“Nearly three years after the Ghost Ship fire, the scruffy, low-rent art spaces that helped give Oakland its edge are disappearing. Building inspectors shut some of them down after the blaze that engulfed the Fruitvale warehouse in December 2016, killing 36 people and prompting the trial of two men who now await a jury’s decision on whether they were criminally negligent.
But other artist colonies have succumbed to a new, more persistent threat: marijuana.
In the past year, the City has issued permits to 87 cannabis operations, including greenhouses, farms, laboratories, dispensaries and delivery services — many of which are willing to pay a premium for rent.
And more could come: Since May 2017, 124 businesses applied for permits to run indoor cultivation facilities. Though Oakland won’t make their addresses public, city officials say that most are vying for old manufacturing sites and abandoned warehouses. Oakland’s “green zone” — the areas where cannabis businesses can legally operate — encompasses much of the industrial hinterland in East and West Oakland, where artists sought cheap space to work and live.
at the nimby warehouse in east oakland, artist-tenants are packing up their saws, sculptures and glass-blowing equipment. they have two months to leave before rent on the property jumps significantly. landlord murray hill partners is making electrical upgrades to accommodate a “broad range” of potential tenants, including those from the cannabis industry. “oakland decided to turn its artistic zone into a green zone, and we just don’t know where to go next,” said nimby sculptor and volunteer security guard clody cates.
“The shift worries some artists, who say that a city long steeped in bohemian subcultures is now pinning its hopes on an industry that might not pan out. Even cannabis growers say they’ve noticed a visible change in the landscape.
“You used to see the Burning Man-type people walking down to the Fruitvale BART Station,” said Alexis Bronson, a small-time cannabis grower who works out of a large dispensary.
“There is a lot less of that now,” he continued. “It seems like every warehouse is a pot grow, and now it’s even worse because the big real estate investors, they came in and bought up these whole swaths of buildings.””
read more: sfchronicle, 11.08.19.
