[sudo-discuss] Where Are The Commons? A short blog post about liberating space..

[Andrew]

Hey Sudoers,

I wrote a short blog post about that talks about my thoughts on liberating
space and why places like Sudo Room are so important..

http://hackerspa.com/where-are-the-commons/

Full text:

I recently came across this
article<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/opinion/what-tech-hasnt-learned-from-urban-planning.html>.
The basic argument is that the tech industry, while increasingly using the
terms like “commons” “town hall” and “community center”, is in practice
creating more spaces cut off from the public for employee use only.

The disappearing commons is not a problem caused by the tech industry. The
tech industry is just following along with the city’s already poor urban
planing. There are very few places that are even available at all for
public use in the Bay Area. In Oakland, you’ve got the library (where
funding is being cut left and right). You’ve got “public parks”, but we all
know what happens <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CcJeDBIixA> if you try
to stay past curfew in a public park. There are some Recreation
Centers<http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/opr/s/facility/>but
these are mostly for sports and rentals.

Where are the commons? Where are the places I can go to have a meeting with
friends and collaborators without having to pay $3 for a cup of coffee? Or
places where I can go to stay warm and chat with neighbors when the house
is cold and lonely. It is not just the tech industry that thinks in terms
of acquiring space instead of liberating it. Even in Berkeley, where there
are loud echos of the cultural revolutions of 60′s and 70′s, people have
large homes and small or non existent commons.

We need to liberate more space. In Oakland, as the steel industry left,
spaces that were once industrial centers became repurposed. In the past
decade there has been a migration of artists coming to Oakland specifically
because of the variety of space that’s available. What is also happening
(mainly through the work of post-occupy activists) is that space is being
repurposed for the commons. Organizations such as Sudo
Room<https://sudoroom.org/>and The
Bay Area Public School <http://bayareapublicschool.tumblr.com/> are leading
the way in this movement. But things are just getting started.

One day I would love to see a true community center in every neighborhood.
Where people can go to talk, create, plan, and most importantly share
resources. Sure the tech industry has created walled off cities for
Goolers, Mozillians, and Twits (?), but what’s the alternative for them?
Large fancy strip malls with $15 burritos? Just as they have used the
collective wealth off their companies to provide for the needs of their
employees, we must use the collective wealth of our communities to provide
for the needs of our friends, neighbors, and comrades.


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Andrew Lowe
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