Hey, there! Log in / Register
Trying to save Cambridge's EMF building for artists
By adamg on Sat, 06/16/2018 - 11:59pm
Greg Cook explains why artists and musicians were protesting at an annual Harvard music festival today - the Harvard Square business association that organizes it is headed by the property owner who kicked them out of the EMF building in Central Square.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
One Possible Solution
Have the musicians form a cooperative, pool their credit, make a reasonable monetary offer for the property from the current owner, secure the building for their use, and everyone is happy.
I have found in the past that this is a far more effective bargaining tool in real estate transactions than playing Brass Bonanza and pouting.
The musicians here seem smart, seem to be well organized, seem to know who gets donations from the building's owner, seem to know how to make signs, and seem to be motivated, except when it comes to actually what counts in the business of bricks and mortar; finding the money to pay for things.
Could you literally be more clueless about this debacle?
Where is the "brick and mortar" that many of the EMF musicians play in that they are to derive the income that allows to then to fight City Hall, Cambridge ISD and JohnDiGiovanni, a soulless scumbag from Belmont who is one of the reasons why Harvard Square looks like a strip mall of privilege that is slowly pushing out the real "brick and mortar" places that once flourished before that scumbag came to town?
So DiGiovanni buys the building that housed practice spaces and the studio I used to do a radio show in, gets Cambridge ISD to declare the building unsafe, even though he had been collecting rent on an "unsafe" building, then kick the tenants out and refused to return the rent he collected in the time he was responsible for the building's now questionable safety, and refuses to work with any member of the Cambridge City government to remedy the situation so the artists could stay.
So, you tell me, John, where are the musicians going to get the money to reimburse the 4 million the building cost and then the money to bring up to the code that they first said it was up to until it wasn't and then fight a guy who has practically everyone in Cambridge that matters kissing his Wonder Bread wop cowardly ass and see where you get. From Ernie Boch, Jr?
Talk to me about that when you tell a bunch of artists that barely make minimum wage to pool their meager credit and fight what Cambridge has now become.
I Want a Beachfront Cottage
Should I break out the xylophone and demand one in exchange for giving up little or nothing?
I know if I want one I have to pony up cold hard cash.
There is nothing special about Cambridge except the smug sense of entitlement you get by calling yourself an artist and deciding that you want to play music in one of the most expensive places in Greater Boston.
Last time I checked there weren't goon squads yanking 20 somethings off of the street and telling them to update Chicago's circa 1973 horn section sound or else. These people made a choice and they can either figure out a way to make it work or do it somewhere else.
Nothing special about Cambridge?
Smug sense of entitlement? This from a man who literally reeks of privilege passing ignorant judgement on people whose daily struggle you neither have a clue or a care about apparently.
Go fuck yourself in whatever shithole privileged town that has to endure your nauseating presence. How's that for potty fingers?
Daily Struggle?
Like I said, no one is forcing anyone to be a musician and accept their lot. You choose that lifestyle, you have forced yourself into that "struggle".
By the way shithole and privileged are offsetting in terms of describing places. Are you sure you know what you are talking about?
Tell us, John...
tell us about your "lifestyle" that you've chosen that gives you the smug sense of entitlement that allows you to make judgments on people you've never met, whose stories and struggles you have not a whit of clue or care about and then subject yourself to the ridicule it seemingly deserves?
What puts food on your presumably Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams dinner table? Or are you more of an Ikea guy?
How do you say 'bourgeoise' is Swedish?
I'm half-surprised you're not claiming to have cobbled together your dinner table out of old shipping pallets with milk crates for chairs.
Snickers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UO2A2p-19A
"Wonder Bread wop?"
Is that what the Eye-talian version of n-word privileges looks like?
Yeesh.
Can’t disagree with you on your observation
Passion about a subject is no excuse for using an ethnic slur - what a repugnant thing to say.
So I'm in the muni parking lot in Codman Square yesterday
and as I exited and walked onto Washington Street I was met by an angry young black lady on the phone screaming at her boyfriend about how she could get any nigger here on the street to tell you that what your dumb ass is doing with LaKeisha is fucked up, she then said even this "clear" motherfucker standing here with a big ass dog had more of a clue than your black ass and maybe he can get on the phone and tell you so.
So kiss my Italian ass.
Stay classy
UHub commenters.
But it's Sunday morning
!!
And BTW
Happy Father's Day to you too.
