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UID:Indybay-18743570
SEQUENCE:18850395
CREATED:20130921T170300Z
DESCRIPTION:The Albany City Council, East Bay Regional Parks district, and the Sierra 
 Club have all teamed up to once again try and evict the amazing community 
 of people that live on the Bulb, walk it with their dogs, and do art at the 
 space. On Saturday, September 28th, starting at 5pm, people will gather at 
 the space to share food, stories, discuss how to defend the Bulb and at 
 8pm, Blackbird RAUM from Santa Cruz will play live! \n\nSaturday, September 
 28th @ 5pm\nMeet at Main Entrance of Albany Bulb\n1 Buchanan Street, Off of 
 HW 80, Buchanan Street/Albany Exit\nLIVE MUSIC @ 8pm!\n\nGather at 5pm for 
 potluck, food sharing, and community open mic and discussion on saving the 
 Albany Bulb. At 8pm join us for a live concert from Santa Cruz band 
 Blackbird RAUM! Please invite friends, print flyers, make signs and 
 banners, and bring a food dish, story, song, speech or something else to 
 share!\n\nFacebook event: 
 https://www.facebook.com/events/601550023221411/\nListen to Blackbird RAUM 
 here: http://www.last.fm/music/Blackbird+Raum\n\n	In 1986, the Albany 
 Landfill closed. BART construction materials, rebar, and other heavy metals 
 and materials from local industry were buried in the ground no longer. A 
 homeless community soon moved in, many after being evicted from People’s 
 Park, creating an encampment on the land just a few miles outside of 
 Berkeley. Soon after, many graffiti artists and other renegade 
 expressionists started to use what was dubbed the “Albany Bulb,” as a 
 playground for artwork. In 1999, the city of Albany moved to have the 
 homeless community living on the Bulb removed. The eviction didn’t work 
 for long, as soon after, people began moving back and the Bulb remained as 
 popular as ever. People came to see the statues that were created out of 
 landfill debris, just as they came to walk their dogs off leash, and to 
 enjoy the spectacular view of the San Francisco bay area that stretched out 
 before them. Like People’s Park, the Albany Bulb was important because it 
 represented a space that belonged to the people; it was contested and 
 fought over, and more importantly it was user controlled and operated, and 
 it was beautiful. Created out of unwanted parts of this civilization, both 
 of people and debris, nature and humanity slowly came together and took 
 back the land, creating something wonderful for all.  \n	 The Albany Bulb 
 continues to be self-organized and autonomous. 60-70 people live at the 
 Bulb at any given time, and by and large they work out differences, deal 
 with problems from those coming to party at the Bulb, and also live with 
 constant police harassment with a government structure telling them how to 
 exist. With the city of Albany having no homeless shelter and lack of 
 low-income housing in Berkeley at epidemic proportions, police officers 
 rousting those sleeping on the streets often tell people to ‘go to the 
 Bulb.’ Thus, while the city is now trying to evict those living on the 
 Bulb, often it was their police who told them to head towards it in the 
 first place. \n	A myriad of ruling forces currently seek to end the freedom 
 that exists on the Bulb, which is slated for eviction in October 2013. This 
 includes both the Citizens of East Shore Parks, which includes former 
 Albany Mayor, Robert Cheasty, and the Sierra Club. Both groups have 
 stressed that removal of the homeless is needed to return the Bulb over the 
 park service which can then remove the non-native plants and give the park 
 “back the public.” Both groups have painted the homeless as having 
 “polluted” the land, and as “privatizing” it, like the “World 
 Bank.” The local elites speak of protecting nature and stopping people 
 from taking space, but it is they who spread death in the natural world and 
 suck like vampires from the poor. They talk about ‘social justice’ and 
 ‘the earth’ while they act to destroy freedom and human lives.   \n	The 
 desire to evict and gentrify the Albany Bulb cannot be divorced from the 
 wider context of the bay area. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected 
 to be pushed out from San Francisco in the next several years, mostly 
 moving into the East Bay, displacing and removing thousands of long term 
 residents. Many people, especially those with access to more money, will 
 settle in the Berkeley/Albany area. Evicting the Bulb is not just about the 
 Regional Park district expanding their territory and gaining another park, 
 but also social cleansing of the East Bay.  \n	Also, police agencies, which 
 have been flooded recently by a barrage of funds by the Department of 
 Homeland Security in an effort to deal with the Occupy Movement, are poised 
 in Albany to take on the renegade homeless population. We have already seen 
 the heavy handed response by local police (both Albany PD and UCB Police) 
 to the Occupy the Farm protests, which sought to take over UC Berkeley 
 property and farm organic food for the bay area community. Local police 
 departments are just looking for reasons to attack an autonomous grouping 
 of people living outside of the law.   \n	The eviction of the Albany Bulb 
 must not be allowed to continue. We must preserve the current autonomous 
 zone for not only all that live there, but also all those that use it, not 
 just as an art space, but also as a place where people come to hike, take 
 their dogs, and simply enjoy in a free and autonomous capacity. We must 
 stand and defend contested and self-organized space in the face of those 
 that would take it – especially for ‘environmental’ and 
 ‘community’ reasons. The Albany Bulb is the place where we take lovers, 
 where we do art, where we let our dogs off leash, where we live, where we 
 look across the ocean on a castle, and where we enjoy the naked beauty of 
 nature, art, and human beings coexisting. But most of all, it is a place 
 that we have watched the disgusting garbage of this civilization become the 
 backdrop for something magnificent and amazing. It is worth fighting for 
 and it is worth defending.  \n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/09/21/18743570.php
SUMMARY:Community Gathering to Save Albany Bulb with Live Music!
LOCATION:Meet at Main Entrance of Albany Bulb\n1 Buchanan Street, Off of HW 80, 
 Buchanan Street/Albany Exit
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/09/21/18743570.php
DTSTART:20130929T000000Z
DTEND:20130929T050000Z
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