Once Lebanon’s center of glamor, Hamra Street goes dark

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Hamra Street at one time represented everything that was glamorous about Beirut. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was where the great singers of the Arab world performed, where intellectuals and artists hung out in the cafes and where European, American, Arab and Lebanese shoppers came to buy. Now, many of its stores are shuttered. Poverty-stricken Lebanese and Syrian refugees beg on its sidewalks. The streetlights barely come on. Like the rest of the country, Lebanon’s economic crisis swept through the street like a destructive storm. Longtime Hamra Street residents fear it will never be able to bounce back.