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(a)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.
-Eddan
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(a)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.
>
> ----
> 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.
>
>
> ----
> 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.