Want to help preserve The Shipyard in Berkeley? Good for you. But we're all busy, right? So, here's how to help in five minutes or less, plus get valuable free stuff!

1) Read this summary
2) Cut/paste addresses
3) Edit sample letter
4) Send
5) Claim free stuff!

1) Here's a summary of what's been going on, from Jim Mason:

many thanks to all of you who have been writing letters. i think
about 100 unique well crafted letters have reached them so far. more
are needed, both to try to reverse the shipyard situation, as well as
make some progress against the dynamics that have been repeatedly
driving art spaces out of berkeley, at the hands of the berkeley govt.
this is not simply a matter of condo development pushing out previous
art uses. it is active over reaching by building officials on matters
that are easily solvable in other cities.

if you can take a moment to write to the previously posted addresses,
it would be greatly appreciated. berkeley DOES respond to its
citizenry. its prides itself on its open public process of govt.

many have been writing asking for more details on the physical
particulars on our site, as well as other political pressures around
our project. here's the specifics from our perspective, excerpted
from a letter i sent to the mayor, city manager, and city council.


------------------------------------------------

. . . excerpt . . .

both the content and method of the enforcement letter came as a
complete shock to us. a 3 day "vacate and abate" order to remove all
items from shipping containers and move containers from internal
property lines or face $2500/day fines and jail was impossible to
comply with. the only option i saw to protect us and the landowner
from these draconian methods was to forfeit the site. in other
contexts i believe this is referred to as "entrapment".

it is important to realize that the representations being made about
conditions on site are vastly exagerated, and often demonstrably
untrue. at times they are so distorted and counterfactual that i have
to question the motives of those involved in enforcement.

the electrical system is yes, completely unpermitted. i can't get any
permits, as an electrical permit first requires us to get the general
building permit, which has for years been held up by the above structural
issues. nonetheless, any absolute analysis by disinterested parties
would determine that our electrical work is of the highest quality and
code safe in nearly all details. this is not a romax stapled to the
wall installation. this is a high end industrial level distribution
system, with expert configuration and the best parts and assemblies
used throughout. where things can be done less impressivley and be ok
codewise, the more rigorous and robust strategy is always taken. it
so far exceeds in safety the wiring and system design i have seen in
any other fabrication space i'm just not sure where to begin. and
furthermore, it all runs on solar. properly installed and protected
solar. i work in power engineering. i care deeply about the craft and
quality of these systems. any informed visitor to the site can see
this everywhere.


the living in containers claim is also a red herring. the containers are
shops and storage. david orth (the fire marshal)
saw a container with a futon couch, sleeping bag and coffee pot in it
and called it living. there were no domestic items, food,
toothbrushes or clothes. it was simply someone's shop and they likely
crashed there or took naps after hard work on ocassion.

then david saw the costume wardrobe for the neverwas haul, a hot
plate, as well as trailmix on the table. this was also "interpreted"
as clear evidence of living. the mind reels a bit from all this. but
this is the evidence being rolled out against us by the berkeley fire
marshall.

fortunately (or unfortuantely), the evidence in david's own camera
will disprove his claims of living in the containers. his evidence
will not stand up in either the court of public opinion or a court of
law. and i fear we are going towards both given the excessive over
reaction by certain city officials in this matter.


the truth here is that david orth has been very hostile to this
project for years. i finally realized the reason for this when i
learned he wants to build a new emergency vehicles warehouse next door
to the shipyard in the now abandoned railroad tracks. during our all
dept head meeting last october to discuss the shipyard legalization, i
asked david about the status of his warehouse project. he replied,
and we have lots of witnesses to this, "that is absolutely none of
your business, the status of the warehouse project has no bearing on
the shipyard discussion". this was said in a very hostile manner,
which left a very awkward silence in the room. no one was really sure
what to do with this statement, so after a long pause, we just
continued. michael likely remembers this interaction.

given this history, i find it troubling that the individual making
dubious and counterfactual interpretations about life safety issues at
our site has a personal interest in an adjoining project. it would be
difficult to not imagine a conflict of interest in his judgements.

which leads us to the technique used during this enforcement. most of
which were based on life safety issues that followed from david's
determinations and proposed responses. he was the lead in this
enforcement from what i can gather, and this was certainly the case on
site, when he concerned himself with everything from fire to plumbing
to zoning issues, as well as the definition of art vs alt energy.

the enforcement order was a 3 day "vacate and abate" order, or face
2500/day fines, and potential jail. we were ordered to remove all
items from all containers, and remove the containers themselves away
from internal property lines. given the amount of material in these
shops, and the complexity of their arrangement, this is simply an
order impossible to comply with. it is nothing short of entrapement,
and any heroic push to attempt a partial compliance would only create
a real life safety issue in response.

