

Uprooting, anonymous, 2014

The same site in 2020: a youth center with announcements for training and hiring, a pingpong table and a player. 

Construction 

(In 2021)

Rue Stephenson

Rue Cavé 

A new real estate agency...

...and a gentrified neighbor.

    On rue Doudeauville (Main Street)

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A Moroccan restaurant changes hands 

A MOROCCAN RESTAURANT CHANGES HANDS

SIMPLE DECOR AND MUSLIM TV MEANT AN AUTHENTIC AMBIANCE, WHERE HABITUÉS CHATTED AND THE PATRONNE WAS GLAD TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED

(AT 20 RUE MYRHA, UNTIL 2016)

Now the decor is imaginative but people don't talk. The owner agreed to be photographed, but from afar:

The original cuisine was simply served and succulent. Now it is elaborately presented and ordinary. 

There is no noticeable rapport between clients or between clients and staff.

Money is what counts.  

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Horrible: Fast-food chicken replaces a convivial bar

FAST-FOOD CHICKEN REPLACES A CONVIVIAL BAR

UNTIL 2022: ART, MUSIC, TELEVISED SOCCER AND POLITICAL DISCUSSION IN AN ALGERIAN'S BAR

(FOUNDED IN 1995)

L'Omadis

43 rue Doudeauville

 

# # #

Watching a soccer match is the Haitian poet Charles Sadrac.

# # #

"We don't have to agree on everything," Hamid Goudjil would cheerfully say, and we'd go on discussing:

Libre circulation des idées ("Free circulation of ideas")

# # #

But he sold the site to a real estate agence and now...

PHOTO

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French and African specialties spring up,

 

FRENCH AND AFRICAN SPECIALITIES SPRING UP

 ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE FAST-FOOD:

"There was no way we could find the 40,000 euros the real estate agency asked, but we could afford this corner."

-- Sonia, the cordial co-founder and owner

Vivre(s)

39 bis rue de Doudeauville

One minute away:

Nearby, spices and African music...

Koyaka Market

47 rue Myhra

...teas and roasted coffees...

Brûlerie Barbès

14 rue des Poissonniers 

Rayane kindly waited to close his shop for Ramadan as I took pictures, smelling the roasted coffee. 

...peanut products, etc., from the Ivory Coast...

Monsieur Abbé and his nephew Johannes

...grocery stores can have flair...

Amiprimeur

10 rue Caplat

(On the way to the Barbès métro)

...like made-on-the spot beer: A block away from Barbès's  frightening young men, co-existence seems taken for granted.

Brasserie de la Goutte d'Or

28 rue de la Goutte d'Or

# # #

Mothers and grandmothers

sit on the sidewalk next to the market

or the railings of Leon park,

selling products that they have prepared themselves:

 

--"How much?"

-- "One euro." 

--"That's very little."

--"But we don't pay taxes!" 

They laugh.

Like billionaires.

But the latter want their pictures taken,

these women don't.

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Social services, key to the mix

SOCIAL SERVICES, KEY TO THE MIX

AT AN EMPTY CORNER NEXT TO A MUSLIM BOOKSTORE, WHERE AFRICANS DISCUSS...

...ignoring the cutting-edge boutique behind them:

# # #

By shielding immigrants from gentrification's full ruthlessness, social services protect the creativity earlier pages describe...

...without hindering the energy we come to now. 

End of this section.

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