Warehouses / Underground / DIY Spaces Under Attack in the USA

don't worry, Trump's gonna fix all that

i thought DIY spaces were mostly temporary anyways, due to sound/neighbor complaints. if u get shut down, u open a new one. if they last more than a year then it's time to look into 501c

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, December 9, 2016 1:55 PM (sixteen minutes ago)

sometimes yes, sometimes no.

i thought DIY spaces were mostly temporary anyways, due to sound/neighbor complaints. if u get shut down, u open a new one. if they last more than a year then it's time to look into 501c

this isn't always the case - Rhinoceropolis was open for over a decade, and there are several spaces around here that have been around for 30+ years. they're all up to code, but the line and standards used by inspectors is often arbitrary and dependent on their mood, the moment, and even the people/art that fill the space.

I don't know a lot about these spaces, and generally I am (a) in favor of underground indie artsy shit and (b) opposed to paternalistic bogosity and (c) fucking horrified by self-policing , but as an outsider can I ask, like, what can/should be done re: dangerous warehouse spaces? I'll own my ignorance here, but I can't imagine that these places are actually an ideal situation for anybody — at least as far as sustainable habitation is concerned,

many of the people that live in these spaces don't have any choice or preferable alternatives - they're cheap, but more importantly, they're safe spaces for people of color and LGBTQ+ folk.

wonder if there's a way to help people make their underground spaces safer without getting the city involved. like (dreaming here) a corps of diy-friendly volunteer building inspectors that can recommend how to make a space safe. or tell people when hosting 100 people is just not an option

The Bell Foundry is a perfect example. Unsafe and structurally compromised as it was, it was a sanctuary. The city evicting them with one hour's notice is inexcusable, but i can attest to the fact that that place was a deathtrap. there was a wham city show there in 2008 where the floor was bouncing, a lot of people left because they thought the building was going to collapse. Nevertheless, it was a safe haven in an increasingly gentrified/sterilized arts district. There has to be a middle ground between throwing vulnerable people out on the street and keeping them safe. that building absolutely should have been condemned, but no one wants to put up the money to bring it up to code, so they just kicked everyone out. it's a fucking awful stalemate

xp - that's currently happening/in the works here in the Bay Area.

gofundme for rhinoceropolis here: https://www.gofundme.com/rebuild-rhinoceropolis

xp nice

I'm sure cities are aware of these spaces.

in many cases they did, obviously the ghost ship fire/24 hour news cycle or whatever made it a political priority

there are plenty of new mayors starting their first terms right now. the bell foundry eviction occurred on catherine pugh's first day, and it has me worried about the spaces that are safer but still probably violating some codes. the bell foundry eviction just sucks so much more though. i have friends who sought refuge there in tough times. dumb but i wish city 'supporting the arts' initiatives involved these kinds of groups that don't contribute to capital. i'm not dewy-eyed about them, i'm just worried.

er, *they were instead of they did

i remember sheila dixon i think trying to get non-sanctioned performance spaces shut down, the road to that sort of legislation will be much easier with a tragedy to play off of

the thing i keep thinking about the bell foundry is how it was this old eyesore in the middle of a gentrifying area, and it was inspected after an anonymous tip. there's a good chance that someone who'd hung out there was freaked out by the ghost ship and called it in. but if you're a company interested in developing on that land, wouldn't that land be much easier to acquire after the city evicts its occupants and condemns it? or is this conspiracy theorist of me

it was actually SRB's last day in office, Pugh was inaugurated on Tuesday. Not sure what that means, if it was a power move on SRB's part (why though?), or the city trying to get it in before Pugh could be held responsible.

fwiw i think the complaint came from that new office building looming over the BF. it was obviously a money grab, i heard the owner of the building is selling it for $1 million

*typing on MacBook from office job* "Warehouse spaces are

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, December 9, 2016 4:53 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at what point did you decide to become the chris ott version of yourself

i wasn't implying pugh ordered it to happen, i was assuming the eviction happened without any mayoral involvement. but it's now pugh's first pop-up issue to tackle.

