I don’t understand tourists who use their visit to a foreign destination as an opportunity to shop at a designer boutique identical to one nearer to home. Money (affluenza) truly is the root of all evil.
220
How touching. Let’s not forget however who the French learned the art of gentrification from.
The subdivisions. The malls. The chain stores destroying communities. The abandoned shopping centres.
They learned from the master.
55
My sympathies. My neighborhood and my town have been destroyed by gentrification, too. It's not just the character of the town, but the lack of character of the people. Sad.
86
It’s not just chain stores, but restaurants, too. Manhattan has been taken over by Pret a Manger and Sweetgreen. I recently had plans to meet my son at a Pret on 6th Ave. in the thirties and he wasn’t there. I called to ask where he was and he said that he was there. Turns out there were two of them facing one another at one intersection and we were each in a different one! We then walked for about ten blocks trying to find a restaurant that wasn’t a chain for dinner before a show at MSG and could not find one promising place. It’s all so sad, especially when I remember the joys of Manhattan in years past when every block was a new discovery.
148
The luxury chains are making cities like New York and Paris dull. When the creative, the eccentric, the fun is gone, there will be nothing but bored rich people, buying stuff just for the sake of buying stuff. The young, the creative, the artists, the writers, the actors and the eccentric old people will be gone and the cities will be boring.
147
I have lived at Bondi Beach for almost the last 15 years, and the same trend has destroyed a funky, fun neighborhood. We lost our hardware store - now another overpriced restaurant only full during the summer months. We've just received word that our post office - a heritage-listed building on Hall St, formerly the site of small local shops - will be demolished for yet more $2 million-plus condos, despite two years of legal fighting and the determined opposition of local government. Yes, our apartment is worth a (very) small fortune, but where will we go when everything we love about this place is gone? I'd feel better about it if funky was giving way to something other than unbridled capitalist greed, soulless and cookie-cutter twee boutiques and Air BnB-ready characterless boxes.
107
In the 1980s, the Marais was filled with small family shops, cafes and and businesses. By the late 1990s, these had already been displaced by designer clothing boutiques and leather bars.
Nobody can compete with the crushing economic power of international chains, or the greed of developers.
The loss of independent businesses providing essential services to local populations can only be stemmed by legislation. Either municipalities take action, or there'll be nothing but luxury handbag stores and multimillion-dollar flats in major cities worldwide.
109
I lived in Paris in the 1950's. Now, I live in Carmel. Both places are no longer recognizable due to gentrification. Both have been turned into tourist traps. On each of my subsequent trips to Paris, the loss of small shops was apparent. Fewer cheese stores, butchers, cafes & many of the shops necessary to maintain a neighborhood have disappeared. One less grocery/neighborhood or gathering place represents the canary in the coal mine. One less anything changes the feel of the quartier. Quelle dommage! For an uplift, read the Rue des Martyrs to capture a vision of a Paris neighborhood. And wipe your tears...
78
I wish the brothers a very happy retirement. Perhaps only a worldwide economic crash will put an end to gentrification, at least for a time. If big, mostly useless, stores die in a crash they won't be missed and in their place will reemerge useful shops that people need-such as this beloved mini mart. We need more bakeries, butchers, vegetable stands, shoe repair shops, consignment stores, hardware stores, bookstores, and mini marts, not more luxury clothing and perfume stores.
75
I live less than five miles from the Amazon headquarters in downtown Seattle so I know what development does to a city. Somehow though, I expected France to be better at preserving independently-owned bookshops, cafes and markets than we are here in Seattle...and San Francisco...and New York...
69
@Deborah The French are very good at preserving bookshops, cafes and markets but Amazon remains to be a battle.
25
Gentrification seems to actually be a form of poverty where human relations are replaced by spending money.
121
Money talks. Nothing else really counts.
That is our system. And also, everyone else's.
36
Thank you for this affectionate tribute to a neighborhood institution. However, it seems a small cruelty to mention a store cat in the headline and fail to provide an accompanying photo.
