OAKLAND

so they are gonna focus on rap and hip-hop and flyers/event announcements that "look black"

Someone on facebook linked to the 4ch@n thread referenced here, and it was sickening. Truly staring into the alt-right abyss.
http://www.thefader.com/2016/12/13/ghost-ship-rhinoceropolis-bell-foundry-fire

the Everett & Jones bbq people and the Salt Lick tenants have made up and are having a fire relief benefit featuring musicians affiliated with salt lick and fire victims at E&J this weekend. That one actually seems to be working itself out. I watched the press conference the E&J owner held, and it was very much like watching representatives of two significant cultures in Oakland talking past each other and saying insensitive things. Looks like it was a "teaching moment" for both groups.

considering it's the end of the year and everyone is posting lists, if I write something about my experience running an "illegal" venue in Oakland, should I format it as a list? Top 10 dick moves by the City of Oakland? idk

what about top 10 things that allowed me to keep my venue open for as long as I did?

Most of the reason for writing it is to help the efforts of those advocating for improvements to "the system" and fighting the backlash against alternative spaces. Saying "here's how I got away with it for 7 1/2 years" might be at odds with the goal.

7 1/2 years before the City gave us shit, then another 2 1/2 years trying to work with them before giving up.

why can't you advocate for change while still talking about what you had to do keep your venue open? Just my two cents, but reading about what you had to go through to keep an important venue open in spite of the system, and eventually had to submit to, would be more helpful than only reading about what's broken (which I assume would be discussed quite a lot anyway in the midst of your story running 21G)

i think it's a matter of tone and emphasis - it is possible to do both. I also don't want to sound totally self-serving.

maybe better than melatonin

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/ceda/documents/pressrelease/oak062785.pdf

pages and pages of city documents related to the ghostship warehouse that will come up as evidence in the eventual court case

Well that took forever.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9VPwt-UAAAhAvL.jpg

"Never mind the fires, it's safely whiter now!"

they've been saying this about Oakland for almost 20 years now.

wtf is that?

somewhere retarded where they still say 'frisco'

also, fail to understand what the flights to Gatwick have to do with anything preceding that bit of information.

also, unreal-beautiful lynch protoge and nu-twin peaks star Chrysta Bell apparently has moved to Oakland (and is playing a show wih david j next month) and has published this twaddle

http://bbook.com/nightlife/singer-twin-peaks-star-chrysta-bells-hip-guide-to-oakland/

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/48-hours-in/oakland-city-guide-best-restaurants-food-bars-drink-sights-shopping-san-francisco-a7647171.html

Oakland is the most raw, exciting, brutal, depressing, vibrant and inspiring place I have ever lived. The plight of existence and the will to overcome adversity is everywhere. The duality of the organic ice cream shop next door to a tent community of homeless is commonplace. There are signs of life, death, struggle, survival, compassion and courage on every block. I have been undeniably enriched and expanded by my time living here.

I would be embarrassed to the point of move-out-of-town shame if I said this aloud, let alone agreed to put it in print

I'd just wonder where else this person has lived.

yeah for real

Sarahell how long have you been in Oakland

it will be 20 years in November!

hey wow. It's strangely been over a decade for me now, hard to believe

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/blacklisted-how-the-oakland-police-department-discriminates-against-rappers-and-music-venues/Content?oid=6482231

i was at that task force meeting, and of the 5 people of color there, 4 were representatives of City/County/State government agencies

i'm not sure what that implies

BREAKING: #GhostShip master tenant, Derick Almena, creative director, Max Harris arrested on susp. of 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter

— Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) June 5, 2017

Here's the initial story

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ghost-Ship-authorities-arrest-two-in-deadly-fire-11196787.php

Yeesh, but after everyone's various posts here, I guess I'm not surprised.

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/07/16/huge-failure-80-percent-of-oakland-firefighter-warnings-of-unsafe-buildings-go-unchecked/

wasn't this "news" back in January?

The first anniversary is tomorrow. Lovely piece here about preserving the work and memory of many who passed.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/12/01/saving-the-music-of-ghost-ship-victims-helps-loved-ones-heal/

the exhibition actually only runs through the 8th ... the reception is tonight, and we're showing a mostly finished Coral Remains video

Best to everyone at the memorials today.

A plea bargain is apparently happening tomorrow:

Two men are expected to take plea deals of 6 and 9 years by pleading no contest to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter connected to the Dec. 2, 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland that killed 36 people in one of the state’s deadliest fires.

