[Callout] Los Angeles Squat Project

That sounds pretty cool if there is a will there is a way

reeed said:

Haven't been on this site for a while but figure this is the place to post.

So apparently California has the some of the best 'squatters rights" laws in the USA.

Why are there no squats in Los Angeles!

The city is full of occupiable buildings.

I'd like to make a plan to take over a building and eventually (Say after at least a year or so of maintenance and continual occupancy) open it as some kind of social center.

Obviously this would take a crew of people with open schedules.

If your in the area would love to hear from you, especially regarding the opening question, why is nobody doing this here?

Currently I'm sourcing a lot of public/public-ish records with the goal to store them in one searchable database/format. Particularly looking for 'tax delinquent properties' like this building here "1557 ESPERANZA ST LOS ANGELES, CA 90023" (Just an example) it's been vacant for a while and the "owner" owes over a million dollars in property taxes, so I'd imagine they're not going to be complaining about someone taking over the space.

I have access to construction equipment for repairs and I'm fairly good at navigating/accessing records, legal documentation, etc... Also fairly good with electrical work.

Looking for any other like minded people with any skills/time that they'd be willing to dedicate to a project like this.

If it sounds interesting let's talk!

Cheers!

R

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I dig your optimism but your also incredibly naive about things. I’d start small and just try and find a shithole you can shack up in safely and not get crazy ambitious. Be realistic with your capabilities and what you can accomplish. Try moving away from a fantasy scenario where you do all this work to make some place to help others and maybe help yourself first.

reeed said:

I mean it's not that ambitious IMO. And I guess 'shithole' is kinda relative like I'd say all of los angeles is a shithole haha. But no to be clear: this isn't an idea for a crash pad or a party house thing or something like that, it's a more serious project.

Idea for next post:

Looking for others down to create a real life fantasy scenario where we occupy one of the thousands of vacant buildings in Los Angeles (I know sounds crazy but it's possible). We will shack up dangerously and get crazy ambitious. We will also do work to help others.
Ambition a must, naivety welcome.
SDHead not invited.

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Shacking up in a Boyle heights bando is possible, but turning it to some kind of center….. if that buildings not inhabited already, word gets out you can your going to get run out of it quick by folks holding some weight out there who are not naive. That areas regulated and your a funny white dude, If I heard about you breaking in and setting up shop I wouldn’t come for help bro. People don’t want your help bro.

dont listen to haters. if you can dream it you can achieve it. im in. where are we going?

We tried to do something similar across the river from me in Shelton CT, where a semi abandoned warehouse with power was actually being legally rented, but in the end - the combination of drug use and, well I suppose a lack of vision because of drug use - put the kabash on it.

I mean, Pepe was totally focused on it, and I suppose I was too, but I was on a Saranak brew kick back then, so I could not give it my all.

Prior to that, Pepe had a place called The Factory House.
It was again, semi legit as it was being rented, but once the landlord got wind of the punk shows going on, that too got the kabash put on it.

I tried to do some research on line about that, as that was a pretty serious collective before my time at that scene, all I could find was this:

Of interest, Pepe tried very hard to get that club legit, trying to get people to speak at public meetings at City Hall, but in the end NOBODY there was interested in a teen center that gave a place - a much needed space - for kids to hang out and not cause or get into any trouble.

I know the landlord was not keen on this as well.

This was about 20 years ago, maybe a bit longer.

Now, going back to the 1980s I seem to recall that there was some real success at doing what the original poster here has in mind in NYC, but the person who would know best got banned from S.T.P. so there's no way of getting a hold of him, but he was a part of that whole NYHC scene back then, and since he went on to be kind of a lawyer on the fringe, so he would have been the best one for advice, even though you want to do this in L.A.

I guess where I am going with this is that if you are serious about doing what it is you are looking to do and set up, keep it clean and try not to do anything that's going to attract attention your way, because the man ain't gonna be cool with it, believe me.....

GOOD LUCK !!

thats tight as fuck. i tried to make a squat house. made a ig and tik tok for it. had a job. was living off solar panels. was gonna fund it. only no one came. (probably cause im a wierd white dude). what put the kabash on it was snitches in the community who saw the social medias. but its like were here so lets party. here how we can power a pa system.

Man that's some crazy shit !!
You'd be surprised how many places that appear to be abandoned still have electricity in them !!
The Factory House did, right up to when it burned up - which was most likely arson in the name of development/re-vitalization, which is huge in that town....

I had a whole stream of thought going about 3 hours ago of what came after The Factory House, but now it has seemed to have left my mind, perhaps it's for the best as there was a lot of useful info about things we did right along with wrong, including the fallout of when The Factory House burned up, which was many years after the fact.

There was a kid living up there by himself, rumor has it his space heater lit the place up.

As for how The Factory House met it's demise, see the flyer I posted earlier ??
There's several different versions of the same story, everyone from either a police officer to a member of the town board of alderman read about an up-coming show in The New Haven Advocate, and they were like WTF and went to go have a look.

Mind you, this place was in no mans land, nobody ever went to that part of town ever unless they were out exploring, which I've done myself about 30 years back, with a 40oz in my hand....

I do know that people did go to the town meetings to try and make The Factory House legit, get the proper zoning, etc... and the people who spoke at those meetings were smart individuals who truly cared about the scene, because if you lived in The Valley, New Haven mind as well have been NYC, and in The Valley, there's literally nothing to do if one is creative and an interlect or a misfit for that matter, hence the appeal of the old factories, by now long abandoned....

