Screw City | Squat the Planet

Screw City

40 Hands

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I wouldnt advise anyone to go out of their way to come out to Rockford IL aka Screw City, but if ya happen to be in the area this could really help out. The citys pretty decent for skateboarding and squatting, seeing how in every extreme corner of the city there is a skate park of some proportion, and theres parking garages downtown with elevators that just kick ass. Also theres more abandoned houses here than ive seen in most places. It seems as though property owners are trying to by up whole blocks to have torn down and filled in with new apartment complex's or something. So instead of fixing the places up they let em rott till someone comes along and buys them out.

Disastr House located at 714 Locust St. RKRFRD IL, is a Punk House Coop dealy smack in the ghetto on the west side of rockford. They run 2 community gardens for the po' folk around the area, and themselves. Theyre rapidly building a community computer lab and library (chalk full of anarchist and communist goodies from orwell to marx and off to detailed comics about the revolution). Theyre starting a bunks for punks program and for $50 you can build a bunk and set up shop for the month (i believe the first $50 is used for materials to build your bunk still). Dont wana stick around for a month? Theyre always willing to lend a helping hand finding a safe squat, and usually have a couch open for a couple people. They throw punk and grind shows regularly, and rarely go a full month without a show. Shows attendance is around 60-100, and they draw bands from all over the midwest, and always looking for new acts and genres. Oh and these guys here happen to be some avid skateboarders, theres about 7 functioning boards in the house, so its hard to not get on one while your there.

The city itself is a fairly shitty place. Crackheads everywhere and a cozy little "stop shooting" zone. The kickdowns are few and far between, but i guess it all depends on your luck and location. Theyre also fairly strict about loitering, ive seen blocks with 6 no loitering signs on it, and theyre no NY sized blocks either. They do have a fair amount of rooftops to hop but be warned, some are loaded with cameras from punk kids throwin parties on em. So if your ever in the area, stop by and tell them (5t) 40 hands sent ya. Theyll have a shower, and a list of food pantries. If theres a show goin on id recommend that ya stick around and check it out. Its not uncommon for them to throw a mean keg party. And if you dont suck they will probably hook you up with a ride back across town to I90 or wherever.

(the picture below is the back yard while running a basement show. We had a few dudes outside playing some originals and covers on acoustic guitar. Shit like johnny hobo, leftover crack, minor threat, ect.)
disastr youse.jpg
 
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E

Earth

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ain't no location ever gonna be perfect, but looks like what you have out there is pretty damn solid.

Out here, the very last D.I.Y. type place (Popeye's Garage) in New Haven is closing next week, sad to say that it appears to be due to a lack of interest - although I think there's a little more to it myself....
But then again, that's the exact same reason why I shut down my (analog tape based) studio: without a cool scene, meaning people - whats the point??
Wish I could swing by, but thats a long haul from where I'm at...
 

eclipse

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I wouldnt advise anyone to go out of their way to come out to Rockford IL aka Screw City, but if ya happen to be in the area this could really help out. The citys pretty decent for skateboarding and squatting, seeing how in every extreme corner of the city there is a skate park of some proportion, and theres parking garages downtown with elevators that just kick ass. Also theres more abandoned houses here than ive seen in most places. It seems as though property owners are trying to by up whole blocks to have torn down and filled in with new apartment complex's or something. So instead of fixing the places up they let em rott till someone comes along and buys them out.

Disastr House located at 714 Locust St. RKRFRD IL, is a Punk House Coop dealy smack in the ghetto on the west side of rockford. They run 2 community gardens for the po' folk around the area, and themselves. Theyre rapidly building a community computer lab and library (chalk full of anarchist and communist goodies from orwell to marx and off to detailed comics about the revolution). Theyre starting a bunks for punks program and for $50 you can build a bunk and set up shop for the month (i believe the first $50 is used for materials to build your bunk still). Dont wana stick around for a month? Theyre always willing to lend a helping hand finding a safe squat, and usually have a couch open for a couple people. They throw punk and grind shows regularly, and rarely go a full month without a show. Shows attendance is around 60-100, and they draw bands from all over the midwest, and always looking for new acts and genres. Oh and these guys here happen to be some avid skateboarders, theres about 7 functioning boards in the house, so its hard to not get on one while your there.

The city itself is a fairly shitty place. Crackheads everywhere and a cozy little "stop shooting" zone. The kickdowns are few and far between, but i guess it all depends on your luck and location. Theyre also fairly strict about loitering, ive seen blocks with 6 no loitering signs on it, and theyre no NY sized blocks either. They do have a fair amount of rooftops to hop but be warned, some are loaded with cameras from punk kids throwin parties on em. So if your ever in the area, stop by and tell them (5t) 40 hands sent ya. Theyll have a shower, and a list of food pantries. If theres a show goin on id recommend that ya stick around and check it out. Its not uncommon for them to throw a mean keg party. And if you dont suck they will probably hook you up with a ride back across town to I90 or wherever.