And Happy 617 day as well
Is LaKeisha
also going at it with the dude from Belmont she, you, and the guy on the phone all may or may not have a hard-on about?
Yes? No?
Then I don't care. It's still a nasty thing to so say, and if some domestic quarrel you overheard on the street is your excuse I'm not surprised you're getting evicted.
Won't pay what the place is worth and sings a serenade of insults and ethnic slurs like a reflex. Who wouldn't want tenants like you?
Not getting evicted, thanks!
And not an excuse. I'm from and of the street, so that's how I talk, the same way people on the street talk. Get it? Find me a hint of racism in a single post of mine. I'll wait.I'm Italian, DiGiovanni to me is a guy who can't even pronounce arancini let alone know what one is, as he's a stronzo.
And as far as the paying what the place is worth, the scumbag in question had no problem taking money from people in a place that was safe one day and not the next.
From And Of The Street?
You mean you are a phantom UHub handle for Mahky Mahk?
You know there is a big difference from being a working class hero and being a working class eejit.
I know where you grew up, and trust me, you were no different economically than me in your childhood, actually you probably grew up better than me, but I don't walk around like I just stepped out of the Che Guevara / Karl Marx meets Goodfella's / Soprano's memorabilia collection kiosk at the Square One Mall.
Pay your rent or buy your place. It is some of the best advice I ever got.
The racism card?
Still waiting to hear where you grew up and where you live and the last time, if ever, you've even been in Codman Square? And you have no clue of my background, but I have a pretty good idea of yours, given the nature of your utter lack of compassion for anyone who doesn't make what you consider a "decent wage" or hasn't taken full advantage of the economic opportunities your white ass has had.
The rest of your idiotic analysis is mere projection borne out of ignorance and frustration.
Compassion Versus GIMME GIMME GIMME
I've never been to Codman Square. I never took a book out from the library at the corner of Welles and Washington, never went to the Hardware Store near the courthouse. Never waited for my buddy to get off of his shift mopping the cells at the same courthouse. Never went to the Post Office before it relocated off of Talbot Ave. Never sang Christmas Carols to the elderly in the nursing home that used to be behind Codman Square Health Center. Never went to a Boy Scout meeting in the basement of the Second Church. Never took my high school entry exam at the old Latin Academy. Never went to driving school on Blue Hill Avenue. Never played basketball on weekends at Dot High. Never worked with my dad fixing porches on houses across from Franklin Field. Nope, never, I've never, ever been to Codman Square.
You are the carpet bagger driving up prices in Dot because you can't afford Cambridge. Dot was affordable before the Ashmont Grill reboot. I wonder what the power to the people crowd concerning affordability think when they caused price of a steak to be 3 times what it used to be in the same location before things changed. You terraformed Ashmont into JP lite. We were ok before then, before it was "discovered" by all you Magellans.
Your decent wage crap wears thin when what you really want is cheap rent to practice your hobby.
You should have planned better and saved your pennies. Have fun finding practice space in Lynn.
Don't forget
What's more 'of the street' that wasting decades being a footpad for the regional rich and kowtowing for tips? He's a regular Cesar Chavez out there.
Yeah not racist at all
Calling out a guy on his ethnicity because he doesn't meet your definition of it.
You're a piece of work, Riccio. Get help.
Different people who've gotten screwed over are uniting
Excellent to see that "anti-racism" is the new "let them eat cake." Thanks for ushering us into this beautiful new Orwellian nightmare, Roman.
Intriguing
When a leftie trolls a rightie (or another leftie) with "anti-racism" it's all good because Progress! But if I call a guy out on a blatantly racist comment, calling out racism is suddenly passe.
I wonder...
If Trump were to come out in favor of the worst kind of political correctness...the kind with kangaroo courts and secret witnesses and you know, like a college campus or Google headquarters...would all the lefties suddenly come to their senses and drop it like it's radioactive?
You certainly lead an interesting life, but ...
Try to remember what the topic of discussion is (in this case, artists in Central Square). If you feel your Italian bona fides are in question, there are ways to to respond that don't involve bringing up conversations with young black women in Corman Square about completely different topics.
Thank you, G
For once again reminding me whose place this is. Noted and appreciated.
Oh, so Adam owes you a forum too
Tell us, Brian, what else are you owed by other people?
Oh, and don't forget to call me a Trump-Tea-Bagger-Nazi in there somewhere. It's been a while. Wouldn't want you to forget and until the pressure builds up and it's too late.
