Oaklandish Forced to Close as City Mysteriously Clamps Down
Oakland, California Gallery Forced to Close It's Doors
By Cecily Burt, Oakland Tribune, September 5, 2005
Despite a fervent letter writing campaign, the popular Oaklandish art gallery and cultural museum that helped legitimize graffiti as an art form and promote Oakland in a variety of mediums has closed its doors, a victim of complex building code issues the founders were helpless to fix.
Oaklandish had rented an airy, second floor warehouse space at Second and Franklin streets in the historic Oakland produce district for two years, offering art, an Oakland-centric museum, reference library and gift shop. Every so often it hosted art openings, poetry readings, films and special events in the evenings.
But the popular art house ran afoul of the city's permit requirements last June, when officers from the Alcohol Beverage Action Team paid a visit the day a poetry slam was scheduled. The officers told the people setting up that they needed a one-time special event permit or a cabaret license if more than 50 people attended an event, or if there was dancing or alcohol served, which there seldom is.
As it turns out, event permits are the least of their problems, said artist Jeff Hull, who along with childhood friend Fred Macondray and old-school graffiti artist Ref@ One founded the free Oaklandish art campaign to create free, accessible art and movie screenings to showcase Oakland history.
The building's owners' a collective of 13 investors' did not obtain permits before subdividing the large, second-floor warehouse space into three separate units. Oaklandish leases one of the spaces, about 3,400 square feet with only one entrance and exit. There is a good possibility the walls, floors and roof may not meet fire codes, and those codes are even stricter if the space is used for public assemblies. So even if Oaklandish applied for a permit, city officials would be reluctant to issue one if the building isn't safe, said Barbara Killey, city administrative hearing officer.
"Special events permits don't cost anything, and the type of events they have would fall under that category, but they got into this little catch-22," Killey said. "The special events people are not going to be comfortable blessing a permit for an event that holds more than 50 people at that location."
Lisa Thayer of San Pablo was chagrined to hear her favorite lunchtime haunt was closing down. "I've been here billions of times," she lamented. "I don't come to night (events), but I come on my lunch hour and read the books and look at the museum and buy gifts for people."
Local workers often dropped in at lunchtime and plopped down on sofas in the bright airy reference library corner to look at books, pamphlets and magazines about Oakland founders, characters, outlaws and history, or watch a variety of videos related in some way to OaklandÊ or not.
Oaklandish has a large display of museum-quality artifacts depicting Oakland's history and popular culture: medals won for marksmanship at Oakland's Pistol Club; collectible Oakland spoons; a colorful Wee Pals lunch box; a faded pink silk pillow with green fringe that shows off Oakland's most beautiful landmarks.
There's a Time magazine from April 29, 1974 with Patty Hearst on the cover, books filled with historic post cards and a collection of old photographs that can be viewed through an antique stereoscope.
Oaklandish had to cancel its summer schedule of evening events for fear police would shut them down. Last September the gallery finally decided to definitively close shop.
Post Script: The property owners (friend's of Jerry Brown) have never been cited for these code violations, and the space is currenlty availble to rent again despite the infractions.
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