Hi all.
So I understand the Omni folks have made some progress and may be moving out as soon as the next couple months. I wanted to renew the conversation I've had with folks mostly off-line about the progress made regarding what will succeed in the space where Sudo Room is now. I'm including the initial email below, which includes the relevant information about costs and mission, etc..
Most importantly, rest assured that there will be no interruption in the availability of the common area for the meetings which regularly take place there now. There are several investors interested in bringing homegrown Oakland technology startups and initiatives to the Uptown area right around Sudo Square. The Impact Hub opened a few weeks ago and has been hosting some great events, just a couple blocks up. The Kapor Center is also reportedly finally moving into gear in regards to the triangular building across Broadway, where there will be a few social entrepreneurship projects in which the Kapor Foundation has invested.
Before going into specifics of how the space will be utilized and who will be involved, I wanted to open it up to people's thoughts about what they want to happen here without too much suggestion. Please feel free to forward this email to other groups and individuals you think may be interested, or you can have them email me directly at
eddan@eddan.com.
We are especially interested in projects and initiatives that are focused on improving the economic and social conditions of all of Oakland's residents. It will hopefully be a place that will serve as the alternative to tech jobs outsourced to other cities around the Bay, as has become increasingly controversial with the Google bus protests and all that they represent. It will also be focused on the full range of skilled workers as opposed to just high-tech multi-national corporation Internet-type jobs. Finally, we hope that the groups that will be coming in will be committed to the immediate neighborhood and to a diversity of participation, in regards to gender and race especially.
I'll be sending more info out soon, but wanted to get the conversation going again.
Hope 2014 has been good to folks so far.
2141 Broadway
Looking ahead to 2014, this email is about buying and rental possibilities for the current building 2135-2143 Broadway with actual numbers. If you'd like to get in touch with the landlords directly, you can email Laurie Cooperman Rosen at
lscoop@comcast.net; or call George Rosen at 510-504-4259.
I wanted to update everyone on a meeting Matt & I had with the landlord earlier this month about the possibilities regarding renting/selling/co-op equity of the building where Sudo Room and the Bay Area Public School are currently located. Matt - please correct any of the information that I may have missed or gotten wrong in the inset text below.
Since the Bay Area Public School and Sudo Room may (or may not) imminently be moving to the Omni or other location, a new list has been created to further discussion and coalition-building that will continue to take place in the current space at
http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/hall This proposal, to be very clear, does not and will not interfere with any of those plans to move nor with plans to stay at the current location decided by the collective of collectives.
Below are the notes regarding how much the southern section of the 2143-2145 Broadway have been rented for in the past, how much they're willing to rent each room individually, the whole floor as a whole, and a graduated occupancy/rate proposal that gives time to attract other potential collaborators visiting the space, and getting a reduced price for the rental of that whole section of $6,500/month for 3 months. Otherwise, according to the proposal discussed, rental of the floor will go up to the market rental price of $8,500 at the end of that 3 months. The other option that has been discussed is putting together a co-op sale where groups and individuals can buy equity in that section of the building, either as a real estate transaction, or as crowd-funding equity shares. Group and individual ownership will participate in any profits and in the governance of the building.
Peer Production / Sudo Hall
The resulting community will be provisionally called Peer Production. In order to honor the pivotal role that Sudo Room and the other people that first moved into this building have accomplished for the community, the proposed discussion list will be called Sudo Hall. It will also be a priority of the Peer Production project to reach out to the innovative and inspiring stories of the other tenants that are already in the building - including Sound Room, Uptown Kitchen, Yummmeee, and the Pan Theater, among others.
In terms of values, integrating with the community we're in and remaining inclusive to attract a broad spectrum of types of people will take priority over political posturing and ideological orthodoxy. The community invitation to join is intended to be welcoming to for-profit, non-profit, small partnership, crowd-fund equity start-up, cooperative corporation, and any other structure under which people best think they can get done what they want to achieve.
The objective of Peer Production {Sudo Hall} still aspires to the core of Sudo Room's early description:
Doing stuff together to make our community more openly accessible.
Peer Production, I believe, is the common thread of the innovative and socially conscious projects that have emerged.
If you'd like to talk about this further or just find out what's going on - you can join the Sudo Hall mailing list at
http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/hall. We'll take it offline from the sudo-discuss list, but I just wanted to let folks know that this discussion just got started. First order of business is getting more photos and more data about the place. Sudo Room has started a good page at
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/2141_Broadway and hopefully there can be more valuable and useful information that will be available through Peer Production and Sudo Hall.
2135-2143 Broadway
Dec. 6, 2013. 5pm.
George Rosen.
Matt Senate.
Eddan Katz.
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Sudo-Hall
University used to pay $14,000 for the whole floor.
EBMC paid $6,500. 8% annual increase.
Sudo Room. $1500
Robert. $1,000
Dance Studio. $1,100
Public School. $950.
Room next to it. $950.
Yellow Room $2,500.
Corner Room. $2,200. (access to roof).
total now at $8,500.
willing to do $6,500.
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extra notes
building $5.3 million.
1.2 million fees.
Buy - income stream. $4 million for whole building.
losing $65,000 per year by them being empty.
$1 million selling price for Sudo Hall wing.
Need to do pictures of rooms. & sq. ft.
send photos.
Non-profit rental.
$6,500 x 3 mos.
whole floor - to start with - $13,000.