[Noisebridge-discuss] warehouse space/ noisebridge east?

[ian]

Ardent looked at this same building after NIMBY 1 caught fire and we
had to move.  It probably wasn't the same unit, though.

We've always been up front about being a fire art group.  It's not the
sort of thing you can hide from a landlord, so it's best if they know
about it and are okay with it.  The guy who showed us the space was
enthusiastic about the idea.  We sent them an application, and it
looked like they were going to rent to us.  Then they decided to rent
that space to someone else.  They weren't very good about
communicating with us at first, but once we got in touch with them,
they offered to work with us on building out a different are of the
building to suit our needs.

We were rather deep in negotiations with them when they became
abruptly uncomfortable with the idea of renting to fire artists.  We
offered to carry our own liability insurance, which would cover their
building and the property of other tenants, but that didn't seem to
make much difference.  Apparently what happened is that all the
details were not communicated clearly within their organization, but
once we started talking with some of the other partners involved in
owning and managing the property, they realized what were doing and
decided against it.

They seemed like they'd be okay to rent from if you're doing less
risky-seeming stuff, though.  I just figured I should post our
experiences, since they'd be a useful data point.

As far as the neighborhood goes, I have a few anecdotes...  I was a
shop tenant at 28th and Mandela for 4 years, and I lived over at 10th
and Campbell for a couple months, and also at 19th and Union for a
bit.

West Oakland can certainly be sketchy.  The residential areas are best
avoided, especially at night.  There were a few drive-by shootings on
my block on Cambpell, people broke into our house and stole shit, etc.

Also, I was chased down by a gang of thugs on Mandela one night riding
from BART to NIMBY, around 10:30pm.  They were waiting on the street
for cyclists or pedestrians, it seemed.  There was one guy standing on
the sidewalk, and the rest of them hiding across the median.  I saw
the guy on the sidewalk turn and signal as I was riding up, and then
five more guys stepped out into the middle of the street ahead of me.
I said "shit" and started turning around, at which point they all
started running after me.  I managed to escape by way knowing what was
up immediately and being on a bike, but it was pretty fucking scary.
The police were completely uninterested in hearing about it.  I went
back to BART and called a friend for a ride, and the guys were still
hanging around there when I came back.

That said, I've only had gangs of thugs attempt to assault me twice in
West Oakland (I told you about the second time... the first time they
were quite successful), and I've been living here for 9 years.  It's
not the most unsafe place ever, and it's generally fine during the
day.  Also, it's better to stick to streets where there's traffic.
People are less likely to fuck with you if other people are watching.

As far as the neighborhood at 15th and Willow goes, I talked with some
of the other tenants, and they seemed to like it.  The folks who live
across the street are apparently good people, and they tend to be
outside a lot, so they keep an eye on stuff.  All in all, it sounded
like the immediate area is fine.  It's just the trip from BART I'd be
concerned about...

-Ian

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 11:45 PM, meredith scheff <satiredun at gmail.com> wrote:
> so heres the deal.
> I just went and looked at this pretty awesome space in west oakland (don't
> make faces) at 15th and willow. It's 2k sf, with 4 'offices' about 10x10 and
> all with 20 foot ceilings. It's in a nice gated little U that also houses
> the illustrious Because We Can. The neighborhood is good- i walked from the
> west oakland bart to there and it was tree-lined and had a few comunity
> garderns up. People waved. The whole space, with a 3 year lease, is 1500. 2
> year lease, 1600.
> Anyways, Id love to have this space. I'd like to live in it- which is live
> and let live situation, without being defined as allowed or not.
> Im looking for people to go in with me on this space. either live in or
> studio.
> anyone interested?
> meredith
>
> --
> doing stuff and making things
> ---
> "A traveler. I love his title. A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His
> profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from - toward; it is the
> history of every one of us. It is a great art to saunter." -Henry David
> Thoreau
>
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