131
This is happening in cities around the world. Big money kills the local, human scale and eventually the soul of a city. It's death by a thousand cuts. I spent a lot of time in Paris 30+ years ago and was excited to take my kids a few years ago. I was stunned by how bland the city was becoming. The Champs d'Elysee of my memory - full of charming locally owned shops and cafes - had morphed into a grotesque array of corporate garbage - Disney Store and Pizza Hut. I'll never go again.
113
same thing, Portland Maine. empty luxury , expensive condos, empty stores, no more family town feel.
44
places such as Paris may be killing the goose laying their golden eggs as it turns into anywhereville, why bother visiting yet another expensive shopping district like all the others, But consumers are to blame too. Shop local as much as possible, avoid the predatory chains, especially if you are fortunate enough to visit Paris
94
When we stayed in Paris over the last 20 years in a nearby hotel in the Marais we used to buy often fruits, juices and softdrinks from this Minimart. The seller was always very friendly and it must have been very convenient for the people who lived in the neighborhood to buy some of their daily food and beverages. Now the Marais has become more and more a highend shopping mall with thousands of tourists flooding the streets especially on sundays. We are glad that the Sentier and Faubourgs districts are a good alternative to the now boring Marais district.
42
Don't shop at this high end stuff. Give your money to where it matters it's not a company.....buy local.
45
A sad story, but the writer is suspiciously vague about what happened ("made an advantageous offer for the space").
It sounds like closing was actually the brothers' own choice after getting a lucrative offer on the space. It doesn't say they were pushed out due to rising rents. Two different things, in my opinion.
45
God downtown Paris will look like Disneyland. Do people really want that.
27
Is this where the Bodega Cat originated?
7
This trend is so destructive to the fabric, the essence and the soul of Paris. Just as the same trend did to Manhattan. What greed has done to these two loves of mine is unforgivable.
43
Is Las Du Falafel safe?!
14
@Paul Gitlin
Still there. Google it. I just did.
8
"... rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie ..."
That street and the neighborhood can be explored in Google Street View.
This link* shows the marché described in the article. The stores to the left and right have changed since the oldest view, dated 2008. Also, note that there are apartments on the upper floors of the building -- some have flower boxes in the windows.
* Google Street View link showing Au Marché du Marais:
https://goo.gl/maps/1TamMDk4EscK7n9Q8
9
Seems this is happening everywhere and robbing neighborhoods of their soul.
31
“How is a bra going to replace my orange juice?”
These days you can use Uber Eats to order food and beverages etc. so you can still order orange juice.
2
"These days you can use [a certain food delivery service] ..."
While "touring" the neighborhood in Google Street View, I found a bicyclist wearing a backpack with that name on it:
Google Street View at 64 Rue de Rivoli in Paris
https://goo.gl/maps/9LtVin7Dq2ZfatsZ7
(Note the black Mercedes sedan that is parked on the street.)
"... so you can still order orange juice."
OK, but a food delivery service can't replace the groceries and gossip function of the marché. From the article:
"They [the brothers] held people’s keys and knew all the latest news on marriages, divorces, children, thefts, rivalries, real estate deals — the list goes on."
25
@Janus
Uber Eats? The best egg, cheese and bacon on a buttered fresh baked Kaiser lightly salted and peppered delivered hot to my door by the bodega on the corner was the best I've ever eaten, and probably ever will.
12
Have you ever been to Paris? What soul exactly is it you refer to?
2
Restaurants with resident cats and old ladies who will start chatting with you and don't mind if you speak bad French.
37
retiree George Fischer : “How is a bra going to replace my orange juice?”
That's a good question. There are numerous restaurants in the area, but it is hard to find a grocery store (marché).*
The neighborhood appears to be an example of a "food desert" like the one in SoHo described in a 2016 Times article:
SoHo resident Margo Lakin: “It’s not a food desert if you have the money and the means to get around, but for a lot of people in this neighborhood it is.”
Fears of Food Desert in High-End SoHo as Grocery Closes
By Sarah Maslin Nir
Dec. 30, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/nyregion/soho-met-food-grocery-closes.html
* Per browsing in Google Maps.
7
Whole Foods can be a grocery desert. I have to take a bus uptown to a more affordable market.
