DIY Safety Working Group

If you emailed us last night at diysafety@omnicommons.org please resend your message. We had some technical difficulties with the list that are now resolved!

Love, again, to everyone who came out - looking forward to working together to keep our friends and their spaces safe

Below are notes generated during the 12/07/16 meeting. Information on follow up meetings and actions will be added to this page as they develop.

• Niki intro
• Korl intro
• 7:20 Niki: "our motivation for this meeting is to develop longer-lasting infrastructure in supporting our spaces... for people who need help interfacing with the city departments, legal aid, trade work"
• notetaker, timekeeper, vibe reader
• 7:27 "a few of my friends created Safe Homes, a group for people who need housing, already 40 on it" <-- it's a Facebook group, passing a clipboard for email signups
• 7:28 "we need an anti-oppression committee too... shitty people who run and hoard spaces... also anti-repression... also organizing pressure towards state or gentrification"
• 7:31 i was at a 5 hour meeting today creating: http://helpghostship.com/ help us with it!
• 7:32 database collection - securely identify spaces w/footage, types of construction. hard to get grants without specific numbers but don't want to out people.
• 7:33 i was in a space for ~20years, just passed surprise inspection. are they going to use [it] as an excuse to throw people out? there's a lot of us, we have a lot of friends. if any of us gets kicked out of a legitimate, safe space, we can call on each other. overwhelm the owners/managers with phone calls. "that's why we're here!" [applause]
• 7:35 how many people are here because you're worried about getting evicted? go to the legal group. they're your friends.
• 7:35 more of an add-on, i do code stuff at work. talk about outreach in your own professions. architects talk to AIA, there's regulations that can protect your license if you do pro-bono work to support these spaces. not necessarily a separate group
• 7:36 2 immediate to-do tasks: 1) correct safety issues right away, things we can do tomorrow 2) long-term survival of art spaces in general
• "also, amnesty! how can we ask for amesty!" "that's long term" "no it's short term"
• 7:37 safety education, place we can aggregate resources
• emergency response for people getting evicted at the moment. if nothing else we can turn up good press
• collaboration between all of these - 1 crew that's emergency task force responding to things going on now. long term administrative takes care of... volunteer coordinating, research, finance. caretaking covers ground of anti-re/oppression. make legal a directory?
• 7:39 opsec - how to protect ourselves if a landlord/state wants them out
• one more thing: event operations. we've got a huge community of theaters, people who work with event security on a day to day basis. people who deal with venues.
• under advocacy & policy - you need to know how event permitting process works. a warehouse was shut down today because they're not zoned for entertainment. relevant for mixed-use places.
• THANK THESE GUYS FOR DOING THIS! APPLAUSE! they already bought a building. what they've done at omni commons is a model for other spaces. i'm lionel... we created ... "we the artists of the bay area" (?) WABA
• working with the neighbors. include them in the space processes
• there was a place where the neighborhood was citing people without talking to them
• (7:40 by niki's time, 7:44 by yar's) stack ended, breaking out into smaller groups at small tables

REPORT-BACK NOTES:

• communications report-back [notetaker was too distracted]
  • Internal communications
  • vetting resources
  • secure lists
  • receiving requests
  • external communications
• 8:30 report-back from legal: pool is small enough to contact me individually so far. i can find you an attorney. don't volunteer info to landlord, they're like the police. everything you write down in an email or sms could become part of a lawsuit later.
  • Sean McHenry sean.d.mchenry@gmail.com will be the legal conduit for any tenant
  • Know your rights
  • Eviction prevention
  • Landlord Accountability
• 8:37 constructon: forming an action group so when we get a poke from the [other group] we can act on them. everybody meet at bob's, there's construction & work happening! also info from fire extinguisher provider/certifier. people offered to do dump runs. [big applause]
• 8:39 code compliance, architecture, engineering / construction, professionals. let's split the work into long-term & short term. training for fire drills, immediate harm reduction. make sure they're up to code, and also realize not everybody wants to be, and it's very expensive. let's get as close as we can. long-term: group buys on equipment, advising on good layouts for spaces, work day (habitats for the arts, like H4H) for unskilled labor to come out. we formed a comprehensive list of professionals that are willing to do informal inspections. you can't just go to the city and ask for inspections without legal consequences. "this is what they'll ding you on, what you'll have to change". multiple exits, clearances, lighting close to the floor, safe storage for materials, paints, drywall to slow fire, extinguishers. we have a pretty comprehensive list of services & people who need it. if you're a space in need of advisement i'll put your name on it. private, your info will be shielded.
• 8:42 dk: anyone facing landlord/fire/city inspection or walkthrough, go to daniel or me after meeting or email diy-safety@omnicommons.org
• any spaces at risk who're here tonight - until comms group sets up secure direct line, i'offered my private phone # but i request that spaces which are KNOWN (friends of friends of friends) contact me
• 8:43 volunteer coordination: there's gonna be a lot of different groups that say "hey you can email us". there should be a general hub and that's what we were talking about. having a short talk before shows about immediate improvements to look for, have a table at the show for people who want to talk further. sign-up sheets. place to donate for resources/equipment/etc. not everyone will be able to do this for free. if you can help this week or next at shows, come find me
  • 8:46 privacy is a huge concern. want to do vetting on both ends - volunteers & people offering labor. chart: create online submission forms. we want most things to be inreach so people would be submitting their info. not a lot of outreach. add your certification, license # etc, that can all be filtered into an advisory board & a vetting process. don't want people to be exploited for free labor or get in trouble if they're not as qualified as they may think themselves to be. throuhg that process it'll then go into a scheduling format - prioritizing people based on needs. also looking for grantwriters. most people won't do more than a walkthrough for free, so eventually we'll need money. also need private liaisons, people with standing in these communities who know who we are, to talk to people who might be cagey on these topics. also education task force, safety workers who'd be assigned to a location, show people how to use fire extinguishers, etc.
  • did you say coordinating training? yes.
  • want a group that unifies everything and coordinates
  • http://helpghostship.com/ already exists, working on it now
  • this is a foundation for a nonprofit that could be sustainable if we could find the funding
  • OTHER NOTES
    • Form a general hub and this group will route the help and need
    • Have a pretalk before benefit shows to gather potential volunteers
    • Sign people up
      • Recruit (Market a cause)
      • Collect people's contact
      • Mobilize People
    • Resource Coordination
    • In Reach
• 8:52 financial report-back from ari: we started listing immediate resources that are raising funds at all scales. 2 sections of fundraising: immediate & long term. immediate: create database of all the different funding sources, independent benefits, any resources. helpghostship.com will be a place for that. set up an emergency fund - in the next week people are facing evictions, need support now. match all the cash coming in with needs. also talked about corporate funding - lots of local corps w/$ want to support this community. adobe? start writing proposals, get 1-on-1 meetings.
  • Keeping Spaces Grant, $1.7million http://cast-sf.org/
    • submissions due in february to non profits
  • Fiscal Sponsor
  • Online donations: Bitcoin, PayPal
  • Grants / Foundations
• 8:56 Advocacy & Policy report-back from mischa
  • immediate actions to forward policy: research existing laws like loft act in new york. creating media training, talking points for the media. appointing media point-person who's an expert on that, will just repeat talking points so they can't quote bad things. [somebody in a hat] message to local regulators with policy demands - make people safer, keep art spaces open.
