Hello Oakland Arts Community.

I'm sending this out to all of you in hopes that you'll read it and pass it along. The city of Oakland is considering a measure that will hurt us if passed by banning all live/work that is not already 100% legal. Any of you who are in such space thus become far more vulnerable, and the creation of any such space will be stopped dead in its tracks.

I hope to spread the word and bring about some grass roots support at Planning Commission and City Council meetings. The last time I spoke at one of these meetings, I was the sole representative of the work/live community. I hope that at the next meeting there will be many more of us. Thus far the discussion has been dominated by either industrial property owners who are concerned about complaints from live/work users, or speculative residential developers who generally aren't interested in serving artists. This coming meeting is at City Hall on February 13th, at 7pm.

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Here is the issue, summarized as quickly as I can manage:

Oakland is redefining what is permitted in its industrial zones. Under the proposed new rules, up to 80% of the area that once allowed
work/live use will be lost. The motivation for the new rules seems to come from a couple of different concerns. First, industrial land owners and businesses feel threatened by the recent explosion in faux live/work condos in industrial areas. Industry is worried that the people in these developments will complain about noise, pollution and traffic, and make it difficult to do business in Oakland. Second, Oakland has been losing manufacturing and industrial jobs.

The city zoning staff and the industrial community seem to believe that they can improve their situation by banning all residence within
these industrial zones. What they have failed to realize is that legitimate work/live artists, craftspeople and tradesmen are not a
part of their problem. Our hybrid way of life is real, and most of us are just as engaged in high-impact activities as the industrial
community is. The proposal that is on the table needs to be changed to allow legitimate work/live to continue. We can't let them throw the baby out with the bath water (and us with it) by lumping all forms of live/work and live/work together and banning it altogether.

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Again, the next meeting on this topic at City Hall is on Wednesday, February 13th at 7pm. This process is quite far along, so there is an urgent need to mobilize and show that we have not been included the consideration of in this imminent, misguided action. It would be great if there was a place where we could meet beforehand to discuss a unified strategy for presenting at the meeting and for actions, so if any of you can host, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, please just show up. The sooner we make ourselves heard, the sooner we can get results. The consequences for our community are serious if we don't turn this around.


Thanks,

Max Allstadt