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Homes Not Jails/Intentional Communities/Squatting


shai

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ive been doing some research in Detroit... With google maps. Streetview FTW. Looking for

a spot at on a dead end. Last housen on the block with little in the way of neighbors. Boarded

up but not burned out.... Small with brick and a decent roof and very close to the suburvs and a bus stop.. Thing is... If you find something with potential and start fixing it up, change the locks, get the electric, gas, and water turned on.... Started mowing the lawn. Planting a little. Maybe a vegetable garden. Could the city see the work you did, decide because its livable to charge you more if you decide to buy it. Even tho the only reason its decent is you did the work.

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My understanding of Detroit is that houses are going for dirt fucking cheap, so you might as well buy something nice outright and hold on to it. Assuming you can afford to do so, of course.

 

The plan would be to have the freedom to do whatever you want with the place.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I didn't forget about this thread... I have been really busy working on getting the house ready for the rainy season so I haven't had the time or energy to take photos lately. I plan to take some pics whenever I can concentrate on that and have my other dozen or so projects squared away or under control.

 

Thanks to everyone who's been supportive or shown interest here. It was a huge leap of faith for me to make this thread, and the positive response means a lot to me.

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thanks Shai for the share. Just so i'm clear about what you guys do and the background.

BayArea California is really expensive. Pursuant to what you were saying about 1200 for

a 2 room studio it stands to reason a lot of people may not be able to afford that and as

such they end up crashing couches, living in their cars, or on the street. Being that this is

the reality there are probably thousands of young to middle age adults that basically decided

to just band together, seek out empty homes, and share the space. So how many of these

situations exist. Are we talking 2 or 3 or 20 - 30? Can you legitimately get the water, gas,

and electric turned on at a house you are squatting? I mean by paying and not by turning

shit on yourself? Do you change the locks? Do people have rooms they claim as their own?

Do a lot of inhabitants have normal wage earning jobs?

I view all of this as very positive. Im sure there is plenty of squatting going on in Detroit.

If not there should be.

 

too many legal proceedings, eh bags?

 

:lol:

 

 

 

 

and to shai

 

 

wow, man. wow. this has to be the most interesting thing i've ever seen on 12oz. good vibes your way man.

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Except I don't think it's gonna work. Nobody here wants a TV enough to acquire one, and I'm pretty sure it would disappear shortly after it showed up.

 

Thanks for the support. I'm going to go through my photos sometime in the next few days and post new ones, but I have to get clearance on some of them.

 

In the meantime, here's a couple more intentional communities we're indirectly aligned with-

 

Black Bear Ranch

 

Slab City

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  • 1 month later...

I didn't forget about this thread, I just got extremely busy with keeping the show running around here. Here's some not-so-recent updates....I need to get back to taking photos, the house has gone through a lot of changes (mostly for the better).

 

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IMG00018-20100831-1307.jpg

 

A lot of people have asked me "Where the fuck do you live/hang out, the sticks?"

 

Well, these were all taken in Oakland and Berkeley...part of the reason I've stuck it out here through thick and thin is because it's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever lived in.

 

I'll have more before Thanksgiving, hopefully.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Just to bad my loyalty in people is not the most reliable.

 

I've been dealing with this since day one, but I don't air people out as much as I'll distance myself from them and whatever they're involved with. Usually other people take notice of this since I'm pretty loyal to certain projects, but I keep things to myself as much as I can.

 

As far as recent developments here go, it's been pretty hectic. Our house is involved with appealing a court case, and come Feburary we're going to know how much longer we have here. Also, we have had some problems with guests using hard drugs on the premises (we don't allow them) in addition to abusing our soft drug policy (okay in moderation but don't overdo it). So due to that and a few other problems we went to a "no guests" policy for the past week, ostensibly to clean the place up and do some maintenance but also to take a breather and think about where we want things to go.

 

What else...a couple houses got busted over the past month. One place was raided by the owners and about 20 of their friends so the occupants all moved to a different house that's a lot smaller...so far that seems to be working out. The other houses were opened by people with little to no experience with occupying residences, which usually got them turned out within a week or two...meaning they'd come back here with all their shit and expect to be welcomed with open arms and not remembering that the reason they moved on was because they had been told it was time for them to move on.

 

Needless to say, all of this has had a profound influence on how I feel about things as far as where my life is headed and where I think it ought to be. I've been part of all this work with the intention of helping people help themselves, but lately it seems like people just want to take whatever they can grab and they aren't concerned with bettering themselves or anyone else. In the time that I've been here I quit drinking and slowed way down on my drug use, so my attitude is "if I can do it, what's your excuse?" I'm tired of laziness and stupidity and people taking shit for granted, so regardless of how our court case goes I'm planning on moving out of here by March. Till then I plan to do as much work as possible on changing the enviroment of the house to suit my own tastes and aesthetic...which will all be documented and eventually shared here.