(the picture below is the back yard while running a basement show. We had a few dudes outside playing some originals and covers on acoustic guitar. Shit like johnny hobo, leftover crack, minor threat, ect.)
View attachment 9552

dude, i am still stuck in fucking rockford!!! having no luck catching out tuesday or wednesday i stumbled on some work gutting out a building for scrap metal just southeast of downtown, across the river, where the CN and UP tracks meet, which turned into more work; apparantly the guy who owned the old testors chemical building that we're working on also owns some apartments that need work done so starting tomorrow im gonna be staying in this apartment (electricity, water, heat) for free while i work on it (cleaning, painting, drywall,etc.) and get paid cash daily. so i'll be here for another week or so , but i fucking swear, that's it, money or not, i'm getting out of here next week! and i'm gonna check out disastr house. i thought you said it was in rockton- it's in rockford?
 

40 Hands

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What?! thats awesome you picked up some work. Lol no its in Rockford lol, just on the west side. Ill have to get my ass down there and visit ya while your in town. Heres a picture of the railing i was describing when ya go to find it. And like i said its across the street from a community garden. its kinda hard to miss. Look forward to meeting ya, and again its good to hear ya got some work.
the front.jpg
 

bryanpaul

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^ far right ..... bro-love!......" i love you maan" :D
 

40 Hands

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LOL thats me and my then roomate getting stoked at how people were pouring out an hour early for the show lol. That kid is one of the backbones to the whole joint, love that kid.
 

flashinglights

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Sounds like a righteous pad, got any pictures of the gardens?
 

40 Hands

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Fa show ill look some up, i know we got them. There was a news crew at one of them, it was pretty cool. Im not sure if they aired the garden, but i know they aired the time we were fighting a "Offensive Use of Property" charge. Theyve been off our ass since then pretty much.
 

40 Hands

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Okay For now all i could find was a small clipet of a planter box. ill get more when they get the internet back up in a few days. But we took like 6 old fridges and filled them with dirt and miracle grow and made planter boxes for peas, herbs, and green onions. Its a bad picture but oh well
planter box.jpg


Did i forget to mention we have a half pipe? Hagardy as fuck but some of us still skate it lol

half pipe.jpg


And heres a ramp a good friend in the city parks division made for us, thanks mark :p

cockney.jpg


Heres our living room after the art show we held to raise money for the public arts programs.
(on the left is the library / computer lab, and on the right is our kitchen)

left right.jpg


Heres a pit at the old and new house for good measure, Punks not Dead! :)

other pit.jpg

pit.jpg
 
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flashinglights

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Thanks for posting those... I really like the idea of using fridges for planter boxes, I always find them abandoned and useless in places where scrappers don't go... fyi Miracle Gro is pretty much worthless for food though, it just stretches out plants to make them look better (flowers and such).

Looks like you got some kids hanging out at the ramps too, good stuff.
 

40 Hands

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I have to get my thumb drive down there so i can get some pix of the garden online. That was the goal of using fridges, was that they were trashing our town, so we made that trash productive! We do the same thing with old tires :p and yeah we dont actually use miracle grow, ive just long since started using that as a generalization for fertilizer(much like q tip and kleenex). Yeah we get alot of kids come through that want to learn to skate. We always give them skateboards when someones around to watch them not run off with them. We also have a Boards for Brats group were starting to help kids get skateboards in the neighborhood. Anything we can do to keep them away from the Gangs and Guns.
 
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Fwingnut

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Thanks for the wood penis Mark! I love to slide my board up and down it's long hard shaft. =D

Skatings always fun, but a partys not a party till ya grind some cock.

(the looks on those kids black kids faceless is fucking price!)
 
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bryanpaul

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looks like some good shit goin on there man......
 

Nelco

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nice pic's
 

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Man, is it wrong of me to judge a book by it's cover? I look at those pictures and all I see is hot topic.
 

40 Hands

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Yeah i hear ya but thats just what happens to be in the pics. The place is a big blend of people with similar ideals and interests. Some rock hott topic and mass produced garbage and others like lil joey (15 yo kid with the giant spikes) are different. Its not about style bro, its about having a free mind and a taste in good music. One could easily take a look at the guy running the place and consider him the enemy till you talk about his college days in palestine fighting in the resistance, and protesting the RNC in MN. Some people choose to stay off the radar on purpose as well.

Either or this place pretty much shut down as far as visitors. Im sure its different for travelers since the last group we had there were rad kids down to lend a hand that everyone loved and misses. but they started getting too many high school kids showin up at all hours of the day to get trashed and they grew tired of such things. The punk house next door failed to pay their rent and bought booze with the cash instead so when they got evicted they all tried moving in even tho they were enemies for the most part. (the other house was called the rejects which stemmed from a group of kids that got kicked outta disastr house.. either or i was cool with em all). More agro parties with burning couches in the backyard at reject tho, gotta say tho... those were some rad tue afternoon parties lol.

Life was like a eutopia on locust street for a while, who knows what its like now.

EITHER OR IF YOU NEED A PLACE STOP BY!!!! theyll prolly help you out still but if not they got mad knowledge of availible squats, the towns loaded with em EVERYWHERE!!! actually youd prolly find 4 on your way there lol.
 

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