Why I Do This
By Douglas
Eisenstark
evicted Tenant of Lincoln
Place
It's been a year since the LA
County Sheriffs evicted me from my Lincoln Place apartment in Venice.
Since then I've gone to weekly Sunday meetings, sat
outside in the rain at our Tent City, spoken at the City Council, painted signs,
written articles, organized vigils and generally spent around 15 hours a week
working on this issue. I presented a photography show is largely an abstract
view of the anger and outrage, not just of my eviction, but of the forces of
so-called development. You could say I'm obsessed. I fear some of my friends,
especially those outside of Venice, think I am really, really obsessed. And I
sometimes ask myself, why do I do
this?
First, I really want to come back.
The architects of Lincoln Place consciously designed "luxury living" for the low
and moderate income renter. You would have had to live at Lincoln Place to know
that they are very, very special. Many of us tried to find comparable housing
and reported back that we couldn't find "anything as nice". In fact, we won't -
because Lincoln Place was designed in a style that is regarded around the world
as a standard for community living. That is, 2 story apartments around garden
spaces. In one of our video pieces someone says, "This is a place you can live."
It is a simple statement that resonates deeply with me. Lincoln Place isn't a
box apartment, a place you live in till you move on. I felt like I could live
there forever.
As an artist and now an
acupuncture teacher, I've known for a while that the only housing I can afford
is "affordable". That is another reason that I continue to protest this
situation. By wiping out a community, 800 apartments, over 3000 tenants, someone
has determined that our existence is irrelevant. They have said that we don't
deserve anything other than something "not as nice". I admit it- I am personally
offended and hurt. What if someone said to you, "Your house is too good. You
don't deserve it. You must leave."? The architects speak to us, lower and
moderate income renters, through their art... these buildings... and they tell
us that we matter.
800 apartments,
thousands of people have been displaced. There is affordable housing in Los
Angeles but it is being torn down at an enormous cost to not just renters but to
all tax payers in this City. And this is a third reason I continue to fight. An
outside corporation has come into this community and has attempted to destroy
it. They are simply doing what they do. They change neighborhoods with no regard
to the people who live there. There is no community in their equation, only
profit. I don't think I need to say more about
this.
At one point in the last year there
was talk about "people not buildings". Meaning that newer, taller, denser
apartments would be just as good as what we have now. People who said this
weren't living in Lincoln Place. They wouldn't know that Lincoln Place defines a
way of life, a community, more than simply apartments. Yes, I want to return and
I want to see that no one else faces this injustice.
Posted: Fri - December
1, 2006 at 09:17 AM