Tuesday, June 3

Overnight there were violent demonstrations in front of the Cornavin station, at the Place des 22 Cantons (on Servette just under the railway bridge), the Pont du Mont Blanc and near the Collège Voltaire (across from EIG) where they burnt a car!

There were helicopters from 1am to 3am.  I don't know if they were watching the Bout du Monde, or something else.  Normally they stop flying after dark.

.......

Well, I have just come back from downtown (8am Tuesday) and I can state that if the events of the G8 are not completely over,  in 24 hours Geneva has managed to clean up most everything except the glass. 

If the campus ever was covered with litter, it has all been removed and the sprinklers are all turned on this morning.  No water cannons here!  The posters are gone, there are no more info boards or welcoming committees gathered around tables, and the 5 gates to the Place Neuve are all open again.  The only reminder of the demonstrations is the bank of toilets still in place.

In the Rue du Stand the Hôtel des Finances was damaged the night before last, but not gutted.  I saw no scorch marks anywhere.  On the other hand, half of the windows on the ground floor were broken and the other half have been boarded up.  The boards look new and there is NO graffiti on them at all.  So this would seem to confirm that the damage is extremely recent.

Concerning broken windows in general, those that are broken have holes and cracks, but only a few have been completely destroyed, as in the Aeschbach shoe store.

Walking up from the Rue du Stand to the bus stop at Bel-air I could see that the sidewalk was littered with glass.  But the city was bustling, the buses running, and the trouble makers of the night no longer visible.