calls by our lawyer to david orth revealed that he was quite serious
about enforcing these threats. suddenly after 6 years, there were
site conditions that required a 3 day vacate order. and curiously,
those same site conditions were seen two months previous and found to
be tolerable for the city to leave and wait two months more before
acting. if there were really serious life safety issues, the meter
would have been pulled and the gate chained that day. i even
overheard one official onsite, who i cannot identify, say to his
colleague something to the effect that the conditions onsite site
weren't really that bad and they had done much to clean up the
previous electrical situation that was the major concern.

the reality is we are highly competent artists and engineering doing
things that are ahead of curve, and our activities do not well fit
within current regulatory structures. we have run an active work site
for large scale kinetic sculpture and ground breaking alternative
energy research for 6 years, without one single injury. not a single
one. not even a single electrical shock that i know of. has even the
offices at city hall managed such a record in the last 6 years?

so to be told that we are an immanent danger to ourselves and others
is a bit nonsensical. and to do so right near the end of our very
focussed efforts to make all this right by the code, is more than
mildly insulting.

unfortunately, this is not the first time these sorts of destructive
and unnecessary determinations and heavy handed enforcements have
happened in the city of berkeley. this has become a regular and
identifyable pattern at this point. you are surely reading about this
pattern and what the public thinks about it in the many letters you
are currently receiving. our goal now is to prevent further actions
of similar nature by challenging the agents who repeatedly drive
creative and innovative facilities and people out of the city. and in
the process, impoverish the cultural, technical and intellectual life
that is the reason all of us are here in the first place.

we will be presenting our case about their actions against the
shipyard, as well as their actions against previously "enforced out"
art spaces in berkeley, before the court of public opinion, and if
necessary, before a court of law. there is a very large community of
people very upset about this pattern of behavior by berkeley building
officials. and in this case, we believe we have a lever to do
something about it, for the greater good of the community, and to
support the values and physical particulars that are the reasons all
of us are in berkeley in the first place.

with respect,


jim mason

(2) Cut/Paste addresses.
Here they are, go ahead and slap em in an email:
JMacQuarrie@ci.berkeley.ca.us, MRhoades@ci.berkeley.ca.us, jhynes@ci.berkeley.ca.us, pkamlarz@ci.berkeley.ca.us, malbuquerque@ci.berkeley.ca.us, olds@ci.berkeley.ca.us, lmckinney@ci.berkeley.ca.us, spring@ci.berkeley.ca.us, manderson@ci.berkeley.ca.us, zcowan@ci.berkeley.ca.us, gwozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us, mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us, mcaplan@ci.berkeley.ca.us, dmarks@ci.berkeley.ca.us, dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us, mnorrise@ci.berkeley.ca.us, nalhadithy@ci.berkeley.ca.us, dorth@ci.berkeley.ca.us, gheidenreich@ci.berkeley.ca.us, lcapitelli@ci.berkeley.ca.us, worthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us, planning@ci.berkeley.ca.us, gpowell@ci.berkeley.ca.us, gdaniel@ci.berkeley.ca.us, manager@ci.berkeley.ca.us, dpryor@ci.berkeley.ca.us, mprince@ci.berkeley.ca.us, maio@ci.berkeley.ca.us

(3) Edit Sample Letter
Just stick this in your email, and tweak it a bit to sound like something you would say.

To whom it may concern,

I'm writing to express my concern about recent actions by Berkeley city officials that may lead to the closure of the arts space known as The Shipyard.

I am a strong supporter of the arts, and believe they have an important role to play in Berkeley. However, it appears that over the last several years city officials have been applying code rules in a way that has driven a number of arts groups out of Berkeley, and into more welcoming places, like Oakland. While safety is an important consideration, it's also important to keep in mind cutting edge places don't always fit within neat little boundaries. An arts space operates differently than an accountant's office, and should be treated accordingly.

I'm especially concerned about loosing The Shipyard, because of the important alternative energy art and innovation they've been working to create there this year.

Please do what you can to preserve the arts, by working with The Shipyard to allow them to stay in Berkeley.

Thank you, I look forward to hearing back from you about this matter.

Sincerely,

You

(4) Ok, now send it.

(5) Claim your prize! Everyone who writes a letter is welcome to come claim their reward: 100 lbs of whatever you want to haul away from the curiosities, tools, bits of junk, collected eccetera and misc stuff piling up outside the front door of The Shipyard. And if you act now and write in to this thread saying you've sent in yours, you'll be entered for a random drawing, will a prize of an original Matthew Barney artwork. ( OK, so it's some stuff he worked with. You get the idea).

On a more serious note--now's the time to write. This week matters. Please take a few minutes and fire this off. You'll feel better for doing it. Thank you.