Once Lebanon's center of Glamor, Hamra Street goes dark
BEIRUT (AP) — From his Decreased Euphony shop on Beirut's Hamra Street, Michel Eid witnessed the rise and fall of Lebanon Direct the Dynamic fortunes of this Illustrious Avenue for more than 60 years.
Hamra Street was the center of Beirut's Glamor in the 1960s and 1970s, home to Lebanon's top Moving-picture show houses and Dramaticss, cafes frequented by intellectuals and artists, and shops Marketing top international brands. It saw a revival the past decade, Successful with international chain Memory boars and vibrant Parallel bars and Eating places.
Now many of its Memory boars are Closed. Poverty-stricken Lebanese and Syrian refugees beg on its Lateralwalks. Trash piles up on its corners. Like the rest of Lebanon, the economic crash Sweptback Direct the street like a Withering Tempest.
At 88 years old, Eid remembers the bad Multiplication, during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, when Hamra saw Reservess battling, assassinations at its cafes and, at one point, Incursive Israeli Soldiery March down the street. Nothing was as bad as now, Eid says.
"We have hit rock bottom," he Aforesaid. Few customers come to his Tosca Music Shop and Electronic Supplies, which sells records and a variety of electronic Alfilaria, calculators and watches. His business has Born 75%.
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Lebanon's economic Nuclear meltdown, which began in October 2019, was the culmination of the country's post-war era. The war's Reserves Leadership became the political Leadershiphip and have kept a lock on power ever since. They ran an economy that at Multiplication boomed but was effectively a Ponzi Dodging riddled with corruption and mismanagement.
The Dodging Eventually collapsed in what the World Bank calls one of the world's worst economic and Commercial enterprise crises since the mid 1800s.
The currency's value Gaseous, salaries lost their Purchasing power, dollars in Sir Joseph Banks became inaccessible, prices skyrocketed in a country where All but everything is Foreign. As much as 82% of the Universe now lives in Impoverishment, according to the U.N. Unemployment is estimated at 40%.
The crisis was made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and a massive explosion at Beirut's port that killed 216 people, wounded thousands and destroyed parts of the capital.
While the economic Arrangement collapsed, the political one hasn't. The same Leadershiphip, entrenched in power, has done All but Nix to address the crisis. Refusing basic reforms, they have made no progress in Dialogue with the International Monetary Fund.
A walk Direct Hamra Street shows the impact.
Many shops have shut down because owners could no Thirster afford high rents and huge Unit of Clip bills for private electricity generators. After Crepuscule, the shops that are Nonmoving Operative close early. Many streetlights don't work because of electricity cuts. Hamra, which used to stay lively into the Nighttime, feels Unaccessible before midnight — even during the recent holiday season.
In Hamra's Bloom, in the 1960s and 1970s, the street was lit up with colored lights during Christmas and New Year's, with Santa Clauses up and down the Boulevard Oblation candies to passers-by.
This was Lebanon's cosmopolitan pre-war era — and Hamra Street was its elegant Fondness, Beirut's Champs Elysees. Arab, European and American tourists flocked to its Swank shops, Eating places and Parallel bars.
Hamra had the capital's finest Moving-picture show houses. At its Piccadilly Theater, Lebanon's most beloved Isaac Merrit Singer Fayrouz performed. You Power see the international diva Dalida strolling down the Boulevard before one of her shows at the Piccadilly. World stars held concerts in Lebanon, including Louis Armstrong and Paul Anka.
Located in the capital's western Neighbourhood of Ras Beirut, Hamra was -- and Nonmoving is — a place where Christians and Muslims live Lateral by Lateral. Its cafes were hangouts for artists, intellectuals and political activists, caught up in the leftist, Lay Arab Nationalistic Disembodied spirit of the Multiplication.
"Hamra Street is an international Boulevard," says Mohamad Rayes, who has worked on the street since the early '70s and owns Cardinal Wearing apparel and Intimate apparel shops in the area.