9
In my QNZ NY neighborhood, someone tagged a wall:
GENTRIFICATION IS GENOCIDE
24
Even in my city -- East Coast, about 600,000 in the city proper ( = excluding the surrounding 'burbs) -- this has been happening. One of two family-owned hardware stores is gone, and the second hangs on only because it's, oddly, in An Affluent Neighborhood where those in $700K houses can afford to pay higher prices (and there are enough hanging-on-by-our-fingernails arty-fartsers like myself nearby who are determined to buy local whenever we can).
The Affluent Neighborhood's non-chain pharmacy held out as long as it could, but it's gone. As are all of the other non-chain pharmacies. There is one street, about a mile away (in what *was* a blue-collar n'hood and has gentrified up to professional middle-class) that's ferociously dedicated to boutiques and small restaurants, and I think it might survive, but only because there isn't enough parking to make the area attractive to high-turnover-required chains.
What we lose when we lose these human connections, and the human scale of a small store, is immeasurably valuable. Humans aren't wired to live as we're living now -- as parts of huge, impersonal groups rather than intimate sub-groups within a still-manageably-sized congregate -- and the increasing dysfunction of the world makes that clear.
But by the time those in power those in power finally see that the cost of this big-box anonymity far outweighs any profit benefit, it will be impossible to put things back as they ought to be.
30
How very sad and maddening. What made Paris, Paris is the charming neighborhoods and the inhabitants including the small shops and restaurants. When I worked in NYC in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the only and I repeat, only chains were local!! Whether it be Duane Read Drug Stores or Barnes and Noble Booksellers (founded in NYC) that was what made New York City, New York City.
Seattle is now finding itself in this same fix and frankly, it is disgusting to me. Yes, I know we are home to Starbucks and Amazon which I rarely ever patronize. Perhaps I am old fashioned but when there are only regulations and laws that seem to benefit the Goliaths of business and we in Seattle are lesser for it. It seems that in Seattle, the city government has made it prohibitive to want to shop downtown due to extreme parking rates among other issues. We here in Seattle no longer have a vibrant Central Business District with small mon and pop shops BUT plenty of over priced restaurants!
This will come back and bite us all someday. So depressing to see when the heart and soul of a city let alone, people’s livelihoods are vanishing with not possibility of returning.
32
This is why government is important - to check unbridled capitalism. This article could be about any neighborhood in NYC but it reminds me especially of the West Village. I would be all for government subsidizing small businesses like the one in this article in order to keep out the big box stores. Many people want to shop local and not just add to the wealth of Target, Barnes & Noble and Duane Reader.
23
@figure8 I am very old fashioned. I have never been to a Starbucks or ordered from Amazon. I buy everything local. Small, local shops are so much nicer. I guess I sound really ancient, I am 57. My son is 24 and shops the same way as me. I enjoy a slow life.
24
The Village used to be amazing - glad I knew it in its heyday, especially all the shops and cafes and that little place with the buttered rum and borscht. We would hang out there all night, watch the Chaplin movies they projected on the wall, and drink tall glasses of rum. I can still taste it, and taste the dill in the borscht. And remember the Oscar Wilde Bookshop on Gay Street?
16
This is so sad that the charm and warmth of these neighborhoods and the beautiful, friendly relations between the people and shop owners are coming to an end. Neighborhoods wither away as the conglomerate shops and buildings takeover and communication becomes more impersonal. What had been taking place in Marais for many years is what brings people together. The gentrification will only cause a great divide in these flash and cash stores.
24
This has happened everywhere. About 15 years ago I started to realize that every time I went back to London, any time I came out of a tube station (the underground) anywhere in the city, the shops were all the same - the same set of 7 or 8 chains had basically taken over the entire city. Over the past 10 years it's gotten worse and worse - all the independent coffee shops and cafes have been replaced by Costas and Valeries and Neros, the pubs are all owned by brewery chains, the WH Smiths don't even carry books any more (thank heavens for the Waterstones on Piccadilly), and all the smaller shops are now TopShops and Nexts and other designer chains. It's so depressing!
And of course there's our own Soho, where the luxury brands moved in, priced all the local shops out, and then leaving because the rent gets higher and higher...
