— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
I've heard a lot about these mythical eviction parties, where tenants tossed to the curb by their money-grabby landlords celebrate their former homes with beer and destructive mayhem. Fortunately, I had never once come across one for myself until yesterday evening.
Sadly all-to-common throughout the turbulent late-90s, when social justice activists were booted to make room for open source activists, they seem to have died off in recent years (one notable exception from two years ago notwithstanding). However, the eviction of the Capp Street Commune at Capp and 20th seems like a particularly eery omen of what's to come, given the Commune was right next door to the SF Tenants Union. If their neighbors, arguably one of the most adept organization at protecting tenants in the city, couldn't help them, what does that say for the rest of us?
I invited myself into the party, hoping to catch someone light the first match, or at least take a swing of the sledgehammer of “fuck yous.” But there was no retributive property destruction, just melancholy and boxed belongings. Not much of an eviction party, at least in the eyes of a kid who spent his youth burning matchbooks for fun.
On my way out, I asked a guy clearly suffering from a case of the bummers if he lived in the house, hoping to get the story behind the eviction.
“Naw man, no one lives here.”
Comments (12)
So… what were they evicted for? It’s pretty hard to get rid of people in this city if the property is under rent control. SF has the strongest pro-tenant laws in the country.
Is this the place that had the music lessons & little recitals?
Just because you’ve been living there long doesn’t make it yours. If I buy a house, spending my hard-earned cash, I deserve (nee, demand) the right to live in it.
In reality, people: it’s just a dwelling. Things change; life goes on. So what you’re being evicted; it’s not the end of the world. Gather up your shit, throw out most of it, and move on.
It’s a house, not a home.
“1987? - 2012”
Really?
Babe, when I was growing up, I never lived 3 years in the same place. Trust me, yur kids will get over it.
REALLY? You’re going to bash a “money-grubbing” landlord who let somebody rent this place out for 25 years for below market rent. Choosing to rent an apartment is not a lottery ticket, although these people clearly thought they had one. I guess it’s fine that I pay 10X what they pay and live in a dumpier place right across the street… Boo hoo.
In 1987 one could have bought that building for relatively cheap. Too bad there’s not more city sponsored help for people to buy their homes.
There are plenty of city sponsored home-buying opportunities. People are too fucking lazy to look into it. They’d rather bitch about the man. Grow the fuck up.
Here’s the CL ad for their “Free Sale” http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/zip/3112599536.html
If you need any misc. I think they may be highly helpful.
Realistically, these people got some form of payment for leaving or if they were smart could have. The fact that tenents are so difficult to get out of a building that you own is one piece of the puzzle of why it is ridiculously hard to buy (or rent for that mattter) a place in SF.
I wasn’t invited to the party………… :(
That note is pathetic. My partner and I lived in that house for 15 years until we were forced out by the same woman who wrote that note and her completely anti-“communal” actions.
It is immensely hypocritical that she would write that dreck about “loving the family and community that surrounded the house.” She and her partner self-servingly ignored the Collective’s decisions while simultaneously loudly preaching their supposed commitment to the principles of co-operation.
Their eviction is total karma… good riddance!
The sale of this house has nothing at all to do with gentrification. The landlady had happily rented the place for 25 years, including a period when she could have made millions on it.
The “Commune” got evicted because the tenants mismanaged their relationship with their landlady and brought the eviction down on their own heads. They got greedy, pushed her too hard, and made the eviction look attractive to her.
It is a shame that a house like this with so much history gets swallowed up into private ownership. But let’s lay the blame where it belongs.