I never thought I would have the time or inclination to set up a blog, I'm usually too busy to actually write anything down. I've gone and done it though, mainly to document a campaign I am running that is taking up a good portion of my life. More of that later though.
First, I'll start with a little background.
My name is Paul Thornton and I live in a little village within Oslo, Norway called Grunerlokka. I'm originally from Preston, England but got stranded here several years ago when my Norwegian girlfriend and I parted ways.
After several years of single life in Oslo I met my Czech girlfriend, and very soon to be wife, Tereza. Tereza and I (mostly Tereza) have been running a little shop called Trabant for a couple of years now and it has become quite popular with the locals. We sell vintage and retro clothes, funky T-Shirts and a variety of alternative apparel.
We knew that our shops contract was expiring in October 2007 so we contacted our landlord's intermediary and told him that we would be happy to extend the contract for several more years. To cut a long, drawn out, story short we were (eventually) told that our neighbours, Nille, wanted to expand their new shop into our little shop and that we would not be given the chance to extend our contract. We tried to negotiate but we were basically told that Nille is a huge company and we don't stand a chance to match what they will pay. So, we were out!
At this point I started thinking about how our street, Markveien, had begun to change very quickly over the past months and years. The small, alternative, exciting shops owned by enthusiastic individuals were rapidly being replaced by large, bland, corporate chain stores.
Why was this happening?
It all started many years ago with a wonderful phenomenon called gentrification. Gentrification is a process by which run down areas become popular due to an influx of young people, artists, cafes, shops and, of course, money. Eventually the gentrification matures and turns into McGentrification (you won't find that in a dictionary). McGentrification occurs when all the big chain stores realise that there is a quick buck to be made by moving into the areas made popular by the small stores, artists etc. As McGentrification takes over, the rental prices sky rocket and the small shops are forced out of business as they cannot afford to stay in the area any longer. The rents often rise faster if many of the stores are owned by only a few landlords that can easily fix the level of rent that shops have to pay.
This is what has happened to us and is happening to the rest of our neighbourhood. In Grunerlokka the rent on some shops has increased by 1000% in only a few years.
It's already too late for Trabant, we have to move. It's not too late for the rest of Grunerlokka. All we have to do is join together as a community and start pushing back a little.
Thanks for stopping by :o)
