Thursday, December 26, 2019

Cafés to banks

Stefan Zweig, writing in 1924 about Paris:

On the Boul’Mich the banks (as everywhere) have replaced the cafés.

“The Cathedral of Chartres,” in Journeys , trans. Will Stone (London: Hesperus Press, 2011).
It’s like reading Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, with one small local business after another replaced by Citibank.

Related reading
All OCA Stefan Zweig posts (Pinboard)

[Journeys was recently reissued by Pushkin Press. The Boul’Mich is the Boulevard Saint-Michel.]

comments: 4

Pete said...

And on Boul Mich (the Chicago version) both the cafes and banks have been replaced by global luxury retailers. Plus, oddly enough, a Walgreen’s.

Slywy said...

CapitalOne recently opened a cafe in Hyde Park.

Michael Leddy said...

And in BYC, the ubiquitous Duane Reade (same company as Walgreen’s), though the number of DRs has dropped.

The pattern — raises rent, forced out tenant, wait for big name to bite — is destroying real city life.

Michael Leddy said...

In NYC. Dang phone.