1 post tagged “noir”

Just read a great article on Spiegel Online (in German) about a collective of french students and young professionals in Paris that started an initiative to speak up against the high rental fees for single appartments. Young Parisians have faced a steady growth over 5% of rental fees in just a couple of years and more and more students and young adults can´t afford to live in the french capital anymore, unless they´re backed by wealthy parents or can prove a monthly salary that is three times higher than the rent.

The collective names itselfs "Jeudi-Noir" ("Black Thursday") in reference to the weekday on which appartments to rent are published as classifieds. Here is what they do:

It starts with a meeting during which the activists search the classifieds for flats with high rental fees (some are 850€ for 18 square meter or 720€ for 25 square meter!), call the owner to set up a visit and inform the group of where to meet. They show up with bottles and confetti close to the place and wait for a signal to join the two already in the house. As soon as the signal comes in, the whole mob enters the appartment to start a 10minute party with singing, dancing and drinking and leaves the owner with an open mouth. There seems to be two reactions by the owners: the ones who think this is quite funny and interesting and the others who ... call the police.

Check out the videos:

I think this is a great initiative and I´m sure this could spread throughout the cities that have been facing extreme rental fee growths.