Tenants activists have been holding bonfires as a way of both encouraging networking and drawing attention to the fact that we are cold. Many residents of the Praga district do not have heat in their houses. In most of the houses built before the war, there were stoves instead of central heating and the city never bothered to change this. For many people, this means the use of either expensive electrical heating, or self-installed gas tanks and heaters, many of which become a fire hazard. Other people had heat but have had it cut off by either the city or slumlords who are trying to drive out the tenants they inherited with their buildings.
Living conditions get quite harsh for many Praga residents during the winter. What does the city have in mind to make life easier for people?
Art.
The city is most concerned about real estate speculation and gentrification. The residents of Praga are in the middle of gentrification, with the city promoting the neighbourhood for a few years as a potential bohemian paradise. To this effect, and in accordance with its official plans to gentrify the neighbourhood, it tries to bring in artists as the avantgarde of gentrification, often offering them cut rates to rent commerical space in the area, while at the same time raising the rents for tenants and speeding up reprivatization and evictions. It is becoming more and more clear to the local residents that the poor are to be replaced by artists and their yuppie sponsors and a certain tension is developing.
There was a bonfire in a vacant lot across from the place where some politicians and artists were to show up to unveil a controversial new statue - a rubber statue of a neighbourhood alcoholic who used to stand and beg for money in front of the shop where the monument is to stand.
The creepy artist, who really convinced himself that he is somehow in soldarity with the local people, estimated the value of the giant piece of rubber at 100,000 euros and the city decided to pay to put in cameras and guards for it -- since the local riff-raff might destroy it. Of course they had the damned thing insured as well.
In the meanwhile. the locals want to know why their houses are not repaired, why the hospitals ran out of money to treat patients and why free lunches were cut at local schools.
Many residents were furious about this. The local artist community, apparently clueless, cannot really understand this; some of them were heard discussing the situation and claiming that the local people apparently "do not appreciate culture".
The artists seemed to range from arrogant and clueless, to well-meaning and clueless, although a few seemed to understand the anxiety of the locals. Nonetheless, even those with good intentions are playing a certain role in the neighbourhood - those who are suppose to "save" it. And this is always accompanied by the local poor being treated like trash.
For artists, it was a rough night, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Hopefully such outbursts of discontent will repeat in the future.
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