III.5.7. GENTRIFICATION WITH BRAKES

MENU: 3.5.7. Gentrification with brakes

GENTRIFICATION USUALLY WIPES OUT LOCAL CULTURE. HERE CREATIVE NEWCOMERS BRING A (MOSTLY) HAPPY MIX 

Bank ad next to the Barbès metro

Bike repair at the heart of the neighborhood

Perry Féerique

32 rue Laghouat

Residents at a neighborhood festivity

Evolution

• Empty lots and new building

• Sad: A Moroccan restaurant changes hands 

• Sad: fast-food replaces a convivial bar

• But traditional and gourmet shops intertwine

• Social services, key to the mix 

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Empty lots and new building

EMPTY LOTS AND NEW BUILDING

    

STREET SCENES

Corner rues Cavé / Myrha

Uprooting, anonymous, 2014                        Youth center, 2020  

Rue Stephenson

2020

Rue Cavé

2021

 

Rue Myrha

2025

        Entrée to Black Paris

Renewed buildings across the street

# # #

A new real estate agency on rue Doudeauville

(Main Street)

 The arrow below points to these people. 

And its gentrified neighbor.

  

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Sad: A Moroccan restaurant changes hands 

SAD: 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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Sad: fast-food replaces a convivial bar

SAD: FAST-FOOD REPLACES A CONVIVIAL BAR

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

(FOUNDED IN 1995)

L'Omadis

43 rue Doudeauville

 

# # #

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 and retired to Algeria.

Now it is a fast-food

for chickens raised industrially. 

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But traditional and gourmet shops intertwine

BUT TRADITIONAL AND GOURMET SHOPS INTERTWINE

THERE IS ONLY ONE SUPERMARKET AND SUPERETTES BRING AFRICAN VEGETABLES ONTO THE STREET 

Rue Doudeauville

Rue des Poissonniers

Stores overflowing with African produce are even more prevalent than barber shops, while new gourmet shops bring a mix. 

• African music and the smell of spices : 

Koyaka Market

47 rue Myhra

• A shop with African products and no name 

# # #

Interspersed, new European shops that are personal creations: 

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

Vivre(s)

39 bis rue de Doudeauville

• Coffees and teas:

Brûlerie Barbès

14 rue des Poissonniers

• Cheese: Notice the recommendations on the window.

 

La Laiterie parisienne

   74 rue des Poissonniers

 

-- "I'm surprised to see such a shop in this neighborhood. How do you get on?" 

-- "Fine! At Ramadan women come to borrow the pails we use for milk to present the (excellent) cooking they sell on the sidewalk."

# # #

A restaurant from which to watch the street:

  

             

Haïtian Mama 

20 rue Labat

# # #

On your way back to the Barbès métro...

• Mothers and grandmothers sit next to the railings of the Square Léon park, selling products that they have prepared themselves:

"How much?" "One euro." -- "That's very little." --"But we don't pay taxes!" (They laugh.) They didn't want their pictures taken.

•  A block away from Barbès's frightening young men, a bar for artisanal beer suggests that co-existence is taken for granted.

 

Brasserie de la Goutte d'Or

28 rue de la Goutte d'Or

 

• Across the street a grocery too has flair

Amiprimeur

10 rue Caplat

Minutes away,

the worrisome youths at métro Barbès:

At least according to my outsider's view,

all goes well.

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Social services, key to the mix