Thursday, October 25, 2007

The return of the tents...


Winter is back and so are the tents (check this post if you're new to PDP). This time, they are not meant to attract attention on homeless people but on people who find it hard to find affordable housing in Paris. The tents are not located by the Canal Saint Martin in the 10th, but in the 2nd, in the center of Paris, around the rue de la Banque where three associations have already squatted a whole building (I posted about this here). The movement does not seem to be too popular this year, partly because several celebrities have come to sleep in these tents to show their solidarity.

21 comments:

  1. Interesting. I'm coming to Paris soon. Would it be possible for tourists, as well as celebrities, to spend a few nights in one of these tents? I wouldn't mind saving a few euros--with the exchange rate being what it is.

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  2. Luggi :
    Yes, you probably could, but the associations organizing this movement are so heavily trotskist ( yes, we have Communists AND Trotskists) that a vigilant FBI probably would not allow you back home !

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  3. I hope things don't get as tents as last year! Groan...

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  4. Ces associations sont grotesques, elles prétendent contribuer à faire avancer les choses alors qu'en fait elles ne font que foutre le bordel.

    Si elles étaient vraiment être efficaces, elles mèneraient des actions constructives, genre lever de l'argent pour construire des logements ou trouver des éducateurs, au lieu de ça elles se défossent sur le gourvernement. C'est tellement plus facile de protester que d'agir...

    Les pauvres gens qui sont dans ces tentes ont été parachutés en plein milieu de Paris par les DAL et autres enfants de Don Quichotte dans le seul but de faire leur promo.

    Et toi Eric - même si j'aprécie ton blog - tu marches dans leur combine en publiant une photo de ces tentes.

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  5. Le DAL est particulièrement actif et à plusieurs niveaux, aussi bien auprès des politiques (Mme Boutin entre autre), auprès du public (par diverses manifestations), que des sans toits en les aidant comme ils peuvent. Il y a aussi des actions faites au niveaux des droits.
    J'ai également publié quelques photos rue de la banque il y a peu :
    http://parisetenvirons.blogspot.com/2007/10/rue-de-la-banque.html

    Après avoir discuté avec les personnes concernés, je n'ai pas entendu du moindre parachutage... Je parle uniquement du DAL.

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  6. Groan Michael. How is it that the presence of celebrities makes it LESS of an attraction? I'd have thought they'd have pulled in the rubberneckers - or are they Z lists?
    Eric you should be one of the celebs - they'd be queuing up to take a shot of your face peeking out of one of those little tents.

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  7. In fact Michael, from some articles I read, some people think that celebrities kinda overdo it when they come and sleep in these tents.

    In other words, they think they do it to improve their image. Which, is probably not true. They simply feel guilty for being far richer than anybody and want to "redeem" this way - We have a Catholic background don't forget!


    It's a tough problem because not everybody agrees on this situation. Some tend to consider that our society should provide housing for everyone, but Governments tend to think the contrary...

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  8. Et oui, Anonyme, on peut considérer que je fais de la promo pour ces associations bien sûr, mais pas plus que pour le salon du chocolat il y a 2 jours ou un joli monument à visiter.

    Il se trouve que c'est un événement assez "Parisien" pour le montrer ; je ne dis pas que ce qu'ils font est bien ou mal mais simplement que ça existe.

    Comme dirait le slogan de la mairie "Aujourd'hui, ça c'est Paris !"

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  9. Eric c'est bien dit. Je suis tout a fait d'accord avec toi "Aujourd'hui, ça c'est Paris!"

    Anonyme: vous en bien colere. Faudait bien le faire savoir a Sarko et sont gouvernement aulieu de s'enfacher sur Eric et les Associations.

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  11. En ce qui concerne les celebrites, c'est marrant que le public se desinterrese, car ici aux US si on mettait Paris Hilton dans une de ces tentes, les gens feraient la queue pour aller voir ça du Mexique au Canada.

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  12. Celebrities in the tents??? Pfffttt!! Comme Arielle Dombasle?? The sac for her make up would be bigger than the tent. Instead of celebrities adopting refugee children, maybe they could start taking in mendicants??? Oh...barf..beurk...blechhh!!

    Eric...the "Red Sox" is Boston's Baseball team...that is why you heard so much about them when you were in Boston! They are in the World Series, which is like the "World Cup" of Baseball. They have what you would call a "Cult" following and many people are excited[obsessed?]about these games.

    The power of the euro over the dollar is to your advantage, so if you decide to come back to SF..We'll get you a Red Sox hat! LOL!!..and a SF Giants one too, to be fair. Sadly, the slump of the dollar makes it difficult for us to plan any long trips to Paris, hopefully it will come around[or even out..]sometime soon! ;-)

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  13. Things wouldn't get so tents, M. Michael, if you wouldn't create such a row. Of tents. Yeh.

    So, a guy walks into a brasserie...

    But seriously, folks, if we can overlook the Trotskyites and commie pinko conspiracies that rule the media, I think it's great that this 'event' keeps on occurring to keep the issue in the public eye.

    Go Rockies.

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  14. > Tonton. "The sac for her make up would be bigger than the tent" LOOOL!
    Thanks for the update on the Red Sox, but I did get that when I was there, believe me!!

    One last thing: "Sadly, the slump of the dollar makes it difficult for us to plan any long trips to Paris, hopefully it will come around[or even out..]sometime soon! ;-)" NO WAY, keep it that way LOL

    >Jeff. LOOOOOOL!

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  15. Jeff Re: the Euro & Dollar - as someone who can benefit from both situations, I see that I am able to send money to the U.S. and make a bit more interest (ok - a lot more interest) than here in France, but on the otherhand, I'm investing less in France. The same holds true for businesses, which is why I hope the situation doesn't last too long here. In the long term it will be bad for the European economy and cause a whole other set of problems.

    Hmmmmm....wonder if I should invest in French tents? Nah, I have a problem with the present and past tents so I imagine the future tents will be too complicated. (couldn't resist)

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  16. I'm surprise nobody here picked up on the advertising boad above the tents, looks like it promote 316m2 (3.401 sqf) of available commercial space in the area... to much commecial and office space, not enough affordable housing in Paris ?

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  17. Well, Ben, at the same time, I'm not sure people want to open a business in this neighborhood now...

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  18. LOL Ben! You must have my sense of humour.

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