4 ms·

Someone needs to publish a list of all these 11.5-month-vacant apartments that rich people buy and that take up so much space, so that burglars can get in when

Someone needs to publish a list of all these 11.5-month-vacant apartments that rich people buy and that take up so much space, so that burglars can get in when they're not there. There should be an app for that. I'm sure there are home security measures up the wazoo, but those are technical problems. I could never hack the criminal lifestyle-- I have enough anxiety as it is-- but there are cases in which non-violent crime is a necessary social process. If the law won't provide the 6-month-and-1-day law that these cities desperately need, then let the burglars do it. When legal measures fail-- clearly the Powers That Be have not shown an interest in doing the right thing on the housing problems-- then resort to illegal ones.

epsylon 13y ago
There has been actually a few actions by some local associations to squat vacant buildings in Paris. One of the most famous of these squat was Rue de la Banque, nearby the prestigious Place de la Bourse, which owes its name to the Palais Brongniart, the old Paris Stock Exchange. The building had been bought by a bank and left vacant for years. By squatting it these three associations did a great thing and launched a national debate on housing conditions in Paris. The building was bought by the city of Paris a bit later (at a cheap price), and was converted into social housing that coincidentally opened just a few days back (on the 6th of june). [1] There was another famous squat, though much shorter-lived. An insurance had left a building vacated avenue Matignon (nearby the Palais de l'Élysée, where the French president resides) for 3 years. The association organized a squat, and they were expulsed 3 days later. I don't know what has become of this building as of today, though it seems there hasn't been any followup. [1] http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/paris-75/rue-de-la-banque-le-squat-a-cede-la-place-a-des-logements-sociaux-22-05-2013-2822769.php http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/paris-75/rue-de-la-b...
- Jacqued 13y ago
  I am 100% in favor of these actions, not so much the squatting itself as the fact that the city ends up turning useless offices into homes - there is too much office space in paris, and an awful lot of them remain empty. Also, social housing tends to drive the middle class out of the market : since it takes up 15% of the housing space in Paris and houses people who could not be on the market otherwise, it actually contributes to forcing the middle class out of Paris. (Not saying social housing in itself is a bad thing) SO if you combine : - too much office space - 15% of housing taken up by social housing - limitations on construction because the city is a giant museum - no extention of the city since 1860 (prices go down 20-50% when you change the postal code from 75 to 93 - ecological regulations that make buildings more costly to building every other year You get why prices have more than doubled since 2000. Paris is going to be a city without a middle class, with only elites, upper-class and poor workers
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- makomk 13y ago
  Don't worry, that's not going to happen in London though - the Tory government made squatting in empty residential properties a crime shortly after the recession hit, and are doing the same with empty commercial ones.

epsylon 13y ago

There has been actually a few actions by some local associations to squat vacant buildings in Paris. One of the most famous of these squat was Rue de la Banque, nearby the prestigious Place de la Bourse, which owes its name to the Palais Brongniart, the old Paris Stock Exchange. The building had been bought by a bank and left vacant for years. By squatting it these three associations did a great thing and launched a national debate on housing conditions in Paris. The building was bought by the city of Paris a bit later (at a cheap price), and was converted into social housing that coincidentally opened just a few days back (on the 6th of june). [1] There was another famous squat, though much shorter-lived. An insurance had left a building vacated avenue Matignon (nearby the Palais de l'Élysée, where the French president resides) for 3 years. The association organized a squat, and they were expulsed 3 days later. I don't know what has become of this building as of today, though it seems there hasn't been any followup. [1] http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/paris-75/rue-de-la-banque-le-squat-a-cede-la-place-a-des-logements-sociaux-22-05-2013-2822769.php http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/paris-75/rue-de-la-b...

Jacqued 13y ago
I am 100% in favor of these actions, not so much the squatting itself as the fact that the city ends up turning useless offices into homes - there is too much office space in paris, and an awful lot of them remain empty. Also, social housing tends to drive the middle class out of the market : since it takes up 15% of the housing space in Paris and houses people who could not be on the market otherwise, it actually contributes to forcing the middle class out of Paris. (Not saying social housing in itself is a bad thing) SO if you combine : - too much office space - 15% of housing taken up by social housing - limitations on construction because the city is a giant museum - no extention of the city since 1860 (prices go down 20-50% when you change the postal code from 75 to 93 - ecological regulations that make buildings more costly to building every other year You get why prices have more than doubled since 2000. Paris is going to be a city without a middle class, with only elites, upper-class and poor workers
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
makomk 13y ago
Don't worry, that's not going to happen in London though - the Tory government made squatting in empty residential properties a crime shortly after the recession hit, and are doing the same with empty commercial ones.