Folks,
I've had a change of heart about this discussion board. And I want to thank my very sensible and sensitive roommate for helping me understand something important. Josh visited the board and saw the posting about dog barking. His immediate reaction was, "Who started that?" I had to admit it was I.
He explained how a more positive "good news" platform would serve us better than a place to complain. At first I felt that was naive. But Josh is a very insightful guy.
I'll paraphrase his words: G2 needs healing even more than problem management. There's already a perfectly good place to register problems, and that's the HOA Board. That body has been functioning more effectively the past few years. What is lacking is a positive platform where people can feel good about participation. Why do we need a positive platform?
Well, G2 had a long, difficult birth, and in some ways continues to be unresolved. First, the Goodman artists were evicted from the abandoned hotel the called home. These two-dozen artists/activists challenged the SF Redevelopment Agency for years. They were
emotionally invested, if not financially invested, in the Goodman Building. But they lost that struggle, although they did manage to negotiate a "relocation settlement" from the City. If memory serves, that was about $570,000, which was given to ArtsDeco, the successor to the Goodman Group.
Then, ArtsDeco itself struggled to maintain cohesion and what supporters still call "the dream." That dream, as I understand it, was to find a way to recreate the social life, the activist vibrancy, and "the meaning" the artists enjoyed at the original Goodman building. Martha Senger largely, and I think heroically, became the prime force of the ArtsDeco dream. But most others drifted away.
Just as the Goodman Group's struggle lasted a decade or so, so too did ArtsDeco's. Martha's little group with the big dream moved from one non-starter to the next. In a nutshell, the relocation money was never enough to buy another building. Finally, in what some might call a Faustian bargain, ArtsDeco allied itself with building developer Rick Holliday. They used each other to overcome a variety of challenges and build something from scratch (and lend legitimacy to Holliday's Arkansas live/work condos). The result is our building, G2.
ArtsDeco's resources could not afford a new building. And the devil would not relent. The only way to "do the deal" was to sell ownership in the new $16M building. So, in a rather complicated arrangement, the City partially financed individual units and ArtsDeco was allowed to maintain a fraction of ownership. The result of that deal is our HOA of:
6 market-rate units (not controlled by City provisions),
5 Artsdeco-owned residences and 1 ArtsDeco-owned theater, and
17 City-subsidized and restricted units that must meet certain provisions upon resale.
But ownership changed everything, a fact that must still be very hard for some ArtsDeco supporters to accept. 80% of the building is actually owned by individuals who have varying allegiance or need for "the dream." Nevertheless, ArtsDeco still wanted to recreate their dream. Yes, there were provisos to ensure that low-income artists would be the owners (of the subsidized units, anyway). But the crucial truth is that ownership changes things.
Most of these new owners are not ArtsDeco-type people at all. Like me, we are more independent-minded and prefer to craft opportunities different from those that ArtsDeco historically seemed interested in. When push came to shove, many individual owners rejected "chaos mathematics," "the torus," and "thick ecology," finding these unrelated to what we needed to do. Instead we looked to the CC&Rs and the Bylaws that were essential purchase agreements, because that is what we had bought.
We purchased a condominium, not the Goodman building. And, I think, the Faustian bargain led to a Hegelian contradiction (to mix more philosophical allusions in there). Without spelling out details, I believe this is what offends many of the original Goodman people about the owners. But I think I also see what Josh is saying. Just providing a platform for complaints is not going to resolve such contradictions. The bargain with the devil is done, but if that merely forces us into hostile camps, then we are all diminished.
Instead, would a "good news" platform help us find common ground? I’m not sure if this is possible. But, like Martha (or MLK), I too have a dream! (No, not for little black children to play with little white children, although that’s a fine dream.) My dream is that the intelligent, creative, experienced adults at G2 will someday correspond and collaborate without resorting to innuendo, character attacks, back-biting, and suspicion of motive. I dream that residents can put good art on the walls and have meaningful events, for and by each other. (Yes, there’s an HOA event and exhibit form, but it’s easy and necessary.)
I’m willing to work for this dream. I volunteer and have been elected to the HOA board several times (an often thankless task where you are occasionally pelted by unhelpful remarks). I built the Yahoo group to foster communication, even if just by email. It works a little, I suppose. But I hope for more for us.
That was the original motivation for the G2 Discussion Board. But we may not be ready yet for complaints, challenges, and explanations. If Josh is right, then maybe what we need more is a place where we can safely discuss creative opportunities. Maybe that’s all we can handle now.
This is why I’m making a course change to the G2 Discussion Board; I’m removing the “complaint discussion” angle from the site. (If you do have complaints please take them to the HOA which is the most appropriate place to handle disputes about living at G2. The HOA board is responsible to all residents for “peaceful and quiet enjoyment” of the premises. So use them for that!)
So, I’m still learning, working and trying to nurture solutions. Sometimes it’s a lonely exercise. I can really relate to Martha at times. We are, after all, both dreamers, working alone on projects we believe are important. Will you work with me and make it less lonely? Will you correspond if it’s safe and just about creativity?
Heck, I’ll even make the first move: to anyone at G2 who does not have a web site, I’ll build you one for FREE! That right: a nice little "starter site" where you can have images, movies, and text in a nice design-- for FREE.
Ask not what G2 can do for you, but what you can do for G2. Now, what can you offer? If nothing else, can you offer some helpful comments? Some encouragement?
- Rafael