Insult Corner is now closed
Now that everybody has gotten all their insults off their chests, no more, please.
It's a nice day outside, go enjoy it.
so the response to racist comments
is to say, OK, enough, no more? Rather than banning those responsible? I think if the racial slurs had targeted some other race you'd have different reaction.
Classy site you run, Gaffin. Keep it up.
No consequences for ethnic slurs?
I'm out. Sorry Adam, I've put up with the lax moderation until now, but the comment section is just too gross. I'm out.
That escalated quickly
Ron Burgundy: Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.
Champ Kind: It jumped up a notch.
Ron Burgundy: It did, didn’t it?
Brian Riccio: Yeah, I dropped an N-bomb.
Ron Burgundy: I saw that. Brian said the N word. Did you throw a trident?
Brian Riccio: Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident.
Ron Burgundy: Brian, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. You should find yourself a safehouse or a relative close by. Lay low for a while, because you’re probably wanted for murder.
That's a BS suggestion
The likelihood of these musicians and artists who make little revenue for their work to be able to collectively raise the ~$5 million (plus more for renovations) is not going to happen. If they had a wealthy patron who was willing to go that route it would have already happened.
So they're appealing to the town and the general public to put pressure on the developer to effectively be that patron himself. It's unlikely to work but at least they went down playing. If Cambridge has any spine they'll reject every building design this guy proposes.
Building Codes = Law
You cannot deny a building design if it meets code just because you do not like the guy.
These law things we have are funny that way in that it keeps people and governments reasonable to each other.
If Cambridge denies out of spite, Cambridge gets sued.
Other towns
They should go where they can buy a cheap place, Athol, Ware area is much cheaper real estate.
The likelihood that
I can sustainably dick around without being gainfully employed to pay for my hobbies is also quite low. And yet you don't hear me complaining about it.
So much privelege, such little brain...
Another country heard from....
Oh yeah
I'm so full of privilege, I can't possibly understand that the shit I think ain't free actually is if you make enough noise.
what kind of work do the artists do?
Seems like one crucial question is absent from the discussion: What kind of work do these soon-to-be-displaced artists do, and how does it benefit the community? How would the community lose out if these artists had to move somewhere else? These seem like reasonable things to ask, given that they are asking elected officials to interfere, and elected officials should be looking out for the interests of the local community as a whole.
Intermittent explosive disorder (defined)...
involves repeated, sudden episodes of impulsive and aggressive, behavior or angry verbal outbursts in which someone reacts grossly out of proportion to the situation.
People with intermittent explosive disorder experience impaired interpersonal relationships. They're often perceived by others as always being angry and frequently engage in verbal fights. Intermittent explosive disorder prevention is likely beyond the person's control unless he or she gets treatment from a professional. There are also other complimentary coping steps they can undertake as well…
They can develop new ways of thinking (cognitive restructuring) by changing the way he or she thinks about a frustrating situation by using rational thoughts, reasonable expectations and logic which in turns improves how they view and react to an event. They can also learn ways to improve their communication. It requires listening to the message the other person is trying to share, and then think about the best response rather than saying the first thing that pops into your head.
Or...
you could just buy a t-shirt!!
"The world does not owe you a
"The world does not owe you a living"
Wisest advice my graduate advisor ever gave me.
True, but
The majority of the people on this site would say that the world owes you:
1. Housing whether you can afford it or not
2. Health Care without cost
3. Food security regardless of ability to buy it
4. A job and middle class income, whether you have any skills or not
5. A universal basic income
6. Education through college, regardless of ability to pay or quality of work
7. Clothing
8. Individual acceptance, regardless of choices you make
9. Being taken seriously regardless of whether you make any sense or not
10. The right to live in any city, state or country of choice and be provided all of these things
The only problem is the world doesn't work that way. The world owes you nothing. Our society owes you the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The French are owed the right to Life, Liberty and Possession. The rest aren't owed shit.
Don't pussyfoot around it
...or willingness
">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wofi37ZAk6k[/youtube]
Fast forward to about the 2:04 mark and then 3:11
Case in point
Nice post.
"I can still fail a couple more times and then figure it out from there." 3:30
Yes, that is what public assistance is meant for. A 24 year old Duke graduate choosing poverty because she "likes talking to people."
The world owes her that!
Yup, there’s people on food
Yup, there’s people on food stamps that actually need it and then there’s people like here giving it a bad name. She’s probably eating better than the poor sap working a low wage job.