82
@NYer London might be the worst offender in this right, and the blandest of the European metropoles.
16
Sad to realize that perhaps I feel so much at home when I visit a Paris each year is that it so much reminds me of my home for the last 40 years, the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.
16
We need a new form of regulation of capitalism to prevent the kind of excessive consolidation and concentration that goes on in these industries. The point should be to encourage very small scale capitalism, not mega capitalism for globalized giants.
69
@Le
We can only vote with our feet and out wallets to regulate.
6
This happened to my aunt’s neighborhood on East 74th St, NYC in the 1990’s. In the space of about three years on the three blocks right around her they lost two small burger-type restaurants, a bookstore, a tailor, a grocery store, a stationary store. Replaced by designer boutiques. It was a hardship for several of the very elderly residents who had to walk several more blocks for groceries etc. And some of them had depended on the little burger joints for at least some meals and socializing. Afterwards they became very shut in. Basically highly useful neighborhood stores replaced by stores you would only enter once or twice a year if at all.
75
The eternal Paris, an enchanted city no more? Is this the price of gentrification, akin to what we see elsewhere, even close to home (NYC)? What a loss of community, even rersentment of those that considered their home until now, now unable to stay and belong, pushed out by the rising cost of living...while luxury stores, even chain stores, make their 'triumphal' entrance. How 'poor' can things get, not only economically but in spirit? However much democracy is what we need, it's reality is still far away, awaiting solidarity, where we fight for each other's benefits to 'belong'.
25
Cities and neighborhoods evolve over time and the changes are not always welcomed by long-time residents. That's nothing new. There were no doubt residents who didn't welcome the L.G.B.T. arrivals in the same neighborhood years ago.
Change is a sign of a city that is thriving and a place in which people want to live. We do have many places that are largely free of this type of development as their economies die and people who have a choice move away -- it's not a situation to be envied.
2
@Joel :
but do all the "new" shops and stores HAVE to be owned by mega-international giant soulless corporations?
45
@Joel Change is a sign of a city that is thriving and a place in which people want to live. Actually it is a place in which WEALTHY people want to live.
31
@Joel Change for the sake of change is not a healthy thing nor is it a sign of a thriving city. NYC was unique because it was all local and small commercial establishments. So, “start spreading the news, I’m leaving today....”
12
Wow. I was actually in the brother's store about three years ago. it was after 10pm and I was looking to pick up a couple of beers to take back to our hotel. Liquor licensing laws prohibited them from selling alcohol after that hour but they sold them to me anyway with the proviso I tuck the brown paper bag under my arm and hasten quickly from their store in case I was seen by any wayward eyes. My brief encounter and the articles description of them as part of the community brings back fond memories. Sad to hear their shop is being closed but very grateful for your article and the additional color it adds to my memories. May they both have a happy retirement.
70
Paris is a large vibrant city! Avoid the touristed neighborhoods. Head to remote corners of the 18th and 19th arrondissements among other neighborhoods where commercial rents are affordable to experience a more real version of the city...
26
@ruehermel
The Rue Sant-Ambroise in the 11th Arondissement is a nice neighborhood shopping street. It's just west of the Montparnasse Cemetery, and is readily accessible by Metro, There's even an Oxfam bookshop there.
12
Could someone enlighten me how these stores make money? Soho is filled with high rent blight and these luxury shops barely have anyone in it. I understand about drug store or bank can make money in NYC. But these retail? Anyone in the industry knows?
47
@Angie they don't necessarily make money. Because these are chains, they may lose money on certain locations which are basically their showrooms in high-traffic touristy areas.
20
@Angie Its all in the internet - got to be - who else would shop there, like you say.
2
As I read this article I couldn't help but reflect the same thing is happening here in NYC, and especially in Berlin, Germany where I grew up, and which has become the epicenter of all things hip since the Wall came down.
In fact, every time I go back it's harder to find the real soul of a city that was once divided and people avoided because of it.
Now. Money is being thrown everywhere, and small stores and apartments are unaffordable as the big chains move in.
It is a story being repeated everywhere.
Quel dommage!
