UPDATE 11. 11. 2011: Another restaurant (again a favourite of ours, Crama Domneasca) was damaged in a fire this morning. All a bit dubious?
It is difficult, two days on, not to view the fire which gutted the delightful French chophouse La Bonne Bouche on Monday afternoon as an accident waiting to happen. For while so many street level repairs have been made to the area, the upper levels of the vast majority of Lipscani’s buildings remain woefully neglected. La Bonne Bouche itself was the victim of a fire on an upper floor: the damage to the restaurant was caused by the foam and water used by the fire crews.
According to this report, the people who started the fire were living in the building illegally. We would hazard a guess that the vast majority of people living in the Lipscani area are doing so illegally.
The report also suggests that the owners of La Bonne Bouche were unable to renew their insurance policy earlier this year because of the squatters above.
Surely the time has come to move them all on? We do not condone dumping people on the street, and the local council should be responsible for finding those made homeless new homes, elsewhere. But the fact remains that until the upper levels of these buildings are cleared, it is highly unlikely that anyone will invest in them, and the renovation of the Lipscani area will remain purely street level. What’s more, the risk of further fires such as this occurring will remain. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt in this fire, mainly through the intervention of one particularly courageous fireman. (Another problem in Lipscani is that he narrow streets do not facilitate quick access to fire engines).
As for La Bonne Bouche, we do hope it reopens soon. It is one of our favourite places in Bucharest. Indeed, when easyJet asked us to write about a particularly good new restuarant in Bucharest for its in-flight magazine last year, we chose La Bonne Bouche.
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Slightly newer and more sophisticated rescue apparatus in New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E2qxawWWcs&feature=relmfu
Slightly higher and hopeless budget deficit all across the States
Third-world America: Michigan city cuts power, removes street lights due to inability to pay electric bill In response to financial problems, some US cities are choosing to cut basic public services like trash collection, fire and police forces, and road repair just to stay afloat. But one city in Michigan has decided to cut its power instead, which has left more than 11,000 local residents without street lights. The Associated Press (AP) reports that Highland Park, Mich., a small city embedded within the heart of Detroit, was unable to pay its roughly $4 million electric bill this past year. So to eliminate this expense, the city not only turned off all 1,000 of its street lights, but also had them completely removed from the ground. Located in an area already plagued by high crime and widespread urban decay, Highland Park has essentially signed a proverbial death warrant by cutting public power. The city has already lost nearly half of its residents over the past two decades and is reportedly $58 million in debt — but the elimination of its street lights basically ensures its continued downward spiral.
When this economic crisis ends, Europe will be Muslim and America will be run by the drug cartels.
Wow, Parmalat, you’re really convincing me here that Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace…
Who said it was a religion of tolerance and peace for non muslims?! It is a religion of tolerance and peace for muslims only.
Salafi Islam is a religion and a social system opposed to democracy, a real alternative for oppressed people around the world. And it is also the future of Europe if you ask me cause where dissolution of morality kicks in, extremist ideologies tend to accede to power.
Of course, it could be worse… the future of America is in the hands of Mexican drug cartels =))
These are the gypsies who control the parking lots around city center.
‘Control’? They control nothing. You just tell them you’re not giving them anything and tell them to bugger off.
The other day I saw one of these characters trying to convince an Italian he had to pay to park on a central street. I went over and made sure the Italian realised that he didn’t actually have to pay anything.
These characters feed on people’s naivete and – to a certain extent – fear.
And what do you do do if they scratch your car or cut your tires for not paying?
They won’t because at the end of the day these pikeys are cowards.
I wouldn’t bet on that. Gypsies are like stray dogs – more prone to attack when they come in packs. And when they tax parking they come in packs.
They’re gonna scratch your car and tell you they know nothing about it. And that if you paid – they would have taken care of your car.
You’re taking chances with them, one day you’re gonna find out that they damaged your car for a year’s worth of taxes… I avoid those central areas and rather park 500m away from my objective or if I really do have to park in their areas I just pay and that’s it.
And promise myself that in the first moment when I get the chance – I’m gonna hang them by the lighting poles.
I own a car, infact I own a very nice car. However, I never ever drive her when I am in Bucharest. She stays in my underground garage. You see, as much as I enjoy driving her, I much prefer to use a Taxi. And not just any old taxi either. For me,it has to be Taxi AS. They are, in my opinion, the best in town!
Was she born in Germany?
Yeah, sometimes I prefer taxis too. And the subway, especially when I’m out for a walk. My fav is Meridian Taxi cause they have a lot of drivers in Berceni and I can find a car quickly.
Each taxi company has an area where they create a density of cars and that area usually lies around the neighborhood where their hq and antenna is located. You probably live around the area where Taxi AS caters.
For example if you try to call for a Meridian in Baneasa, chances are that you won’t find a car or you will find one with a 10 minutes waiting time. But in Berceni you’ll get it in 2-4 minutes cause they create density here and people are already used to the company.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right. It’s all the fault of the Roma.