  • specific policy demands: we'll take this list to some policy experts to see what's doable and what's pie in the sky. bond issues, accelerated zoning approval for spaces already being used for something, moratorium on rent - can't do that on all evictions, but we can do that for code enforcement. something about code compliance. amnesty for owners so they don't feel like they need to evict tenants to remain safe. decreased zoning spaces for event & live-work spaces. money from gov for space acquisition. changing state law to make it more friendly towareds entertianment & live-work. creating grey area for professionals where they can walk through and not have an obligation to report. getting land directly from city or state for thingsn like affordable arts housing & event space. creating permit process for live-work entertainment spaces. expediting event permits. friendlier regulations for full-time night spaces. paying attention to diversity so we're not speaking as a bunch of white male gentrifiers, but coming across as a true coalition.
  • 9:00 dk: tomorrow 10:45AM Oakland City Hall, city council meeting has a law coming up
  • https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2902527&GUID=34F5A16A-5BBA-451E-8E39-6B3158374DEC
  • 16-0519 Informational Report On Unpermitted Residences In Commercial Spaces
  • Informational Report On Unpermitted Residences In Commercial Spaces From: Council President Gibson McElhaney, President Pro Tempore Reid, and Councilmember Gallo Recommendation: Receive An Informational Report From The City Administrator Examining The Issue Of Residents Living In Unpermitted Commercial Or Industrial Spaces Which Includes Information On Health And Safety Risks, A Review Of Potential Policy Responses, And An Analysis Of Options To Create A Pathway To Legal Occupancy That Reduces The Risk Of Displacing Current Residents; As Soon As Possible On The Community And Economic Development Committee Agenda
  • also oakland redevelopment successor agency. 2:15 tomorrow to make a final report of some of their closed-session discussions, to talk about ratifying their call for state of emergency. there'll be time for artists to show up and talk at both these meetings!
  • get there early, parking garage was condemned
  • OTHER NOTES
    • DIY spaces Law
    • Measure kk
    • City Council
    • 12/08/16 10:45
    • Zoning
      • Event permits role in mixed-use spaces.
    • Stay of all evictions
    • Public Relations (working with the neighbors)
• 9:04 anti-oppression report back from morgan: community accountability process so we can be really tight [...] and be more inclusive, transformation. mediation - if someone does something crappy, people are trained to come in, maybe know both people, to de-escalate conflict and find mutual resolution. caretaking. crisis housing. peoples' traumas bring this up, they can experience trauma from being oppressed. important to have those people being able to receive some care. help deconstruct those traumas or oppressive behavior so people can grow. also safer spaces policy - having procedures in place at spaces so if someone is known for being very oppressive or enacts oppression, procedure helps keep people safe and actually take/divert/report those issues to the working committee so there can be a larger community accountability process to help improve the spaces and hold those people accountable. also non-compliance with the state would be important. people have their own autonomy but this would be structured to support autonomy, a lot of people feel like police are oppressive or not helpful or make things worse. if we can make our own structures then we can have something better than that come out. part of that is security so maybe have point people who are trained. not so centralized that people don't feel empowered to speak up - decentralized so people can elect security people. like hey this person has been great at de-escalating, mediation, knows how to defend themselves if shit gets haywire. effective security team. rapid response: if someone doesn't feel safe, having people on call that can respond, help make that person feel safer. come to us, i'll get your email.
  • there's probably press roaming around after this meeting. go out double doors to avoid them. if you want to give them a piece of your mind, i've been told there's someone through the front door.
• 9:10 event operations report-back from billy: i own a bar/restaurant/music venue here in oakland. they covered a lot of stuff. a lot of us are fully licensed, don't know how this'll effect us. we need to renew our cabaret license and have every single permit on the book. one person who does this in the city - nancy marcus, night-life czar. if shit hits the fans too hard, that's who to hit up when you're pissed you can't go to a club. also i used to do a lot of insurance and stuff...
  • gil on DIY spaces: some underground, some legitimate. set up nonprofit corps. it's a simple process. great for running events out of a space. restrictions & code requirements are far less if you have a nonprofit community center. people would rather give grant money to a nonprofit than a flaky artist. you might be able to find one to fiscally sponsor you. they'd get the money and distribute it to you.
  • fractured atlas: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/
  • ATTENTION EVERYONE ORGANIZING EVENTS. SELL TICKETS ONLINE?

100% of all service fees donated back to Emergency Fund for 1 year. www.sparxo.com genesis@sparxo.com

• follow-up meeting next wednesday at the same time (Dec 14th 2016, 7pm omni commons)