52
The investor class never creates anything. They simply steal the hard work of our creative communities and make it their own once it matures and that includes neighborhoods.
200
Well stated, Hissam. Thank you for your observation.
15
Thrilled to see that the same, repeated story about gentrification can be franchised to other cities. Here is a suggested list to keep your reporters busy:
Berlin
Cairo
San Francisco (just kidding, you got that!)
Mexico City
Edinburgh
24
@Michael Phillips Please do not forget Toronto!
7
@Michael Phillips
One has only to read Donna Leon's books about Venice to know that this disease is rampant. Stores filled with Chinese made souvenirs have replaced the little cafes, the shoe repair shops, the dry cleaner, etc. - the businesses that local people depend upon.
13
@Michael Phillips Having USA spent a week all over Mexico City, I respectfully disagree to your placing Mexico City on your short list. This wonderful city has wonderful (in massive numbers) tiendas (stores) and restaurants of all sizes ALL locally owned! And if that does not tantalize your mind, they have more museums than probably any large city in the world! By the way, Sunday’s. Are free days where you pay nothing to enter.
12
In a way, it's akin to what happened in Williamsburg the last decade, and SoHo before then. Just be careful Parisians - eventually the chic high-priced stores give way to soulless national chains, and you end up with a homogenized, bland neighborhood. It's what we're presently grappling with in NYC.
112
This breaks my heart. I rent an apt. in Paris for several weeks each year and have many friends there. It's mon coeur. I know this epicerie, and les freres are, indeed, warm and caring men. What's happening in the Marais is exactly what's happening in NYC, where I live: the erosion of all that made the city genuine, human, humane and real. The "Disneyfication" of Manhattan marches on, and each time I return to my favorite European city I'm confronted with the same thing. Tourists, selfies, overpriced soulless boutiques owned by Chinese conglomerations proliferate. Paris is still the most gorgeous and amazing place, and that won't change. But the things that made much of it non-touristic-the nooks and crannies-are.
99
And educated tourists don’t even want all of these luxury boutiques and giant brand stores. When I travel I want to see a streetscape that looks different and unique. I want to buy from shops I wouldn’t find at home. Who are all these soulless tourists wanting this high priced junk?
48
i've been to paris many times.
i've stayed in the 7th arr. all but twice.
however, i love walking in this most walkable of cities and, at least once, every trip i wend my way to the marais.
i discovered it quite by chance during my first of 25 visits in 1981 when i ended up at place des vosges.
it's obviously full of tourists these days, but i usually go in mid october and it's much more agreeable.
unfortunately, ma and pa shops are disappearing everywhere.
28
@brupic many ma and pa shops and restaurants still exist in Paris but not in touristy areas !
14
@gerard
i know.
i try to frequent them, but i doubt they're increasing.
i often shop in markets and eat in my room.
usually stay on bosquet close to the ecole militaire metro.
only exception every trip is a few visits to le josselin creperie near the edgar quinet metro. i usually go my first and last nights.
partial to the montparnesse and raspail markets. one on grenelle too.
6
@gerard
i should clarify that i didn't just mean paris or france when i said ma and pa shops were disappearing everywhere.
12
Well, look at the bright side. At least you don't have to pass a Duane Reade, a CVS, a Rite Aid, or a Walgreens on every corner like you do in NYC. I think these stores reproduce at night while we're all sleeping.
160
@Julie W. I remember when I first moved to the East Village (where I still live) in the mid - 80's - McDonalds on First Avenue was the only "chain store" of any type. Now if it's not an empty store front, it is a 7-Eleven, CVS, Duane Reade or a medical facility . Very sad.
20
@Julie W. Haha!
4
@Julie W.
Well, the good news/bad news is that even they are now waning as it all goes online. We'll soon bemoan their loss as literally nothing can afford to complete against Amazon et al.
8
My first stop would be here when in Paris, to buy a large bottle of fresh squeezed orange juice. Your store will be terribly missed.
Thank you for the fresh squeezed orange juice. A lovely memory that will be cherished.
53
The new generation does not have to like what we liked. That is change. Just like many other things - music for instance.