Both of you
Take that fish hook out of your cheeks and stop spamming fake news and cherrypicked bullshit that satisfies your feelings (but lacks statistical rigor in the extreme).
So much truthy bullshit ...
Anecdata
You want the real statistics? Go here: https://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap
Then again, factual data won't make you all tingly about your feels.
Oh yeah
The exact number of SNAP recipients in Alaska last August totally refutes my point about able-bodied and able-minded but entitled and lazy asses who are perfectly capable of finding "living wage" employment on their own misusing taxpayer-funded benefits meant for people who can't support themselves.
What IS your point?
So if you really think there's a large number of "able-bodied" and "able-minded" "entitled" "lazy asses" who take SNAP for fun, where's your data? What percentage of the total people on SNAP are lazy? .5% 50%? Haha, stupid lazy people who don't want good jobs, there's mountains of 'em, because of this youtube video I posted!
But, come on. We all know you're just posting this anecdote as ammunition to discredit the entire program. You don't give a damn about the people who need SNAP, do you?
My point is
you say "Organizing(TM) for the Arts(TM)!(TM)" and all I hear is this girl pontificating on her own self-importance while shaking down the rest of us for a handout. That's my point.
That's not a point.
That's one person you don't like.
Two or three
if we're going to be sticklers about keeping score.
Citations needed
Citations needed. Put up or shut up.
That's not data
That's datum.
Present data or stfu.
dude, put down your address
dude, put down your address and I will personally mail you the 1.4 cents - hell, I'll round it up to two - that constitute "your" contribution to her "handout". jesus christ.
In defense of Brian Riccio
Here he is talking IRL about this issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ETMqn5tnwE
He comes across with more grace and civility that he lets on in these parts. Consider this speech in forming your judgment of him.
Yes, But
I could hire Patrick Stewart to read the Protocols Of the Elders of Zion on YouTube. It doesn't mean what he is reading has any merit. It might sound like a great presentation, but it is all a falsehood.
Gee, John..
What I said seemed to have a lot of merit to a lot of people in a town you seem to not to be able to afford to live in. Have a nice life.
Gee, Brian
Instead of spending all of this time ranting and raving, you could have gone out and made a few bucks to put towards the Save The EMF Fund rather than relying on a handout that is never coming.
Guys, guys
I like both of you. Can you at least both agree that Riccio has a point when he takes swipes at a government which allows a rich developer to use a public safety/inspection arm as a cudgel to get voluntary tenants involuntarily removed from his premises because he doesn't like the contract he signed with them?
What contract?
They were tenants at will and he was contractually obligated to give them 30 days to GTFO once he decided it was time for them to GTFO, and that is precisely what he did.
I don’t get the big deal?
I don’t get the big deal? Someone bought the building with tentants at will and requested they move out by a certain date.
I would like to live closer to the city where I grew up but ended up in the outer suburbs just to be able to afford what I want. Also the musicians were offered another space according to link below:
http://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/04/02/cambridge-emf-artist-space-closing
It's not a request, it's
It's not a request, it's compulsory. The reason given was it was not up to code but, per your own link, all recent inspections passed. A space in Malden is not a suitable alternative for an artist living in the city who may not have a car when the nearest subway stop is well over a mile away. While doable for many, it's not going to work for everyone.
The fact is, the developer bought the place just to shut down a space that supported artists in order to do something more profitable, in a place that already has a dearth of spaces that serve local artists. What don't you get?
Aww poor babies gonna
have to drive from their place of residence, to their place of work, and to where they can indulge in their hobbies. Just like damn near everyone else.
But but but art!
Too bad. You don't get special privileges because art. Just like I don't get special privileges because science! Or because copyright law!
About the only people who do get special privileges are physicians and volunteer firemen on their way to an emergency. Art is not life and death.
So?
Are your saying property owners are not allowed to decide what to do with their property?
I don’t think you get it, if
I don’t think you get it, if someone buys a building with at will tenants you don’t need to give them a reason for as to why they need to vacate. A developer bought it because he saw it as an opportunity for his business, I doubt he singled out the building just to displace artists.
As for safety it is probably a class example of a building that meets code via grandfathering of age built but would need a multitude of revisions if it were to be reconstructed as it would need to meet all current codes.
There are many places I would like to live but since I can’t afford it I have to adapt as the artists should too.
