Hotel

• The arrival of the Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland Port, in Dorset, on July 18 2023, marks a new low in the UK government’s hostile immigration environment.
• The vessel is set to accommodate over 500 asylum seekers.
• My research shows that facilities built to house irregular migrants in Europe and beyond create a temporary infrastructure designed to be hostile.

Precarious space

• Journalists Lizzie Dearden and Martha McHardy have shown this means the asylum seekers housed there – for up to nine months – will have “less living space than an average parking bay”.
• This stands in contravention of international standards of a minimum 4.5m² of covered living space per person in cold climates, where more time is spent indoors.
• Locals are concerned already overstretched services in Portland, including GP practices, will not be able to cope with further pressure.
• The difficulty of escaping a vessel at sea could turn it into a death trap.

Performative hostility

• In 2015, Berlin officials began temporarily housing refugees in the former Tempelhof airport, a noisy, alienating industrial space, lacking in privacy and disconnected from the city.
• French authorities, meanwhile, opened the Centre Humanitaire Paris-Nord in Paris in 2016, temporary migrant housing in a disused train depot.
• Nicknamed la Bulle (the bubble) for its bulbous inflatable covering, this facility was noisy and claustrophobic, lacking in basic comforts.
• Like the barge in Portland Port, these facilities, placed in industrial sites, sit uncomfortably between hospitality and hostility.
• Rather than deterring asylum seekers, the Bibby Stockholm is potentially creating another hazard to them and to their hosting communities.

• DALLAS, July 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced MedAesthetic Partners (AMP), a leading provider of medical aesthetic services and the fastest-growing multi-brand aesthetic platform in the country, continues its executive team expansion announcing it has appointed Jim Lebs as Chief Financial Officer.
• Lebs brings more than 25 years of leadership experience across a range of industries, including multi-location dental and orthodontics, retail, and restaurants.
• Most recently, Lebs served as Chief Financial Officer at Smile Doctors.
• Lebs has a track record of growing businesses and refining operational processes to support and guide organizational growth.

• El Super, a California-based chain of Hispanic-focused supermarkets that offers customers full-service perishable departments, is expanding in Las Vegas with a new store opening in Southeast Las Vegas on July 26, 2023.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230726251662/en/
  El Super celebrates the grand opening of the new Las Vegas location at 2475 East Tropicana, Las Vegas NV 89121.
• “We can't wait to welcome our customers and provide them with an exceptional shopping experience at El Super,“ said Store Director Gonzalo Enriquez.
• The donation is part of El Super’s commitment to supporting organizations and causes in the communities where it operates.

• DALLAS, July 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- JW Marriott, part of Marriott Bonvoy's global portfolio of 31 extraordinary hotel brands, today announced the opening of JW Marriott Dallas Arts District, marking the brand's highly anticipated debut at the epicenter of the robust cultural arts scene in Dallas, Texas.
• Dallas boasts the largest contiguous urban arts district in the United States and holds an official "Cultural District'' designation by the Texas Commission on the Arts.
• "We are excited to bring JW Marriott's legacy of extraordinary hospitality, thoughtful design and enriching experiences to the Dallas Arts District," said Bruce Rohr, Global Brand Leader, JW Marriott.
• JW Marriott Dallas Arts District features three elevated dining venues each with its own tie to the artistic community surrounding the hotel.