2
It's not just "a new generation." Just like in New York and other major cities around the world, there's a definite trend of pushing out local residents and beloved small business to make way for establishments that cater to rich tourists or aloof transplants. If people want to move to a city and become part of the existing community, that's great. It keeps the culture alive by adding new perspectives. However, what I observe is that people these days just want to claim their own little terroritory without getting to know their neighbors or investing the the longterm health of the area or caring about anyone else but themselves. Move in, make your money, move out. A community is more than just a collection of renovated buildings and chain stores.
79
@Jmart I agree but I am being pragmatic - this generation community exists in social media groups and not buildings and neighborhoods. As I read the story and saw the photos I don’t see any young people at that store.
13
@SridharC :
can the young afford to live there? Asking seriously.
7
I visited the Marais on my first trip to Paris in 1992, at the urging of a co-worker. On my way to see the Carnavalet Museum, which focuses on the history of Paris, I happened to see the mounted cavalry riding around the Place des Vosges park in their Napoleonic uniforms. Vive la France!
On recent visits, my wife and I have made friends at the Cafe des Psaumes, a little Jewish coffee house on the Rue des Rosiers with impromptu afternoon music and a variety of community services. There is also a delightful. kosher bakery next door. I urge those who visit Paris to go and enjoy these experiences while they can. It's sort of like visiting your neighborhood deli in Manhattan before the McDonald's moves in.
27
I visited the Marais on my first trip to Paris in 1992, at the urging of a co-worker. On my way to see the Carnavalet Museum, which focuses on the history of Paris, I happened to see the mounted cavalry riding around the Place des Vosges park in their Napoleonic uniforms. Vive la France!
On recent visits, my wife and I have made friends at the Cafe des Psaumes, a little Jewish coffee house on the Rue des Rosiers with impromptu afternoon music and a variety of community services. There is also a delightful. kosher bakery next door. I urge those who visit Paris to go and enjoy these experiences while they can. It's sort of like visiting your neighborhood deli in Manhattan before the McDonald's moves in.
5
I agree with the comments by “Half Sour” and “Really.”
If the local markets were owned by white Parisians and not Browns, Jews and other ethnic groups, this might not be happening.
France is growing seeds of Anti- Semitism, particularly, because the hate has not been properly checked over the recent decades.
Despite my lovely in-laws’ family being Parisian for nearly a century, I despair at the continued news of growing hate-red in France.
18
@PJMD anti-semitism is worse i the US :
" 29 déc. 2019 - Andrew M. Cuomo condemned the recent stabbing in Monsey, N.Y., as an act ... there were 1,879 incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States in 2018". " Authorities say that five people were stabbed north of New York City during a Hanukkah celebration". " There have been near daily attacks in New York City this year, a kind of slow-moving pogrom against Jews, particularly targeting ultra-Orthodox Jews. " " Jersey City shooting: six dead as officials say suspects targeted Jewish grocery"." The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was a mass shooting that took place on October 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The congregation was attacked during Shabbat morning services. The shooter killed eleven people and wounded six." Not properly checked either !!!
4
@PJMD
I don't understand your spin, making this about anti semitism. Can you explain how changes to Manhattan, Brooklyn, SF, Boyle Heights in LA, Polanco in Mexico City, are also losing the types of independent shops, as is happening in Marais?
9
@PJMD - While growing anti-Semitism, as well as Islamaphobia and general anti-immigrant attitudes, are a real problem, I think you're kidding yourself if you think this isn't happening in places where local stores have white owners.
9
I lived in Paris in the early 1970's. I speak French and worked for several French firms. It has been sad to watch the 'malling' of a city that once had endless streams of small, individually owned shops. Paris has lost its soul in many ways over the decades; it feels cold to me every time I visit but the loss of small businesses is a real nail in the coffin of a city that once felt like a series of small towns all in the same place.
I walked down a street in 15th, last year; one that had small, idiosyncratic shops for several blocks. I reported to friends that I'd found a moment that still resembled what Paris used to be.
68
It was only a matter of time before the disease of designer shops and celebrity restaurants struck Paris. I walked through Soho and the Village in NYC after being away for years. I didn't recognize them. Gone is the wonderful Bohemian atmosphere that made them what they were. They now look like an open-air versions of the Short Hills Mall. I'm sad for Paris.
