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How Oakland Is Turning Into an Art and Maker Mecca
First time accepted submitter Kevin Lee writes "The maker scene is taking off in Oakland with towering industrial art, that at times stands 70 feet high, and DIY business that made locally created goods by hand. But while this is a flourishing creative environment is popping off with new ideas, there's a battle in Oakland that could pave over this rich community with new residential housing. The Oakland Makers is a new initiative by artists and makers that hopes revitalize Oakland as a new advanced manufacturing hub and city that thrives on the making culture."
Rites of Spring FTW!
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Maybe they can make some affordable housing, seem to be alot of accusations of gentrification when I read about Oakland.
The last time I was there, there was a rich community of wannabe rap artists, con artists, and pimping artists.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
There are quite a few cities named Oakland and the references to steel sculptures made suburban Pittsburgh sound reasonable.
It's about seven paragraphs in that they tell us which Oakland they're talking about: "Oakland is also more affordable than San Francisco, its bigger, more glamorous sibling across the Bay."
Oh. Thanks.
"Maker" is a non-concept. "Locally created goods by hand" is what people have done since the cavemen. Just because you build something, but you blog about it or post instagram pictures about it, doesn't make this anything new, or interesting. You're not a "maker" if you build a table or a bicycle or a RaspberriPi-powered toaster, you're just a guy who builds tables or bicycles or toasters.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
The article is not about "a new advanced manufacturing hub". It's about a bunch of artists.
I don't respond to AC's.
I don't know about this gentrification you speak of, but the air coming in through the Golden Gate is pretty damn sweet, if you're not downwind of the sewage treatment plant or some derelict bum.
You talking about Rockridge or something? All of the wealthy areas I can think of have always been wealthy. Seriously wealthy in some of my favorite places.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Nuke it from orbit?
Seriously, I've been on this site for over a decade, never have I seen so many fucking art student projects on here than I have in the past few months. Can we stop with the art student crap? You wouldn't post stories about a coding 101 project or something would you?
I say there's more fertile ground for change in Detroit where they could really use the boost.
1) Housing is cheap, dirt cheap.
2) The government would welcome anything at this point to bring in new sources of industry and technology. Flight out of Greater Detroit has left a vacuum of fresh ideas and people.
3) There's a willing labor force who would jump at any opportunity.
Oakland is fine but we also need to stop concentrating on areas that are already prosperous and assist other areas that can use our help.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I thought that a Maker was a term used by Fremen to refer to the giant sandworms of Arrakis
So, they're trying to be like this place?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussana_Vecchia
I know it is bad form to comment on the dept text, but this one actually made me laugh.
Credit where credit is due, Samzenpus.
But would I have to live in Detroit?
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
1) How much of it is not in ruins?
2) They can't even afford enough dog catchers, how would they deal with new citizens?
Life is full of compromises.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
1) They bulldoze down most of the ruins. There are huge tracts of land already available with streets and utilities at hand. Think of it as a blank canvas.
2) Detroit had millions of people in it, they can handle a few hundred or a few thousand. They have access to transportation infrastructure: Air, Rail, Sea and Michigan has a huge workforce development program. I think if you were going to do small scale manufacturing the labor costs and economic incentives would be hard to resist.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Yes, and subsequently die shortly after moving there. Such is the circle of life.
Living in Oakland is bad enough, at least you could live in Alameda or elsewhere in the Bay Area and still exploit the poor negros.
There is an irony that this thriving maker culture is being threatened by its cousin, the Silicon Valley start up culture, which is driving the massive spike in cost of living across the region.
Detroit's climate sucks, and it isn't as "cool" as California.
You mean not as many hippies and reprobates as in California? I was talking about the state and local government, not the people.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
...don't come to Oakland. It's terrible here. There is no good food or good bars. There is no good place to see live shows. The weather is terrible. All this space and open parking is just too much for normal city people. Also, with San Francisco right next door you should really just go there because it's a great city with so much to offer. Besides..you'll probably get shot if you come to Oakland..right? That's what the headlines say...and you should really trust what the media says.
But seriously..don't come here...I like it the way it is and don't want everyone messing it up with their bad attitudes.
There are huge tracts of land already available with streets and utilities at hand. .
ITYM "There are huge ... tracts of land"
HTH, HAND
Is Detroit really all that different from Oakland, other than the weather?
They're both virtually bankrupt cities full of rampant crime and poor people. One has just gone from virtually bankrupt to actually bankrupt.
Best pay attention to that "affordable housing" philosophy happening in Oakland. We're suffering the same process here in Vancouver, Canada. Whole neighbourhoods of single family homes are planned to be demolished to make room for 8 story and higher apartment towers. The main problem is that when you're planning to rebuild whole neighbourhoods, it's not sufficient to just build as lots become available by buying out the owners or as the older owners die or move into seniors care. We've already had some properties expropriated from their owners to make their land available to the developers building the new apartments. Make sure this is clear, this is not expropriation for projects for the common good but expropriation to help a developer make money under the guise of "sustainable and affordable" development.
Look up ICLEI, and how it's directing the community planning policies in your area. If you're in one of the brighter areas that have withdrawn from ICLEI, make sure your by-laws and zoning policies have been cleared of the ICLEI influence.
> that at times stands 70 feet high
not sure if height of building randomly changes or summary writer is retarted
Nope. It's a reference to the top diety in the Centauri belief system.
Snark.
Seastead this.
based on many of the comments here, it sounds like 'Raiders' was the perfect mascot for an Oakland team.
I have a friend who lives in Oakland who is an artist. He wants to get the hell out after a neighbor was shot and killed sittingin her car. Oakland's crime rate is out of control and city officials seem powerless to stop it.
It's sad really. Oakland is actually a great location and has some of the best weather in the Bay Area but it's been overrun by gangs and poverty. There are still some areas of Oakland that are OK such as up in the hills, but that area is insanely expensive, well out of reach for artists.
There are some nice things still in Oakland, such as around Lake Merritt and the Paramont theater but crime is killing the city, literally.
As others have said, they have an incompetent mayor who nobody likes.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
You can go anywhere in the world and tell someone you're from Oakland, and people will respond by saying "oh, you mean where the Raiders play"
You couldn't do that where I grew up unless you happened to be talking to a rabid professional sports fan. "Oakland" was Oakland MI, a large, and often newsworthy, suburb of Detroit.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
to carpentry.
The Job Creators have got our Fearless Leaders hard on the job to prevent any sort of remedy, but keep voting, as if it mattered. I'd mod you up, if I hadn't already posted, but you nailed it. (One little slice of it, anyway.) This is the unintended result of democracy, with the cheaters securely on top.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
In extremis we can RTFA?
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.