What Romanians really hate about the Roma is now much they show they have successfully adopted the rampant bad habits of Romanians. Roma lie and steal? Just look at the public and private corruption of Romanians and their disregard for the law. That Roma litter? Romanians are world-champions at this activity. That the Roma treat their children badly? Consider the outdated disaster of the corrupt Romanian education system. That Roma treat women badly? Look at the disgusting ways Romanian men treat women of every nationality and stripe.
The only thing the Roma are guilty of is being such good students of their masters.
As the Koran says: You correct yourself first, then your family, then other people.
I know that Islam forbids any form of racism, but that rule is only valid within the Ummah; as far as I know, the RRoma population (with a double R, that is the politically correct form) have not converted to Islam and even more than than – their ancestry is Indian so they can not benefit from the protection of the word of Allah (SWT) which is in the Qur’an.
Unless they convert, cause Allah (SWT) is always ready to accept a person which accepts His word. But I doubt they will.
Outside of that, the difference between Romanians and gypsies is that the percentage of gypsies who shamelessly break all moral rules is way higher than the percentage of Romanians who do the same. No wonder prisons are full of gypsies even if they are only a minority in this country.
And another thing which you said and it’s wrong: RRoma have not learned anything from the Romanians, not even the language cause they have their own language containing roughly 500 words, out of which “knife” (shuri), “to beat” (te maras), “to steal” (te ciordes), “to kill” (te mundares), “scam” (hohaimos) are some of them. It’s the other way around: decent Romanian people have been perverted by the vicinity of shameless gypsies.
And that’s why mostly in poor neighborhoods where Romanian population gets in contact with gypsies, young Romanians use a vocabulary containing expressions derived from rromanes (gypsy) language:
“I-am ciordit telefonul” (I have stolen his cellphone)
“Am scos suriul la el” (I have threatened him with a knife)
“Hai sa-l mardim pe ala” (Let’s go beat that guy)
And examples can go on; even the slang expression for blowjob in Romanian language (“muie”) is derived from rromanes (“mui”, meaning mouth).
I’m surprised by a such a mediocre attempt at a sidestep.
Your Koran commentary is completely off-topic and belongs to an interpretation of Islam reserved for a very small group of people, perhaps as small as one.
Minorities are almost always incarcerated at higher percentages than majorities, which I’m pretty sure you know but refuse to admit.
Yes, it belongs to Al-Qaeda.
Are you a gypsy? You don’t sound like one, gypsies don’t use words that don’t address primary instincts.
I think I remember what you are.
“Minorities are almost always incarcerated at higher percentages than majorities”.
And sometimes left to starve to death as in Ghaza strip, right?
There’s also a Hungarian minority living in Romania and they are decent, hard working people and nobody has a bad word to say against them.
So your arguments don’t stand. Gypsies are gypsies, they are shameless, dirty, uncivilized, prone to committing crimes and generally speaking nobody has a right to come from hell knows where and insult the Romanian people by contradicting their experience of hundreds of years without offering a real aternative.
That is ignorance, and not only ignorance but arrogance.
I’m obviously not gonna share your opinion on gypsies as I’m sure you don’t share my opinion on Palestinians. And since we’re talking about minorities: I’ll stop hating gypsies when Palestine will be a state recognized by the UN.
Maybe brainwashing worked well in the West, but here in Romania we have hot received enough payment to share your [Western] opinions.
Expatescu: Is this you Pamalat?
No, he’s Expatescu, he always defends gypsies
I prefer to think that I attempt to push back the boundaries of ignorance, and I clearly have my work cut out here.
Go say it on CNN cause I don’t swallow that minority bullshit.
There are many minorities living in many of the countries of the world who don’t resort to atrocities as the gypsy minority resorts to.
The only minority who is entitled to use atrocities against the occupiers of their lands are the Palestinians who are constantly denied fair terms of peace. They have a right to use whatever means possible against the entity that threatens their lives.
The rest of the minorities who commit atrocities will be punished by the law and by public opinion.
Who would want to eat in a restaurant with a pack of pikeys living upstairs eh?
The race of those occupying the upper floors is irrelevant. Point is they are there illegally and this kind of thing could well happen again. The problem is exacerbated by the shady ownership status of a number of Lipscani properties.
As for whether or not people want to eat in such a place, they did, and in large numbers!
It’s not the first place where it happens, it’s only a place which generated some interest from the media.
Go to Piata Romana, where Caderea Bastiliei street starts and you’re gonna see a villa burned on the inside by these characters, go to Piata Victoriei where strada Paris starts and you’re gonna see another villa burned on the inside by these characters etc…
Go on Natiunile Unite Bd. behind the Ministry of Finance and you’re gonna see another building turned illegally into a gypsy hive, why the hell don’t they just go in the sewers and stay there…
Watch this
http://www.antena3.ro/romania/bucuresti-o-suta-de-persoane-evacuate-dintr-un-bloc-in-care-locuiau-abuziv-134123.html
But what am I saying?! You know better than me that they started to illegally occupy buildings in London while the owners were away.
I think we can leave the gypsies there cause there are clues that a high scale earthquake is quite likely to produce in the future.
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