138
@Frank
SoHo was ruined in the late 70s/early 80s with the mushrooming of galleries and the commodification of artist loft spaces as luxury living. Was not really "bohemian" after that, which was 40 years ago. It's true that the galleries all decamped en masse in the 90s as SoHo was further eroded to "upscale" retail that chased the galleries/restaurants and what little interesting stuff was there (now the same has happened in Chelsea). The multi-million dollar lofts are still occupied by wealthy, which is bizarre why they stay (so far) given how awful it is.
The gutting of the west village is truly horrific. The Soho of the 70s/80s displaced, for the most part, small industry/manufacturing/remnants of sweat shop in the cast iron buildings - it was not largely residential (at least at the core of it). The west village, OTOH, was a long-term, durable core of culture and counter-culture (and what you would call "bohemian". That loss to the celebrity wannabes with baby strollers and huge black SUVs is terrible.
13
Did I read the same article as the other commentators? Or even the same one the Author wrote? The brothers didn’t have to leave they sold-out for a lot of money! (Good for them) As they lament the killing of independent retail we find out its self inflicted, I’m sure when the brothers opened the store business was just ok, but as the area gentrified they were the beneficial recipients of the increased traffic and well todo customers, what people are pining for is human connection not an under stocked or shabby bodega, a bond you don’t get with an impersonal chain store,
The retail In the Marias district isn’t for the residents it’s for the day trippers and tourists, the same thing happened to NYC’s Charles and Elizabeth streets, It’s the breakdown of family of leaving your hometown to venture to big world that causes people to substitute the corner store for the kitchen table. Life in the rear view is always nostalgic but it’s not coming back, so get over it, I’m sure the gleaming counters and variety and lower prices of the new supermarkets will win you over soon enough,
25
@Ray L --Maybe I am reading this report incorrectly, but my take is that the brothers RENTed the space and lost it when the building's owners sold. That 's how storefronts work, generally. Rents are astronomical in most big cities, and no one "normal" (working class? middle class? not Citizens United?) can pay them.
35
@Ray L I seem to have read it a bit differently. The son of one of the brothers was working in the shop so, I respectfully do not see what you
5
What’s happening now in the Marais, a neighborhood I have loved visiting and stayed in every time I’ve visited Paris, has already happened all over New York City. My most recent visit there in 2018 will probably be my last staying in that neighborhood. The magic is gone. The streets are clogged with tourists- yes, I’m admittedly one of them but do try to live like a local- and the stores now mostly sell overpriced wares that are also sold online. The good restaurants are impossible to get into and the bad ones are overrun with people too.
47
It is so sad to me, a "visiting Parisienne" for 30+ years, to see my favorite neighborhoods lose their character to chain stores over and over again. These stores have money and corporate backing, but they are not special. Same merchandise on every block. Same merchandise on every customer. I actively seek out private boutiques where I can spend my money on special items and help keep individual merchants afloat. It never fails me, "That is beautiful, where did you buy it?!" "Paris!"
38
Same in great Washington DC. No more bookstores— but BANKS on every corner.
81
@Curiouser and Curiouser - Are those banks as empty inside as those in my city? I'm old enough to remember when going to the bank meant standing in one of several lines waiting to get to a teller. Now when I go into a bank, there are usually no lines, maybe two tellers with no customers, and a few platform employees helping one or two customers. Not wasting time in line is nice, but I wonder how long these banks will stay there with so much business now conducted electronically rather than in brick and mortar buildings.
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@Annie , one bank--Capital One--has a coffee shop inside, at Gallery Place in DC. It's a sign of the times that I was thrilled to see that it wasn't just an empy bank. Yes, the shop is a chain (Peet's), but people hang out there, so there is a thin silver lining.
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Not mentioned in this article: Le Marais’ role as the hub of Jewish life in Paris has declined because the Jewish residents, increasingly under threat of attack by anti-Semites (and an indifferent government that refuses to acknowledge an issue exists for fear of being criticized as Islamaphobic), have been emigrating from France. To write an article like this without referencing that context is fundamentally misleading.
