Corboy note: artists are often in need of both living space and studio space. In many places, this accommodation has become scarce and expensive.
As a result, artists who lack funds are vulnerable. Some accept the hazard of living in areas without adequate fire protection or hazmat safeguards.
And, when it is difficult to find safe and affordable housing, people are often willing to tolerate unsafe conditions and ignore doubts about the master tenant.
A ghastly fire with great loss of life hit an Oakland warehouse that was rented by a bloke named Derrick Ion Alemena and then sublet to many young artists, despite the warehouse not having permits as a residential facility. Years of complaints to the city by neighbors passed.
Living space is scarce and expensive in Oakland, and in San Francisco. Artists are being priced out. Anyone who can promise affordable rent wields considerable influence -- which can be used for good or for ill.
When desperate for a place to live, you are one down in a power imbalance. You want to believe that your master tentant is trustworthy.
The man behind the Ghost Ship warehouse left conflicting impressions
[www.chicagotribune.com]
Meanwhile, there are other examples of other leaders who have emphasised their
expertise as artists or capable of giving education in spiritual aethetics.
Waldorf Schools Anthroposophy/Rudolf Steiner/Anthroposophy/Eurthymics/Wet Painting/Biodynamics
Former Waldorf teacher Gregoire Perra spoke out and was sued by Anthroposophy
[www.google.com]
Our Brush With Rudolf Steiner
[www.google.com]
[culteducation.com]
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
[culteducation.com]
Robert Burton - Fellowship of Friends/Oregon House/Renaissance/The Ark/Apollo, etc
[culteducation.com]
Sharon Gans/Alex Horn/Theatre of All Possiblities/Odyssey/San Francisco Hudson Valley Artists Foundation
[culteducation.com]
Gurdjieff
[www.washingtonpost.com]
[culteducation.com]
An un named group in New York.
[culteducation.com]
As a result, artists who lack funds are vulnerable. Some accept the hazard of living in areas without adequate fire protection or hazmat safeguards.
And, when it is difficult to find safe and affordable housing, people are often willing to tolerate unsafe conditions and ignore doubts about the master tenant.
A ghastly fire with great loss of life hit an Oakland warehouse that was rented by a bloke named Derrick Ion Alemena and then sublet to many young artists, despite the warehouse not having permits as a residential facility. Years of complaints to the city by neighbors passed.
Living space is scarce and expensive in Oakland, and in San Francisco. Artists are being priced out. Anyone who can promise affordable rent wields considerable influence -- which can be used for good or for ill.
When desperate for a place to live, you are one down in a power imbalance. You want to believe that your master tentant is trustworthy.
The man behind the Ghost Ship warehouse left conflicting impressions
Quote
“He (Derrick Ion Alemena) is able to charm people, but when they don't go along with what he wants he will threaten people,” said Allison’s father*, Michael Allison.
(Ion-Alemena is married to Micah Allison - so these are the words of Derrick's father in law -- who is also grandparent to the couples' three young children)
Others judged him more gently as a misunderstood eccentric, a “crazy uncle,” who leased the warehouse and sublet it to musicians and artists who couldn’t afford, or didn’t want, a more conventional living space.
“He has kind of childlike characteristics,” said Libby Physh, 25, who lived in the warehouse for about five months in 2014, paying $500 a month for one of the half-dozen trailers parked on the Ghost Ship’s ground floor.
Quote
Neither Almena nor Allison could be reached for comment for this story. But in a disjointed interview on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning, Almena repeatedly expressed sorrow for the 36 lives lost in the fire.
“I’m only here to say one thing: I’m incredibly sorry and that everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together,” he said. “People didn’t walk through those doors because it was a horrible place. People didn’t seek us out to perform and express themselves because it was a horrible place.”
When asked if he was accountable, he said, “No, I’m not going to answer these questions on this level. I’d rather get on the floor and be trampled by the parents. I’d rather let them tear at my flesh...”
Almena’s legal battles with some of the tenants and partygoers who visited the Ghost Ship are well-documented, but little is known about his life before he popped up in Oakland’s underground art scene.
Michael Allison said his daughter and Almena both grew up in Southern California and have lived together as wanderers, organizing their lives around Burning Man and other festivals. They had an apartment for a time near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, where Almena pursued photography and Allison belly danced.
In the early 2000s, when Allison became pregnant with the couple’s first child, they decamped for Mendocino County, where they stayed with one of Almena’s relatives.
Michael Allison said that Almena worked as a marijuana grower, but that he mainly farmed out tasks to other people and didn’t always pay them.
[www.chicagotribune.com]
Meanwhile, there are other examples of other leaders who have emphasised their
expertise as artists or capable of giving education in spiritual aethetics.
Waldorf Schools Anthroposophy/Rudolf Steiner/Anthroposophy/Eurthymics/Wet Painting/Biodynamics
Former Waldorf teacher Gregoire Perra spoke out and was sued by Anthroposophy
[www.google.com]
Our Brush With Rudolf Steiner
[www.google.com]
[culteducation.com]
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
[culteducation.com]
Robert Burton - Fellowship of Friends/Oregon House/Renaissance/The Ark/Apollo, etc
[culteducation.com]
Sharon Gans/Alex Horn/Theatre of All Possiblities/Odyssey/San Francisco Hudson Valley Artists Foundation
[culteducation.com]
Gurdjieff
[www.washingtonpost.com]
[culteducation.com]
An un named group in New York.
[culteducation.com]