 

I still enjoy what I do but it's time to take a break and think about myself for a little while. In fact, it's long overdue.

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shai,

 

you don't know me and never will, BUT I; if you PM me a paypal address i will dump funds.

 

dont think of it as a handout...just the xmas spirit

 

my brother is locked up, because thats the life he chose a lifestyle unaccustomed to "our" norm. if only..he's 28 I just turned 34...

 

i just hooked up is commissary, willing to continue giving.

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Your brother needs the money more than I do but if you want to donate something to a really good cause-

 

http://justicefortristan.org/

 

I live with Tristan's partner and she's one of the strongest people I've ever met. (I met Tristan in passing before he got shot, he doesn't really remember me but seems to like me all the same.) He's going to need medical care for the rest of his life so there's a fund set up for that...I think.

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  • 5 months later...

So it's time to start another photo series...

 

Tentatively, this is how things are looking-

 

I'm gonna be heading out of Oakland sometime in the next few weeks towards Reno to see some friends, then Sacramento to check out the squatting scene there- apparently a lot of folks are taking back foreclosed properties and building camps on islands, so I want to do a little research into that. After that I'm coming back here for a few weeks then heading to Black Bear, which is a commune up near the Oregon border. From there I might hop a freight to Portland to see some friends, depending on whether I can get a ride to Dunsmuir. Or I might go out to the coast and see friends there and hitch south to the Bay. All that should keep me somewhat busy till early fall, then I'll head down to San Diego to hang out at a house my friends run and check out Comic Con.

 

I'm working as a caretaker for a friend of mine who has really bad arthritis, so I can't take off for the entire summer. I'm going to have to do things in stages so I can keep an eye on her and pick up my checks.

 

My house (well, not my house but the one I reside in) is still chugging along but things are as uncertain as ever. We're about to go into another round of legal BS based on some civil rights issues that were kind of pushed aside during the last round of court cases (which went all the way to the CA Supreme Court), and having had a central role in that has made me pretty burnt out on the whole thing...before I go on my journey I'm putting everything I own into storage and paying for a year up front so I don't have to worry about that. There's some new squats around Oakland that I could get involved with, but I'm pushing 40 and I'm looking for more stability at this point in my life...I'll still do work in the community but I haven't lived anywhere formally in almost four years. It's time to do something about that.

 

What else....I'm still working with Food Not Bombs two days a week. Not drawing or writing anywhere near enough and probably won't be till I resettle somewhere new.

 

That's about it for now.

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  • 2 months later...

So I'm 90% done with my summer escapades. I didn't have a camera since mine died a few days before I left town...that and I didn't do as much as I would have liked for various reasons, but I did get some close to home trips and a short bike tour out of the way.,,,mostly ended up doing some activist related junk and reading a lot. Since the weather is still nice and I got a loaner camera, I might hit the road again if things go well here at home.

 

In other news, there's a possibility of my house (yeah, I'm back for the time being) being featured in VICE magazine. I'm kind of on the fence about the whole thing...I can see the comedy aspect but we really don't need the publicity.

 

The housing scene here in Oakland seems to be settled down to some degree. There's about 10 established houses at this point and plans for more...IMO the people doing the dirty work are not as organized as they were in 2009-2010, which again is good and bad but overall I'm glad someone is making things happen here.

 

I'll go through the few photos I managed to get before my camera bit the dust and post he better ones sometime.

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Sup duder,

 

Hope you are well. I've been back in Oaktown for about a month. We have been staying with a friend at 39th and MLK. There was a squat house across from us that seems to have had its run.

 

Apparently there was one group, then they got evicted, a bunch of straightedge kids moved in, got evicted, and then another group of the original squatters came back and got into the place. Watched them have it out with the police, and the neighborhood didn't really appreciate them too much so it was a way quick eviction (24 hours). So that was interesting. They had a party the last night and pretty much trashed the place. I'd say much of the ethos you have been about for a while is somewhat lost. These kids were mad young though.

 

Anywho, hope you are well.

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Hey crooked, I'm doing all right.

 

I was loosely involved with starting the house you're talking about. It's a damn shame things went the way they did...what happened was the first group (who I barely knew) handed the house to the second group when they went travelling, and those guys promptly fucked up and got the attention of the owners. IMO that crew were a bunch of elitist pricks who shouldn't have gotten the house in the first place, but that's neither here nor there. My understanding was the owners paid the second group to leave sometime last spring...I might know the third wave of occupants, I might not. I'm kind of out of the loop right now and I'm not sure I want to be in it until I get settled in.

 

Anyway, I don't know if you were at the party or ever took a look inside but that house was really nice when it was first opened up. We were trying to figure out what was wrong with it but it seems like the owners were waiting for the economy to improve so they could charge higher rent...so at that point we didn't feel bad at all for taking it over.

 

We should meet up, I live about five minutes from you.

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