Let's be realistic about South Berkeley
I wrote the email below in response to a post on a housing email list. Andrew was one of the founders of Love and Politics, a progressive polyamorous group in the bay area (mostly upper middle class folks who are in their late 30s and 40s).I hate to tell you (and him), but he is about to further gentrify this neighborhood. He's a stuffy-looking and sounding guy who means well, but...he takes up space. I know that I'm a bit biased because I was so disappointed in L+P (it's just not my people, even though their rhetoric almost sounds like it is). I'm also bitter because I will never have money to buy a house, or land, or even new rain gear for my stupid anarchist, anti-capitalist, pro-exercise lifestyle of riding my bike everywhere-- even in the rain. But also, as a person who has started 2 houses and lived in several others, I know that he is missing a lot of details about what his needs from housemates are, and since he will be the owner, his needs come first, and they need to be stated from the outset.
I know, I didn't recommend another neighborhood to him. Where do you send the middle class white folks who want to buy an affordable house in the Bay Area? I guess he could look at Elmwood? Hayward? Modesto? And people who are middle class in the Bay Area would be upper middle class in most parts of the country...
>Subject: Fwd: Do you want to change the world? Would you like to live with others who do?
>Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:42:42 -0800 (PST)
>
>Thought you might be interested in this co-op housing
>opportunity.
>
>
>Note: forwarded message attached.
>From: "Andrew Hoerner"
>Reply-To: CoopNetwork@yahoogroups.com
>To:
>Subject: [CoopNetwork] Do you want to change the world? Would you like to live with others who do?
>Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 16:10:38 -0800
>Dear Friends--
>
>Do you want to change the world?
>
>Well, change begins at home.
>
>I have long dreamed of a community of progressive activists, scholars
>and professionals, and others who are ambitious to make a lasting
>positive mark on the world, a home that would embody a rich and diverse
>intellectual and political environment and a center for activism and
>activist thought. Plus sharing some meals and good times.
>
>To this end, I am negotiating for purchase of an eight-bedroom house in
>the Temescal area of Oakland where Oakland, Emeryville and Berkeley come
>together. The house will be an attractive, high-amenity space, including
>two living rooms and a hot tub, easy biking to most of Berkeley, about 6
>blocks from the Ashby BART and mere steps to major AC Transit routes.
>
>Rents are set to cover my costs over the life of the mortgage, and are
>roughly market rate for a facility of this quality. This amounts to
>roughly $650/monthy for a large single room, or about $900-$1100 for
>two-room suites, depending on the number occupying the suite and other
>factors. Community experience: priceless.
>
>Given successful negotiation, we will begin to have spaces available in
>March or April, with additional rooms coming open in April or May, and
>are looking now for folks who would like to settle down in such a
>community for the long haul.
>
>We are looking for people to whom this sounds appealing, either as
>collaborators who might be willing to join this project and help bring
>it off, or just as folks who would like to live in such a setting as
>community members. People who join early will get first dibs on rooms
>and a voice in how the house is remodeled. Interested people please
>write me with a little information about yourself at
>hoerner@redefiningprogress.org
>
>
>Peace,
>
>Andrew
>
>P.S. Please feel encouraged to forward this email to any person or list
>that you think might be interested, up until January 7. After that,
>please write me before forwarding.
>
>J. Andrew Hoerner
>Director of Research
>Redefining Progress
>Oakland CA Office:
>1904 Franklin Street, 6th Floor
>Oakland CA 94612
>Phone: (510) 444-3041 ext. 328
>Fax: (510) 444-3191
>
Hi, Andrew,
You've got the neighborhood wrong in your housemate ad. Temescal is near MacArthur BART, not Ashby. Think 51st and Telegraph, basically. If you're talking about where Emeryville, Berkeley, and Oakland meet, that's a whole different area (west of Ashby BART). My friends and I call it Southwest Berkeley. Or if you mean south of the bart station, that's North Oakland. Six blocks east or north, and it's just (South) Berkeley, but not near Emerville.
You might want to be a bit more up front/realistic about the neighborhood in your ad. It is gentrifying faster than what happened in the Mission, which may be part of why it's not the most comfortable, socially-speaking. I've lived in several places around Southwest Berkeley and northernmost Oakland (including my present place). Bikes have been stolen from a house and a yard with a tall fence where I've lived, and chickens were stolen from our community garden this fall. And a guy was fatally shot in the middle of my block last year. Things are really complicated, with older African American couples, younger folks with kids who live with their parents, white hipsters, Latino families, and lots of poor and now houseless folks who are trying to hold on to their housing, even if it is of poor quality-- all living next door to one another in a country where the poor and people of color are discriminated against.
Good luck!
-Mahtin
posted by mahtin @ 2:17 AM
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