WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, OCL CA #344 - To read: From slums to Airbnb (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 From slums to Airbnb, before becoming a message stuck in the streets of

Marseille during the commemorations of the collapse of the buildings on
rue d'Aubagne, this is the title of Victor Collet's new book, published
by Agone in spring 2024. The subtitle, Petite histoire des luttes
urbaines à Marseille, sets the tone for the work. Already, in his
previous book Nanterre, du bidonville à la cité, Victor Collet retraced
the struggles that crossed the shantytown of Nanterre as the city
evolved, by bringing together archives and memories on the history of
immigration and Nanterre, in light of the present. From transit cities
to council estates, he reported on the transformation of the figure of
the foreigner, mired in what was then called the "crisis of the
suburbs". This time, it is in Marseille and more precisely in Noailles
that Victor has set his analysis at the heart of urban struggles. As
close as possible to the ground, he follows the stages of
gentrification, from the tragedy of November 5, 2018, which cost the
death of eight people to the explosion of seasonal rentals in recent
years in the neighborhood. The observation is heavy in the aftermath of
the collapses, with 40,000 unsanitary housing units and the eviction of
thousands of residents of the city center, caught up in the panic of
"the crisis of perils" as Victor Collet calls it and which has left many
homes empty. The book describes the workings of the reconversion of slum
landlords in favor of a tourist commodity, where the end of confinement
signals the beginning of profitability for lots of real estate investors
let loose in the heart of the city's unsanitary neighborhoods. A boon
for these developers and buyers who no longer have to bother with a
rental permit and offer "mobility" leases in complete legality, without
having to worry about taxation.

Throughout the story, lively words are put into dialogue with the
analysis of these processes of decay, gentrification, airbnbisation.
Victor gives voice to the residents and activists who have experienced
first-hand the transformation of the city center, gangrened by Airbnb
quickly, insidiously, making the residents disappear. Other protagonists
also see their words taken into account in the story: technicians from
the city hall's hygiene services, politicians and other real estate
investors; but also through the comments of tourists left on the Airbnb
platform. Marseille has become a trendy city, Noailles is labeled a
"rebel district", and anti-squat doors rub shoulders with furnished
tourist accommodation.

 From Slums to Airbnb tells us how the trauma of the past would like to
be quickly erased by a voluntarism of the present. The vivid description
with multiple voices offered by Victor Collet also shows us how the city
fights against its decor. Faced with the cynicism of a collapsed city
that sees the explosion of the seasonal rental market and the
flourishing of concept stores, the struggles against the platform in
recent years have continued to invent themselves: from the ransacking of
the accommodation offered, to the theft of key boxes, to street posters:
"From Slums to Airbnb", "Here a resident disappears every five seconds"
or even "Our dead. Your profits", a sign hung on the gates of the
"hollow tooth" rue d'Aubagne. And this "hollow tooth" precisely, where
it is a question of building a memorial imagined by an architectural
agency that proposes the development of a shared garden, a municipal
space and a place of meditation, with a delivery planned for the
commemoration of November 5, 2025. The show must go on.

This year, the commemoration of November 5 will have the breath of
battle since two days later, on November 7, the trial will begin to
judge those responsible for the collapses. From November 7 to December
18, the families and relatives of the victims, but also neighbors and
residents constituted as civil parties and who experienced the violence
of forced evacuations and the hardships of evictions will be heard.
Faced with Marseille Habitat; the technicians of unworthy housing and
the experts of the services of perils; facing the elected officials of
the Gaudin and Muselier era, including Xavier Cachard, then
vice-president of the PACA region and owner of an apartment at 65 rue
d'Aubagne while being the lawyer for the building's trustee; facing slum
landlords and corrupt trustees, it is an entire system of unworthy
housing that will be put in the dock. Hoping that this trial will make a
few heads roll and unbolt the systemic insalubrity of the city. In the
meantime, we recommend reading Victor Collet, who speaks from the inside
of the struggles and offers a precise and sensitive analysis of the
different components of the movements, the issues and the balance of
power. For Victor Collet, writing is a step aside, to allow a critical
look at urban mobilizations whose scope goes beyond Marseille, since
Airbnb is transforming our cities faster than rehabilitation plans,
threatening solidarity, killing sociability. Carrying the right to the
city against shock and cynicism, this is what this short history of
urban resistance offers us.

Manon

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4296
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