Loss of the Rhizome Property

[errantember]

Many in Austin have been familiar with the Rhizome Collective, an urban sustainability and social justice group that was both a non-profit organization and the space it occupied. Evidently in the midst of Much Drama, the property owners sold the building after a series of city inspections shut it down. I've got a lot to say about this, but I'm going to bed for now. Part of it has to do with the situation with the Rhizome itself, and part of it has to do with implications this has for the transformation of my own property from private to collective ownership, and lessons that might be learned from the Collective's experience.

Comments

rhizome meltdown

[hobgadling.livejournal.com]

ya. lesson #1: it's not really a co-op if one couple still owns the property.

It's a loss to the whole city. I hope something even more sustainable and awesome springs from it's ashes.

Re: rhizome meltdown

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Definitely a Major Lesson. I'm concerned that after hearing about this, people won't trust that I'm serious about transforming the rental situation into a co-op, especially because it's likely to be a long-term, problem-fraught process. However, my own expectations about how far down the road of "being really different" we can go are definitely more realistic than many at the Rhizome. A big part of why they got taken down was because they were doing things that made them illegal, and probably unpopular with certain neighbors. Even if the illegal thing your doing is really a better way to do it, that won't stop the Man from shutting you down. Things like maintaining or raising local property values, individual financial history and responsibility for the substantial cost of living in this area, and the General Necessity to make things work in a capitalist system will have to be every bit as important as growing our own food, community activism, and reducing consumption. And because we'll be keeping it legal, it will help inspire more people do to the same without having the rug pulled out from under us by the Man.

Re: rhizome meltdown

[hobgadling.livejournal.com]

Well, I would say the real reason they got shut down was not because of their "illegal" setup, but because of bad neighbor relations. If they were able to patch things up with that guy, we wouldn't be calling the city about supposed violations.

Don't be discouraged, there are tons of examples of groups who have successfully done what you're planning. Just make sure you do your research ahead of time. There was a comment in the thread you linked about how to set it up with a land trust, etc. That kind of thing will go a long way to keeping things cooperative.