12 May
2014
12 May
'14
7:06 p.m.
Actually, anyone who rents space gentrifies by definition, as their demand
in the market pushes prices up. This goes for all of us.
Sudo, and many of the people involved in the community gentrify even more
than the average person. I lived in West Oakland about 7 years ago when it
was pretty much non-gentrified. I wasn't living there because the sweet
open source community, or the hipster coffeeshops (Actual Cafe, that other
place downtown, and many others at this point). I wasn't living there
because of the oh-so-indie art boutiques, or precious vegan donut bakeries.
None of that stuff existed at that point. I was living there because it was
the only place that I could afford.
All of this hipster cultural stuff, sudo room definitely included, makes
Oakland more desirable to people who have a choice about where to live.
People who actually WANT to live in Oakland, and moved there <5 years ago,
are the very definition of gentrification. Doesn't matter if you're an
underground hackertyper fighting the man, a renegade yarnbomber, or even an
activist kombucha liberator. If you engage in actions that make a
neighborhood a more desirable place to live, people will want to live
there. They will look for apartments, and rent will go up. Some people who
were living there because it was the only place they could afford will be
pushed out by the higher prices. This is cause and effect.
Ironically, the people who yell loudest about gentrification are the first
wave gentrifiers who make it all happen.
The solution to a lack of housing? More housing.
On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 6:39 PM, Phil Wolff <pwolff(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I haven't thought of "white flight" for
a long time.
Never thought of gentrification as white flight reversed.
It's not an exact opposite, but helpful in thinking of gentrification as a
flavor of migration.
Omni and Sudo won't materially affect gentrification rates one way or the
other.
What's in our power is affecting how our communities respond to
this change, and to others.
We are propagating values, skills, and resources handy for those
confronting macro-level disruptions. Hacker ethics. Maker skills. Inclusive
community. Sharing economics. Occupy energy. Sustainable practices. Culture
innovation. Where we bring these, we're making our community more capable
and resilient, healing the world. *Tikkun olam. *
This month we're very aware of Sudo as a place, a site at an address. We
talked about raising Omni funds by drawing the surrounding community to use
our common areas for events, by boosting memberships of the collectives as
we pull people into our orbits. Moving in, settling in should take the rest
of this year.
But we should also be thinking about ways to bring our Sudoey goodness to
more people and more neighborhoods. I've heard Matt imagine small satellite
Sudo spaces spread across the map. I've seen yar do FirstFriday and library
outreach. Hackpacks have a similar future. Perhaps we'll eventually have
the hacker version of library bookmobiles, a hack truck we bring to
schools, fairs, parking lots. 2015?
Our presence sudofies, not gentrifiies.
--
Phil Wolff
pwolff(a)gmail.com
skype:evanwolf
+1-510-343-5664
http://about.me/evanwolf bio
<http://letmydatago.org/>http://twitter.com/evanwolf @
http://www.linkedin.com/in/philwolff cv
http://LetMyDataGo.org blog
http://www.facebook.com/philwolff face
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