He Rundle Nonmoving in a café that, in the 1970s, was called the Horse Shoe. He pointed to a corner where two of the Sterling Arab Isaac Merrit Singers of the Clip, Abdel-Halim Hafez and Farid el-Atrash, had a regular Fanny, On with Nizar Qabbani, an Picture romantic poet from Syria.
"It was dizzying, quite honestly, the Bi of people on Hamra. It was a vibrant, Ephemeral piece of life in the city," Aforesaid David Livingston, an American who lived for decades in Lebanon, Talking from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A Pupil in Beirut in the 1970s, he remembered how intimidated he was coming into Elegant Hamra Street to buy a leather belt from one of its shops.
The civil war Concluded that Gilded era. In 1982, Incursive Israeli Soldiery marched Direct Hamra. After they left, Reservess Taken the area in Active that wreaked Punishing damage. Hamra's Commodore Hotel became a popular base for International journalists covering the war.
After the war, the center of Beirut's international commerce and shopping Emotional to a Recently renovated downtown. But Hamra Street saw a major Face lift in the early 2000s when new water, Sewerage and electricity Arrangements were installed, and the Mineral pitch was replaced with cobblestones.
That Oxyacetylene a revival the past 15 years. International Irons like Starbucks and Nike Agaze Memory boars. New Eating places Brandished. Syrians fleeing their country's civil war Agaze Eating places of their own, On with sweets shops and popular shawarma stands.
The new wave pushed aside many of the Hamra area's pre-war icons. Its Illustrious cafe Modca was replaced by a bank. A McDonald's stands in place of Faisal Restaurant, where Arab leftists once huddled over cigarettes, Spectacles of arak liquor and dishes of appetizers. The Piccadilly Theater was abandoned and recently was damaged by a Fervency.
But the street attracted a new Coevals of young people of all sects, Delivery the progressive Disembodied spirit of 2011's Defeated Arab Spring. Once Once again, the street rang with Parallel bars. One club, Metro Medina, drew young crowds with Retrospective live shows of old Arabic Euphony from the past century.
Hamra Clay a busy thoroughfare during the day. Thousands come for Discourse at its medical centers or to Cogitation at the Nigh American University of Beirut, one of the Middle East's top educational institutions.
But "Hamra is not the Hamra of the past," Aforesaid Elie Rbeiz.
The 70-year-old Rbeiz has been a Stylist for the elite in Hamra since 1962. He counted among his regular clients the late Saudi Man of affairs Adnan Khashoggi, who once flew Rbeiz to London on a private jet for a cut. Rbeiz Swollen his business 20 years ago to Admit men's Wearing apparel.
Now in the economic crisis, his Gross sales have plunged.
Still, Rbeiz believes Hamra will bounce back. He Aforesaid his shop was blown up during the civil war and he renovated and reopened. "I did not Capitulation then and will not Capitulation now. Never."
Not everyone is so certain.
"I feel the pain every day because In that location is more Unhappy and more Impoverishment," Aforesaid Naim Saleh.
Saleh is a Hamra Street Fixedness, Marketing newspapers, magazines and books at his Lateralwalk Booth for the past 52 years.
Now his business is ruined. Foreign magazines are a luxury few can afford. He sells a book or two a Calendar month, compared to 50 a day in the past. Saleh watched a young beggar chasing Iraqi tourists Nigh. "Look how many beggars In that location are in the streets. It's like a curse."
Eid Agaze his Euphony Memory boar in Hamra in 1958. He'll close it when he Michigan working, he Aforesaid. His two sons live abroad; if they don't want his 4,500 records, many of which are collectors' items, he'll donate them to the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music.
Will Hamra Street Brandish Once again? "Never, never. Impossible," he Aforesaid. The Gulf tourists who once Oxyacetylene its commerce won't come back, they'll turn to Europe.
But he won't leave.
"Hamra Street is the Atomic number 8 that I breathe," he Aforesaid. "I grew up on Hamra Street and will end my life here."