But the town could care less, being run by a bunch of squares.
Of interest, the police went on record as saying that there was never any trouble or complaints, so that's a huge plus for future reference....

The D.I.Y. Bandits were the one's who put that shit together, and I'm told they are still out there although I have long since lost contact with them.

What followed the fire was panic and paronia regarding those who were in the other factory house, known as AwareHouse, and that was a recording studio/collective also in am abandoned factory, ironically rented out by the same landlord !!

Both these spaces I believe were rented for "storage space" only, but as long as things were cool, anything went.

After the fire, word got out that the fire marshal was paying the old complex a visit, so being a member of the Derby Fire Dept one town over [it's all volunteer out here] I ran some serious interference and spoke to a Shelton firefighter and explained exactly what was going on, which he totally appreciated - because the Fired Dept knew something was going on [with AwareHouse] but did not know what, my networking there saved a visit from the fire marshal, and all was good.

I also got some shit straightend out as well, regarding potential violations so they would not get into trouble if he did pop in...

But AwareHouse came to suffer a slow and painful death, some of which I witnessed first hand due to drug use spirialing out of control, and also - funny how that video was just posted - the power being shut off.

I seem to recall the winter of 2012, or maybe it was 2013 as being very brutal, those living in the studio had no heat or anything, and everyone got the flu real bad.

My last visit there was with Pepe, and we spoke about [retaking the place over" but by then, we all had other ideas and possible other locations too to think about, needless to say, that was the end of that, and The Valley never had anything cool to do ever again.

Of interest, a place in New Haven called Popeye's which did shows was also meeting it's own demise.
This was a club, set up in rented space in an abandoned gas station next to a Popeye's Fried Chicken.

Yes, before you ask the neighborhood was wild.

But so were the shows, this was by far the best noise/experimental music club I ever been to since NO-SE-No in NYC during 1983 - 1984 or so....

One time the cops rolled up, and a girl connected with the place in a polite manner informed the officer that this was a private space, and the officer was literally like, ok... have a great night.

I know I've gone way off track here, but I wanted to show to reeed [OP] how we tried to do similar to maybe what reeed is looking to do as well, and how we tried by renting essentially places suitable only for cold storage on the cheap [and I mean CHEAP !!] , and hoping for the best, which in some cases lasted for several years.

I really hope reeed can find some good like minded people, because this is something where a collective is necessary, along with dare I say some very good ground rules.

The original Metroplex on Luckie Street in Atlanta started out just like that- an abandoned office space in a mostly ghost town section of the city. It was a great venue with lots of real acts like Circle Jerks etc. BYOB, $2.00 covers, until, as usual, snitches got zoning folks invloved. There were a couple long-term squats too on Marietta Street, across from the second (legit) Metroplex in the mid- 80's. Group of young punks and skins did a great job of keeping their building secure, clean and drug free. They left the 1st floor empty and occupied the 2nd. It may be harder these days, the boundaries are stretched and nothing can stay secret long. And once the secret is out, the vibrant scene inevitably draws the scoundrel's, thieves and takers.

i think in this modern day and age where everyone kinda sucks online and irl it .akes most sense to go for broke and occupy a building and party till it burns to the ground. all bets are off everything goes. fuck the police. like a weeklong orgy that ends poorly. (ill be in the figurative orgy cause i dont wanna touch any of yall. or i might watch the real orgy a couple times). but yea, i really dont expect anything countercultural to have much staying power in 2022 because i have so little faith in humans. but if op builds it i will come. im sober until im not (about 2 weeks between drunk relapses to go to sleep) and i dont even smoke cigarettes. so worst ill do is hit that blunt without contributing. all in all, im a pretty productive member of society, and any squat would be lucky as fuck to have me.

reeed said:

Haven't been on this site for a while but figure this is the place to post.

So apparently California has the some of the best 'squatters rights" laws in the USA.

Why are there no squats in Los Angeles!

The city is full of occupiable buildings.

I'd like to make a plan to take over a building and eventually (Say after at least a year or so of maintenance and continual occupancy) open it as some kind of social center.

Obviously this would take a crew of people with open schedules.

If your in the area would love to hear from you, especially regarding the opening question, why is nobody doing this here?

Currently I'm sourcing a lot of public/public-ish records with the goal to store them in one searchable database/format. Particularly looking for 'tax delinquent properties' like this building here "1557 ESPERANZA ST LOS ANGELES, CA 90023" (Just an example) it's been vacant for a while and the "owner" owes over a million dollars in property taxes, so I'd imagine they're not going to be complaining about someone taking over the space.

I have access to construction equipment for repairs and I'm fairly good at navigating/accessing records, legal documentation, etc... Also fairly good with electrical work.

Looking for any other like minded people with any skills/time that they'd be willing to dedicate to a project like this.

If it sounds interesting let's talk!

Cheers!

R

Click to expand...

OK this is still "two years later" sort of thing but is this still an offer? And I realise this is 2024 so this may be off the table by now. I've lived in Squats before in other countries where it's admittedly much easier, and I'm kind of an expert in dumpster-diving food....given that I have no transportation, that is. So it's not like I can contribute NOTHING, or anything. I can dumpster-dive and COOK.

Ok some vacancies in the Los Angeles area (for now) would be nice, thanks. Or preferably with other people in them already, being female I wouldn't want to go at this alone by any means.

Did I also mention that in terms of legal advocacy I also have a law degree from UC Hastings, class of 2000. But I'm not Bar admitted here in California so practising anything is pretty much out of the question. That's why I usually leave it off of resumes and usually forget to mention it.