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@Half Sour I was about to post a similar comment until I came across your post. I second that opinion!
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@Half Sour That is not true. The rue des Rosiers is alive and well and if you walk there on any day it's one of the busiest of the neighborhood. And as far as I can see Jewish residents have not left but increased.
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I lived on the Left Bank in the late 1970s. So sad that the Parisian culture is giving way to chain stores. One more "shopping mall" city. Sigh.
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I lived in Paris in the 70's and 80's. The Paris I knew (6'th, 6'th 14'th and 13'th arrondisments mainly} is long gone along with the quirky charm. The spread of the atmosphere of the Rue du Fauborg St. Honore like a metastasizing cancer is unstoppable. Too much of good thing.
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I had the same experience, and share your view.
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@Stendhal Oh that is such a soulless area! Especially the tourists at Galleries Lafayette around the Opera! All the money, and glitter and no sense!
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@WJH I noticed this also on a return trip to Paris this year after 42 years of being away. It definitely feels different, but I attributed that to the march of time and technology. I thought it was urban renewal. I was really hesitant to see how much had changed and I see that some of the new buildings are taller too. But I still had a great time being a tourist in the Marais and other new-to-me areas. Much more bland, now--no more horse meat butcher shop across from the house where I rented a room in the 14e!
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Similar to NYC, and watching Soho Williamsburg East Village and Meatpacking districts change out of recognition
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Read back through the article, and wherein lies the problem? When and how did the neighborhood change; in retrospect what might have been done to maintain the Marais? Rather simple questions with simple answers.
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@Richard Berlin - Would you mind sharing these "simple answers" with us? It's not just Le Marais but neighborhoods here in the U.S., too. Many of us would love to find a way to stop the worst effects of gentrification. In poor neighborhoods, gentrification pushes out low-income residents from those who have lived there for years to people such as students who can't afford much in the way of housing and leaves them with few choices of where to live. Store owners who have persevered through tough times lose their businesses. In less stressed neighborhoods gentrification still can do a lot of damage, creating an impersonal, sterile neighborhood enjoyed by tourists but that offers little in the way of goods and services for the people who live there. So, yeah, what are these simple answers?
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Another sad reality of the rapacious encroachment of 'locust' capitalism. I love this neighborhood. I visit Paris every year on my birthday, May 29. On a recent trip, I had the best vietnamese food at a cosy place Hanoi, but was later shocked to learn that Anthony Bourdain had died. Terrible, because his love of Vietnamese cuisine was the main reason I scoped out Hanoi. I hope the brothers will be okay.
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It's sad but not nearly as bad as what's happened to New York. At least the Marais is in Paris where you can't build a 50 story condo for foreigners. The old buildings have storefronts, many of which are landmarked, that cannot be combined, so no CVS. In the next round of modernization, stores of any kind will be gone. Amazon, or nothing.
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@Mike Allan Please don't mention Amazon it has done so much harm.
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I have seen this in many places. San Francisco, Sausalito, Telluride, Canmore, the list goes on.
The happy little bohemian places of my youth get discovered, the big money moves in and pushes out the locals, the tourists come, the tourists go, the whole thing collapses to empty shops and empty streets. It is almost as if there is some kind of life cycle going on here.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ...
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@Alternate Identity
Well, no, it's actually exactly the opposite of "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". What we are seeing - what you describe accurately is a completely new phenomena. Gutting by Amazon syndrome. Boycott Amazon.
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I was staying around the Marais and the Bastille last week. I see some change but not a tonne. I think that part of Paris has not succumbed to gentrification as much as other parts, but I do think overall there is a trend towards Big brands coming in and wiping out older, smaller businesses. Mercifully the Sunday and Wednesday markets are still the same- the farmers still peddle the same fares out on Richard Lenoir!
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The sad truth is that while retail will continue to decline, these new shops will eventually disappear, leaving vacancies and a hole in the heart of these wonderful neighborhoods.
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We are living in a world increasingly run by apps. Everything can be brought to your doorstep. This harms “community atmosphere” but increases convenience and productivity.
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@Janus. Productivity? For whom? Just curious.
:-/
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