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

A neighborhood festivity

Evolution

• Empty lots and new building

• Unfortunate: A Moroccan restaurant changes hands 

• Unfortunate: 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

Renovated buildings across the street

# # #

A new real estate agency on rue Doudeauville

(Main Street)

 The arrow below points to this drawing. 

And its gentrified neighbor.

  

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Unfortunate: A Moroccan restaurant changes hands 

UNFORTUNATE: A MOROCCAN RESTAURANT CHANGES HANDS

A RESTAURANT WITH SIMPLE DECOR, MUSLIM TELEVISION AND SUCCULENT CUISINE DREW HABITUÉS WHO CAME TO CHAT

At 20 rue Myrha until 2016

  

The patronne was glad to be photographed.

Since then, 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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Unfortunate: fast-food replaces a convivial bar

UNFORTUNATE: 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 bar 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 NEW SHOPS INTERTWINE

THERE IS ONLY ONE SUPERMARKET, NO CHAIN STORES, NO ADS, BUT A MIX OF SHOPS THAT ARE TRADITIONAL AND NEW 

 Stores that overflow with African produce are even more prevalent than coiffeurs:

Rue Doudeauville

Rue des Poissonniers

At the time when the regrettable fast-food appeared and across the street from it, a shop for organic, locally-grown produce sprang up...

Vivre(s)

39 bis rue de Doudeauville

Many of the stores have their own personalities: 

• African music and the smell of spices

Koyaka Market

47 rue Myhra

• A store so simple there is not even a name. 

• Farther on

New shops 

• Cheese

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.

# # #

• Coffees and teas:

Brûlerie Barbès

14 rue des Poissonniers

A restaurant for watching a street that is full of activity:

  

Haïtian Mama 

20 rue Labat

Going 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:

Amiprimeur

10 rue Caplat

Minutes away,

the Maghrebin youths hang out at métro Barbès :  

At least from my outsider's view,

all goes well.

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Social services, key to the mix