An email sent by the Alameda County District Attorney David Lim to victims’ families on Saturday — obtained by this newspaper — says Derick Almena, 48, is expected to accept a deal that will give him nine years behind bars while Max Harris, 28, is expected to receive six years. Both will serve out their sentences locally, at the Alameda County Jail, instead of state prison.

Prosecutors had argued that both Almena and Harris were criminally negligent in causing the deaths of the 36 people in the art collective warehouse known as the Ghost Ship, or Satya Yuga, at 1305 31st Ave. in East Oakland. Almena, 48, was said to be the head of the art collective while Harris, 28, was the self-titled “executive director” and took rent from other residents.

On Tuesday, they’ll appear before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson and are expected to accept their plea deals to avoid a jury trial that had been scheduled for July 16.

whoah https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Derick-Almena-tells-families-of-Ghost-Ship-13147662.php?t=f1a78624da

Ghost Ship plea deal thrown out

so it goes to trial?

"But when he offered to have his body tattooed with flames and the faces of the victims, some families in the gallery recoiled" this stood out to me

wow, that’s some news

O_o at his tattoo remark...talk about not reading the room jfc. “I feel terrible... I’ve created a handcrafted coldbrew beverage in your honor”

No idea if this is just gonna stick to the bribery/extortion and conflict of interest stuff

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2018/11/06/corruption-probe-into-oaklands-code-enforcement-inspectors-widens

http://extras.mercurynews.com/ghostship/

Massive new NYT story on Harris, the other person charged along with Almena:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/magazine/oakland-warehouse-fire-ghost-ship.html

Strong point:

NYT Mag goes deep on Max Harris. One piece not mentioned in this retelling: Harris blocked passageways inside the warehouse as he prepared for the event, according to witnesses at the prelim hearing https://t.co/4ykQ61wDWl pic.twitter.com/SbGdIV3gMN

— Kimberly Veklerov (@KVeklerov) December 12, 2018

Ghost ship was kinda the venue of "last resort" for that show ... the organizers had asked other places (at least one, one that a friend of mine ran) and the other places couldn't do the show.

Harris took his first studio art class and, like a cure in epoxy, it transformed and gave solidity to his life.

that's an odd phrasing ... wouldn't you say "like cured epoxy" or "epoxy curing" ... the epoxy is the substance that cures, with curing being a process rather than a thing?

Maybe referring to the chemical that's added to make the rest harden?

The mayor then tried to mend her relationship with her more creative constituents by signing an executive order giving owners of illegally inhabited spaces up to 60 days to come up with plans to bring those properties into compliance with building regulations.

it was a bit more than that, the executive order also had strong language about preventing eviction and displacement of tenants ... but you know, this was only covered in a bunch of other places that the NYT writer could have read and taken from, rather than "getting it wrong" ... this article is weird.

But who would pay for all those upgrades: the sprinkler systems, the insulation, the fire doors?

Sprinklers are fucking expensive. Not sure what the writer means by "insulation" -- are they talking about Title 24 energy efficiency improvements -- that's the only thing that could make sense here that would be expensive, but that's an odd term to describe it. Fire doors are cheap. Not mentioned: building fire rated walls and fixing walls that don't have an adequate fire rating; likely seismic retrofits because many of these buildings weren't retrofitted after the 89 earthquake and that is why they were cheap to rent; replacing old windows with energy efficient windows (the Title 24 thing); bringing heat into the building; the fact that it is actually technically illegal to have live/work housing in the same building (at least the way Ghostship was configured) with event space use ...

Jesus fucking christ this article makes me angry because this stuff has been covered, cited, and discussed so many other places, in so many other articles, and this person who writes for the NY FUCKING TIMES can't simply copy and paste something that is accurate, as opposed to try to be "poetic" or something ...

Maybe referring to the chemical that's added to make the rest harden?

― nickn, Wednesday, December 12, 2018 11:24 AM (one minute ago

maybe! I just have never heard it described that way ...

(back to previous rant) there are a half dozen more upgrades that affect almost all buildings of this type that are way more expensive than "fire doors" yet that's all this person could come up with?

and this person who writes for the NY FUCKING TIMES can't simply copy and paste something that is accurate

yes well it is the NYT after all, carrying on in the rich tradition of Jayson Blair and Judith Miller one assumes

they give props to the East Bay Times for their reporting but would have been well served by c&p-ing from a EB Times article rather than poetic improvisation once the article stops being a bio piece about Harris