I started working on this piece before the inauguration and the ensuing shitstorm of executive orders, which are so clearly an onramp to fascism that it is hard to psychically think outside of them.
Wow, thank you so much for this, I lived in Watermyn in 2014-15 and it changed my life during a dark time when I was miserable as an underclassman at RISD. I fell in love, with my community and a boy, and more importantly met someone who has now been my best friend for 10 years, through 8 cities and 2 continents. This community was so vital to waking me up to the beauty of living and working with others as a young person who was buried in my own anger and bitterness, and it frightens me to see it going away. I do generally believe that the kids are alright, but I worry, especially in our turbulent political moment, that we’ve failed to leave the legacy they deserve.
As many others have said, wow. Thanks for this writing. I lived in watermyn from 2016-2017... So many memories there. Its been sad to watch Finlandia disappear over the last few years, and a little heartbreaking to see the wild crooked colorful boards of watermyn get sanitized as that old building enters some new phase of its life...
RIP. had my first psychedelic experience at watermyn as a teen in the mid-2000s, had to go back later to verify that the staircase was actually painted rainbow.
In brooklyn we are squatting (still semi-legally protected) an HDFC co-op (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Development_Fund_Corporation) which was on its way to being frauded out of existence by a private developer. Community mobilization in response to violence by landlord goons alarmed the state attorney general's housing protection unit and sparked an ongoing investigation into their business practices and portfolio. obviously quite specific to NYC (now neglected) specific models of affordable housing that came as an institutional reaction to homesteading/squatting post 1975 fiscal crisis. But - the situation has given me some hope that good old-fashioned anti-gentry principles paired with direct action and collective effort can have (however temporary/autonomous) wins for both housing and cultural space. These massive development companies are not omnipotent, and are doing all kinds of shady business that they get away with unless local people take notice and force what some old heads like to call "new situations." I've been thinking a lot about how these 70s legacies have morphed through the 90s/2000s and into the strange new world of the 2020s. i believe that though capital has gotten more bizarre, dispersed and supercharged, these processes can still be stalled and complicated by people defending what they feel is theirs on a local level. it's sad to hear that that these houses were taken away without a fight. I'm thinking of you all with the struggle to defend the mills, thank you for sharing this history.
Thanks Arthur. Love your story about the rainbow stairs! And the framework of 70's legacies, morphed through the 90s, finding ways into the 2020's is a really interesting perspective. Going to be reading about HDFC all night.
Thanks for telling this story, Xander. Like you, Milhaus and BACH were important sites of my development. The way they ended is so sad. I’m glad I didn’t read this last night. At least today the people won. Hope to see you before to long!
This was the Saturday night read I didn't even know I needed. Double dead indeed.
Tremendous work as always.
Thanks Jeremy - the feedback mean a lot!
This is heartbreaking.
I lived in Finlandia, then Watermyn in the early 2000s. I'm in one of the family photos you posted.
Thank you for taking the time to tell this story and summing up the joyful, frenzied shamble the co-ops were.
Wow, thank you so much for this, I lived in Watermyn in 2014-15 and it changed my life during a dark time when I was miserable as an underclassman at RISD. I fell in love, with my community and a boy, and more importantly met someone who has now been my best friend for 10 years, through 8 cities and 2 continents. This community was so vital to waking me up to the beauty of living and working with others as a young person who was buried in my own anger and bitterness, and it frightens me to see it going away. I do generally believe that the kids are alright, but I worry, especially in our turbulent political moment, that we’ve failed to leave the legacy they deserve.
<3 <3 <3
As many others have said, wow. Thanks for this writing. I lived in watermyn from 2016-2017... So many memories there. Its been sad to watch Finlandia disappear over the last few years, and a little heartbreaking to see the wild crooked colorful boards of watermyn get sanitized as that old building enters some new phase of its life...
Thank You for sharing the Tale
RIP. had my first psychedelic experience at watermyn as a teen in the mid-2000s, had to go back later to verify that the staircase was actually painted rainbow.
In brooklyn we are squatting (still semi-legally protected) an HDFC co-op (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Development_Fund_Corporation) which was on its way to being frauded out of existence by a private developer. Community mobilization in response to violence by landlord goons alarmed the state attorney general's housing protection unit and sparked an ongoing investigation into their business practices and portfolio. obviously quite specific to NYC (now neglected) specific models of affordable housing that came as an institutional reaction to homesteading/squatting post 1975 fiscal crisis. But - the situation has given me some hope that good old-fashioned anti-gentry principles paired with direct action and collective effort can have (however temporary/autonomous) wins for both housing and cultural space. These massive development companies are not omnipotent, and are doing all kinds of shady business that they get away with unless local people take notice and force what some old heads like to call "new situations." I've been thinking a lot about how these 70s legacies have morphed through the 90s/2000s and into the strange new world of the 2020s. i believe that though capital has gotten more bizarre, dispersed and supercharged, these processes can still be stalled and complicated by people defending what they feel is theirs on a local level. it's sad to hear that that these houses were taken away without a fight. I'm thinking of you all with the struggle to defend the mills, thank you for sharing this history.
Thanks Arthur. Love your story about the rainbow stairs! And the framework of 70's legacies, morphed through the 90s, finding ways into the 2020's is a really interesting perspective. Going to be reading about HDFC all night.
Thanks for telling this story, Xander. Like you, Milhaus and BACH were important sites of my development. The way they ended is so sad. I’m glad I didn’t read this last night. At least today the people won. Hope to see you before to long!
Phill! I'm glad this found it's way to you - thank you for reminding me of the compost story last we saw each other
Nice work.
Almost completely accurate, given that over 50 years have gone by.
From the beginning: http://demarrer.com/gnostalgia/BACH/BACHinThe70s.pdf
Wow...such a cool archive! Thank you for sharing