Re: RAT A Missive from PHILLY to ALL YOU FIERCE ARTISTS OUT THERE

[Alfred Vitale <alfredvitale@yahoo.com>]

--- DennisLMo@aol.com wrote:

> (Radical not
> for profit anarchists 
> have bought fix up space for $4000 or less -- I even
> hear of an $800 dollar 
> house!?) 

true. there's a land-trust, consisting of a few group
houses in west philly. the idea is to wait for houses
to go up for auction (unfortunately, west philly has a
lot of landlords who buy houses, don't get them
rented, and let them sit there, decaying, waiting for
U of Penn to buy them up at high price...what's known
as "mcPenntrification") and then bid for them. the
houses usually need a lot of work. i was at one
auction where we had flyers passed out to everyone
entering the auction (not exactly legal, but they let
us slide) asking them not to bid on a certain
property...the house was next to a children's garden
that the anarchists organize, and they wanted to get
the house to make it more of a community center with a
nice garden next to it, etc.. and out of the hundreds
of people there, only ONE asshole bid for it...and he
got BOO'd!!! a roomful of landlords actually doing
something NICE for a community...there were shouts of
"let them have the house!"...so, the landtrust bought
the house for $2000, but if that guy hadn't bid, it
would have went for 1/2 that. 

the house needed roof work, and tons of
renovation...but it was a large 5-6 bedroom house! now
it exists as "the bijou" (the houses have names). 

there is a GREAT radical community in west philly, and
much of it is community-oriented/interactive. there's
a food co-op, an anarchist community space (the
A-space) where lectures and workshops and meetings can
be held, there's community radio, and a lot more.

anyway...i think dennis is right on in his assessment
of philly. i moved here from my home town of manhattan
and it was drastically easier to live here!

alfred


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