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After Tragic Oakland Warehouse Fire, Groups Organize to Save Bay Area Art Spaces

You might say Oakland architect Thomas Dolan wrote the book on live/work building conversions. Which isn’t in any way hyperbole since he actually wrote the book — “Live Work Planning and Design,” a primer on converting old industrial buildings into legal studio dwellings.

He’s helped dozens of East Bay underground warehouse spaces go legit with proper building codes and safety requirements. He speaks of Oakland’s reputation as a “wild west” as he calls it, for allowing unchecked artist warehouse communities to percolate out of sight and beyond regulations. Which is why he wasn’t surprised by last weekend's devastating fire.

“You could say the Ghost Ship or something like it was bound to happen eventually,” Dolan said.

The Ghost Ship tragedy that claimed 36 lives has also since proved the spark for zoning crackdowns across the Bay Area — as building inspectors rain down on dodgy art spaces that had been tolerated up until last Friday’s fire.

“There are probably many places like Ghost Ship out there,” Dolan said in his Oakland office. “One of the big challenges right now is how to take buildings like that -- how to take situations like that and not just evict everyone — not just close them down.”

Dolan is now helping to form what he calls a de facto “citizens inspection corp ” that would advise outlaw warehouse operators on how to get their buildings safe and up to code, before city inspectors knock on the door.

“The problem is the city can’t do it because as soon as the city does it they in affect have to lower the boom,” Dolan said. “The desire is not to take the place of the city, but intervene prior to the city coming in.”

Like artists themselves, Dolan warns of the dire impact of wide-ranging crackdowsn that force evictions and closures amid the industrial warehouse landscape which covers large swaths of East Oakland.

“A critical mass of an arts community will be greatly diluted and we will be this poorer for it,” Dolan said.

During World War II, Oakland’s major shipping port and freight rail lines fed a manufacturing boom that resulted in thousands of industrial warehouse spaces. In following declining years, many of the spaces were taken over by artists seeking cheap space to live and work.

“Unfortunately in the United States we’re not putting a lot of credibility or support behind the arts,” said Oakland artist Karen Cusolito. “That causes a lot of artists to have to seek the cheapest possible rent and that is likely to be a building that is substandard.”

Inside West Oakland’s sprawling American Steel Studio building, a former six-acre manufacturing plant that now provides studio space for 200 crafters, artist Cusolito pointed out the cacophony of work taking place in every corner. When Cusolito helped establish the space, she said safety was a key consideration — as with any public events the building has held over the years.

“Every event I’ve ever hosted here in American Steel Studios has been permitted,” Cusolito said of the legally operating building. “So what that includes is an inspection and walk through with the fire inspector.”

Cusolito said since last week's fire, she has heard from multiple artists who have been served eviction notices in the post-fire crackdown by Oakland building inspectors. She expressed hope the city would find a way to make permit application process easier, so outlaw operators would feel more secure in seeking assistance in making needed changes.

“Is there a way to make attaining these levels of safety so that more people will take those steps,” Cusolito said.

In response to the fire and following code crackdown, on Friday a group of Bay Area artists announced it was launching a new coalition called “We the Artists of the Bay Area” which would advocate for artists. In a declaration signed by artists, the group said it was asking Bay Area governments to “initiate policies to help these art spaces come into compliance, rather than saddling them with eviction notices.”

Dolan echoed importance of the group’s aims, noting that rents in Oakland have jumped seventy percent in the last five years — and that for many, the industrial spaces represent the last safety net before landing in the streets. Dolan’s eyes lowered as he considered the vast destruction of the Ghost Ship warehouse, the multitude of lost lives and the waves of evictions that have followed.

“It may result in at least more spaces being made safe,” Dolan said, “while hopefully remaining affordable.”

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