Yup, with John on this one
I'm with John Costello on this one. I find this whole thing of reeks of privilege and smugness.
When did artists become a 'protect class' and we have to provide them housing? They didn't. And we don't. So why is this even happening?
Like John said, you want to stay? Find financing, buy the building, and do the repairs. But you say "but that costs too much money". Fine, can't afford it? Move. It's simple economics.
You choose to be an artist and accept that lifestyle. It's not like artists are not aware its a life of being poor and struggling. I'd love to write or create and just be me, but unfortunately a roof over my head comes first so my what I *really* like to do takes a back seat. I get it.. we need the arts and need to support them but this situation is just a losing battle.
I also have a hard time supporting any of this when I see able bodied people who could move elsewhere. And not for nothing.. not when we're having such a housing crunch where lower income **families** are being displaced. Its VERY hard to get behind these 'artists'.
One more thing I'd like to mention.. eons ago, when many of these artists spaces were 'created' (maybe not this particular one but many are like this).... it's a long term TEMPORARY space. Many of these artist spaces are in buildings that are in up and coming (or should be up and coming areas). it's to build community in an area that needs positive activity. Many locations are in run down buildings that need work. The thought is, get the community going, prop up the neighborhood some, then figure out what to do with the location when the time comes.
The time has come for this building. Just look at Central Square. I went on Thursday.. hadn't been there in a few months. It's different that it was a few months ago. Far different from when I worked in the area in 2002.. and way different than when I first moved here in the late 90s. so its changing, those artists were apart of an era that is now gone (and moved elsewhere). They should take the hint and move also.
It sucks, but its life .. and it happens. This is why we adapt.
All due respect, sir
but no one lived at the EMF building. Nor did they want to. They were there one minute paying rent in what they were told was a safe place for them to all practice and give lessons and there was a recording studio and local radio station in the building. The the building gets sold, the artists who paid rent wanted the opportunity to stay and probably would have formed a coalition to buy the building, as Mayor McGovern proposed the city do, but the new owner had the place deemed unsafe so everybody out with thirty days notice.
No one, and I mean no one was looking for a handout here.
Is that so?
How much rent were those “artists” paying, and what is the current market rate rent?
yeah is that so?
They wanted the city to buy it and rehab it.
Sounds like they wanted they city to pay, and not themselves. Which means its essentially a handout.
Fine ya got me on "living". But my argument is still the same and it makes their case one step worse. Because now ... they-have-a-place-to-live.. this is nothing more than 'office space' they rent. So want to tell me again why we're even having this conversation? People aren't even homeless.
Again, hard to stand by these people when we have people who are being pushed in other areas due to gentrification. Let's help people who NEED a place to live first with my tax dollars, not people who want to rent office space.
They want
A Mercedes on a Huffy budget. Actually not even that, they want the city to buy them a Mercedes, though they did promise to pay for washing it every now and then.
Almost like ...
People who store their private property on public land and then pretend that they own it come winter or, hell, whenever!
Do tell Swirly
How is the EMF controversy the Illuminati's doing?
That's your job
Mine is to simply point out the obvious.
Then again, even conspiracy theories are too research-heavy for you.
It Doesn't Just "Happen"
Right now all the laws and all the zoning in the area are set up so that the rich profit and everyone else is left to fend for themselves, but it doesn't have to be that way. If we want to establish zoning or regulations to promote the artistic community, well what the hell is wrong with that? We as a community have used zoning to promote all kinds of things smart and stupid: trees, low density neighborhoods, car culture, etc...It's all just choice of what we want to value.
The HSBA and John DiGiovanni claim they support the arts, and I'm pretty sure the HSBA actually WANTS to because they think it drives business to their stores. So what's so "smug" or "privileged" about EMF protestors calling them out and calling for action behind the empty lip service? You can't have a vibrant community if no artist can get within 20 miles of town.
No, the only thing "smug" and "privileged" in this exchange is habitual Cambridge haters like John Costello deigning to talk down to people actually fighting back against hypocrisy.
Oh, that will work...
"that we have eyes on the HSBA for being complacent in their president’s actions towards EMF
– that we are intent on fighting this cycle of displacement,
– that we expect our elected officials to definitively support artists and reject the donations/courtship of developers
– that we are a kickass artistic community that refuses to be quiet.”
That they expect, (expect!), .....LOL!
This is like me saying I expect that the developers of Kendall Square will develop a building where I can afford the rent!
Thank goodness they are "kickass" - LOL!