but if you're a company interested in developing on that land, wouldn't that land be much easier to acquire after the city evicts its occupants and condemns it? or is this conspiracy theorist of me

not at all, i think that's exactly what happened. they were waiting for the right time. a tragedy is a great opportunity to evict people with one hour's notice "for their own safety." the bell foundry was a huge liability for the city, and it's prime real estate. it was also in the worst condition of any diy/warehouse space here. copycat & annex are up to code and undergo regular inspections. same is true for the H&H, and they had an inspector come by with little notice just a couple days ago.

xp- because it happened right before she came into office, she can offer sympathy and support for the displaced tenants without sounding totally insane: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-pugh-foundry-20161207-story.html

What are the defendants expected to argue?

The defense teams have largely sought to redirect blame onto the building’s owner and the city, who they say should have better policed the space. They say city officials had been in the building on several occasions prior to the fire, and failed to flag potential dangers.

this is a really stupid argument -- it's like a drunk driver who killed someone saying, "I had no idea I was unfit to drive. I passed a few cops on the road and none of them pulled me over!" It is also a dangerous argument, in that it is also advocating for greater policing of spaces, which, idk, maybe if you like cops and/or have faith in the competence / fairness / humanity of government officials, it's a good idea ...

oh yeah - re: Ghost Ship criminal trial which starts today ...

I mean, it’s bullshit as a “defense” and Dereck should go to jail, but I think it’s also true that the building owner and potentially the city should also be facing criminal charges

Why should the city be facing criminal charges for this?

The owner definitely knew the building wasn't up to code for what it was being used for, and she knew what it was being used for ... I believe the owner is definitely culpable.

Some lines from Wiki

The City of Oakland's planning director revealed that the building had not been inspected for three decades.[3]

Although police and fire officials warned that the warehouse was a fire hazard, the Ghost Ship's founder, Derick Ion Almena, allegedly did not respond to these concerns.[62]

The vice president of the local firefighters union said that the fire marshal's office had been understaffed for years, and that a fire inspector seeing the conditions of the Ghost Ship "would have shut the place down".[60]

Adding to the discussion, on December 13, the Oakland Fire Chief said "there were no indications this was an active business", that there are no city records showing her department had received complaints about the building and that the department "inspects businesses, not buildings".[64]

the thing is, and you know this, or maybe you don't, but i'd think you would, that spaces like this (and I have run them), do things to avoid being caught, because if they catch you, they are likely to shut the space down on various technicalities and letters of the law.

To me, it's kinda like blaming the government or cops for not catching all the criminals.

Don't get me wrong, I hate cops, and am "not a fan" of the City of Oakland building/planning/fire admin bureaucracy.

and following up on the "criminal" analogy -- my belief, and what I've been somewhat helping to work towards -- is a process of "decriminalization" where safety improvements that prevent things like G.S. happening and seriously reduce the likelihood of spaces becoming like that one -- where spaces can meet basic life safety standards AND people don't get evicted/spaces don't get shut down ...

The civil cases are still ongoing, right? It's still insane that at least some of them name surviving performers from the night.

Also, I think Denver actually did something progressive and cool in re these spaces after the Rhinoceropolis thing.

the civil cases are so so so ongoing ...

there is also an (i think) ongoing case involving corruption in the City of Oakland building department that might potentially get tied in with the G.S. civil cases

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/ghost-ship-fire-settlement.html

short version: City of Oakland decided it's cheaper to settle for millions of dollars than to go to court, but aren't really accepting responsibility ... which, the thing is, the specific things they were being sued for, I actually don't think they are responsible for ... but there are huge systemic problems related to code enforcement and venues and live/work diy spaces that the City is definitely responsible for, which led indirectly to Ghost Ship ... and I still feel bad for yelling at Donna for drinking in public view back in the late 2000's and she was a sweet awesome person ... as were Jsun, Kiyomi, Ara, Micah, and Griffin -- the other 30 ppl I didn't know well enough.