[Badgirlz-list] [fwd]ABC No Rio: we fought the law, and we w…

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Aihe: [Badgirlz-list] [fwd]ABC No Rio: we fought the law, and we won!
>ABC No Rio: we fought the law, and we won!
>
>26 years ago, a small group of artists occupied an

abandoned building
>on Delancy Street. They put up an art show commenting

on the housing
>crisis in New York, focused by their actions on the

quantity of
>abandoned properties on the Lower East Side owned by

the city itself.
>
>The art show was immediately shut down; the artwork

confiscated. The
>city, by its over reaction, turned a minor event into

a large
>scandal. To end the scandal, the city agreed to rent

the first floor
>and basement of a building the city owned on

Rivington street to the
>group of artists.
>
>The space became know as ABC No Rio, taking its name

from the
>reflection of a decayed sign across the street that

once said Abagado
>Notorio and looked as if it said Abc No rio.
>
>What ABC No Rio is can best be summed up by the

following quote from
>the ABC No Rio website .
>"We seek to facilitate cross-pollination between

artists and
>activists. ABC No Rio is a place where people share

resources and
>ideas to impact society, culture and community. We

believe that art
>and activism should be for everyone, not just the

professionals,
>experts, and cognoscenti. Our dream is cadres of

actively aware
>artists and artfully aware activists."
>
>The artists running the space eventually took over

the abandoned
>floors above and converted them into usable studios

and living space.
>
>The city made numerous attempts to evict ABC No Rio.

Time and time
>again the city lost. The city's last attempt was

giving ownership of
>the building to a non-profit housing organization,

Asian Americans
>for Equality. AAFE, responding to the public pressure

No Rio
>organized, asked the City to withdraw the building

from their
>project.[1]
>
>In February 1997, a protest converged on the offices

of the New York
>City Department of Housing Preservation and

Development (HPD), one of
>the agencies responsible for city owned property.
>
>A crowd was marching towards the office of the

Commissioner of HPD.
>She heard the protest coming down the hall and as she

said later,
>realized she had a choice. She could call in the

police and escalate
>the situation, or she could sit down and talk. She

opted to talk and
>eventually offered a deal.
>
>I was at home that day, waiting to do legal support

for those
>arrested. When the phone rang, and I was told of the

day's events I
>thought it was a joke. Later someone framed it for me

with this
>rumor: The Head of HPD at the time had been an

exchange student in
>Mexico in 1968 when a large student demonstration

turned into a
>massacre because of the stubbornness of a bureaucrat;

this was her
>chance to learn from that and do the right thing.
>
>9 and a half years ago, as a result of that day, the

City and ABC No
>Rio entered into an agreement. All people living in

the building
>would move out; all the space would be converted to

various community
>uses. ABC would have to hire architects and

structural engineers;
>come up with plans to renovate the building and bring

it back up to
>code. ABC No Rio would also have to raise enough

money to renovate
>the building.
>
>If these conditions were met, the city promised to

start the
>procedure to transfer ownership of and rezone the

building.
>
>That process would require review and approval of:

the department of
>Housing Preservation and Development; the land use

committee of the
>local Community Board; the full Community Board; the

City Planning
>Commission; the Borough President; the City Council;

and the Mayor.
>
>We kept our end of the deal. Everyone voluntarily

moved out (no
>evictions) and most continued to participate in the

project. The
>upper floors of the building were fixed up, which

supplemented the
>first floor art gallery and performance space with a

kitchen used to
>feed people in Tompkins Square by the local chapter

of Food Not
>Bombs; a library of marginal publications and zines;

a books to
>prisoners program, Books through Bars; a meeting

room/classroom
>available to community groups; a fully equipped

darkroom; a
>silkscreen printshop; video editing; and a public

access computer
>center.
>
>Much to our shock and surprise, the city held to its

end of the deal.
>Even more shocking, ABC No Rio was able to raise

enough money for
>phase one of renovation, the major structural repair.
>
>In December, the folks from HPD called. They needed

us to send a
>couple people to an important meeting. It seems that

the process was
>over. They wanted us to submit revised architects

plans and numbers;
>bank account statement; and get a lawyer so they

could finalize the
>transfer of the building by the end of January.
>
>As these things go, there were delays and more

delays. But, it is now
>reality. This past week, on Thursday June 29th 2006,

the City of New
>York transferred ownership of 156 Rivington to ABC No

Rio in exchange
>for a check for $1. I'm a bit sad that they would not

let us give
>them the money in dimes and nickles (or even some

glass beads and
>trinkets).
>
>Yes folks. It looks like we won.
>
>Three or four generations of artists and activists

went head to head
>with city hall for 26 years and won. We forced them

to the table;
>demanded they take us seriously, on our terms. As a

result, we have
>created a permanent home for the culture of

opposition.
>
>Renovation starts in the fall.
>
>To date, we have raised over $290,000 [2]. The

majority of the
>donations are below $100. That's a lot of love from a

lot of people.
>
>To everyone that provided support, money, art for

auction, talent,
>beer, etc to aid our efforts, I send my thanks and

respect. We could
>not have done this without the thousands of you that

had our backs.
>
>I'm still in shock. Slowly the reality is sinking in.

Over 9 years
>ago when ABC No Rio started on the fundraising push,

as a joke I bet
>someone $10 that it would never happen.
>
>It was my way of saying that I was going to help and

I did not care
>how impossible our goal seemed. I can't remember who

the bet is with,
>but I'm eager to pay up.
>
>
>
>
>
>notes:
>[1] Some have sugested that I point out the fact that

8 years later,
>AAFE Exec. Dir. Chris Kui had been appointed to the

City Planning
>Commission -- one of the groups that had to approve

the transfer of
>the building. At that City Planning Commission

hearing Mr Kui was
>extraordinarily gracious and magnanimous, and spoke

favorably of ABC
>No Rio to his colleagues on the commission.
>
>[2] Total renovation costs will end up somewhere

between 500,000 and
>900,000 depending on labor costs, material costs and

other factors
>beyond our control. We still need to raise the rest

of that money,
>but now that we own the building new sources of grant

funding are
>open to us.
>
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