II.4. VITALITY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS

CHEAP CONSTRUCTION MAKES THE OUTSKIRTS DREARY, CHEAP RENTS MAKE THEM DYNAMIC 

 Doll by Brazil's Marcia de Carvalho, founder of a shop that  we will come to

A fête in the northern periphery's La Goutte d'Or

Outskirts and immigrants

• Europe's "Chinatown"

• Eastern Paris, where new worlds emerge

• "Barbès don't panic"

• The unhailed energies of la Goutte d'Or

*      *      *

Next,

II.2.1

Europe's "Chinatown"

II.4.1. EUROPE'S "CHINATOWN"

MENU: 2.4.1. Europe's "Chinatown"

EUROPE'S LARGEST ASIAN NEIGHBORHOOD IS ON PARIS'S SOUTHEASTERN FRINGE

(IN THE 13TH DISTRICT)

Zoom

Symbols: tower and color

  A neighborhood 

that few associate with Paris

• High rises built in advance of their time

• A walk where cultures mix

• Color

• The Tang supermarkets

• Asians enliven a neighborhood of "Gauls" 

• Restaurants

• Asians come out of the shadows

*    *    *

Next,

 2.4.1.a

High rises built in advance of their time

HIGH RISES BUILT IN ADVANCE OF THEIR TIME HOUSE ASIAN REFUGEES

"OLYMPIADES," PROJECT APPROVED IN 1966, ABANDONED IN 1977

"The neighborhood needed cleaning up, 

but not in the way meant for the trenches of World War I.

One could 'renovate' on a human scale,

but this delirious and oppressive gigantism came instead" 

-- Léo Malet, 1978, 

Preface to new edition of Fog on Tolbiac Bridge

(Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac, 1956)

Meant to announce utopia, the towers seemed symbols of soulless

technocracy and their apartments did not sell.

"Will we still find what used to be

the living heart of the neighborhood...

workers and craftspeople, peaceful, humble folk, modest marginals [... ] little whores with flowers in their hair [... ] people who were not very smart, probably, but who were human [... ] they no longer have a place in this technocratic universe." 

-- Continuation

The towers hover over little houses. 

That rebuff let refugees from the Vietnam war find decent, affordable housing. Other Asians followed and "Chinatown" was born.

(From 1975)

                                          Zoom          Poster, Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration  

            Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration  

Poster announcing an exhibit on immigration of southeast Asians

Ramsay Casadesus Rawson 

The horizontal roofs were part of the original project, so recall pagodas by coincidence. 

# # #

A very different kind of place

• An enclave

• Autonomy

• Inspiration of the royal squares

• Historical panels that avoid what counts

*    *    *

Next,

An enclave

AN ENCLAVE

"LES OLYMPIADES" IS DETACHED FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

And color reinforces its difference from the sober surroundings:

*    *    *

Next,

Autonomy

AUTONOMY

IT HAS...

A mall:

The multitude evokes community, as in Black neighborhoods.

And as well as what one would find in a French town (a supermarket, a pharmacy, an optician, fast foods, restaurants, social services)...

"Sixth PRIZE

THE BEST TRADITIONAL BAGUETTE

 City of Paris, 2024

Pottery-making

Gatherings that lack a meeting-room (these activists plan a demonstration for migrants without official papers).

Only a bank and post office

 are missing.

 *    *    *

 Next 

Inspiration of the royal squares

INSPIRATION OF THE ROYAL SQUARES

LIKE THEM, IT IS SET APART...

*For the model, please click.

Its architecture is homogeneous and straight lines converge toward the center...  

Where there was, toward 2024, a statue of a king:

 

But it occupied the position of royal statues

or their later replacements, 

at the intersection of straight lines.

 

 Olympiades' architect must have deliberately

looked to the past to announce the future.

*    *    *

Next,

Historical panels that evade what counts

A HISTORICAL PANEL THAT EVADES WHAT COUNTS

IT IS ONE OF ABOUT 700 PANELS THAT DOT THE CITY, AND  LIKE MOST OF THEM SKIPS THE ESSENTIAL

This one is about construction. It says nothing about the abandonment of the project and of Asians finding affordable housing as a result. 

The details of building are irrelevant to most readers...

"Building this ensemble between 1968 and 1975 under the direction of the architect Michel Holley was an element of the restauration known as Italie 13. The site was then occupied by the Gobelins warehouse: it was rebuilt underground and covered over with a slab on which were built towers, buildings and boutiques. Underground automobile circulation, sites for walking and equipment on the slab, high-rising habitations, such were the principles of the functionalist urbanization [...].

That audacious modernist architecture became a cosmopolitan site, Asiatics establishing themselves there from 1975." 

Rejection of the "audacious modernist architecture" is not mentioned or "Asiatics establishing themselves there" explained.

By listing details of little interest they turn people away from history itself.

For other examples please click here —

and for an exception, here (please scroll down).

End.

*    *    *

Next section,

2.4.1.b.

 A walk where cultures mix

A WALK WHERE CULTURES MIX

 

TWO STREETS PIERCE THROUGH THE WHOLE SOUTHEASTERN FRINGE

(THE AVENUES DE CHOISY AND D'IVRY)

      Adapted from a Google map

Pharmacy on Avenue de Choisy

• Start at "porte" (gate) de Choisy...

• Come to the "Arc of Fraternity"

• There and nearby, cultures intertwine

*    *    *

Next,

Start at porte ("gate") de Choisy

START AT "PORTE" (GATE) DE CHOISY

 

Follow Avenue de Choisy to the crossroad:

Adapted from a Google map

   

*    *    * 

Next,

Come to the "Arc of Fraternity"