BoHip Colonies in Trouble

Eugene just announced there will be no City Celebration this year. There might be a parade. Also, the 5th. Avenue Art Enclave may be torn down and replaced by high-rise development. I used to go to the greatest parties on earth here, thrown by the Diggers.

There is so much to report. I have been posting suggestions on our mayor’s Facebook. All the work I have done in this blog is now very important. We might be seeing the end of a era that began with the first Gathering of the Tribes in San Francisco. Bringing large bodies of BoHip people together may be in peril. The Whiteaker and Country Fair are doing well. My vision of Love Dance, and a Broadway Musical, may be a vision of a new direction. People need to be educated about what Bohemianism is. It should be here to stay. The Right only brought folks together to march them off to foreign wars, and give them a parade when they came home – if we were victorious..

Jon Presco

https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/189595

Fifth Avenue a “bohemian jewel” on the Oakland waterfront

By Terray Sylvester
Posted October 2, 2013 11:00 am

For decades, the last block of Fifth Avenue has attracted artisans and craftsmen who find creative space in a cluster of residences set amid the industry and decay on the Oakland waterfront.

Turn off of Embarcadero toward the marina and, in short order, you’ll pass a hand-painted sign for a psychic, a guitar maker, and a gallery founded by graduates of the California College of the Arts and Crafts (before it became the California College of the Arts). On the next street over—some people call it Fourth-and-a-Half—is Performance Structures, Inc., the company that helped fabricate the enormous baseball mitt at AT&T Park and Chicago’s shiny steel Cloud Gate sculpture, better known as “The Bean.”

For the last decade, residents of Fifth Avenue have been eyeing—and sometimes fighting—a massive development proposal that would place several thousand residences and 200,000 square feet of shops and offices on either side of their neighborhood. The development was proposed under the name Oak to Ninth in 2003, but suffered a series of delays. This April it was revived with a new moniker, Brooklyn Basin, and fresh financial backing from Zarsion Holdings Group of Beijing.

If Brooklyn Basin is built as planned, high rise apartment buildings, manicured parks and strolling shoppers would replace the cement plant and vacant lots that currently abut Fifth Avenue. But that “if” is a big one. Michael Ghielmetti, president of Oakland’s Signature Development Group, the lead builder behind Brooklyn Basin, says that even under the best market conditions, buildout may be a decade away.

While some residents of Fifth Avenue are sanguine about the development, others, such as John Rogers, see Brooklyn Basin as a sign that Fifth Avenue’s niche is a precarious one. “I think that it’s inevitable that this area will be developed,” said Rogers, a blacksmith who has lived and worked on Fifth Avenue for nearly two decades. “And I think it’s inevitable that our community will be overshadowed.”

Jacob Pieprzyk, coordinator of Cricket Engine Gallery, takes a more optimistic view. “I really don’t think the bubble plan is going to float,” he said. “But should they do it, we will be the beautiful little bohemian jewel in the middle of their yuppie paradise.”

In the audio slideshow above, Rogers, Pieprzyk, and architect Leal Charonnat reflect on the Fifth Avenue community.

Brisk Downtown Revitalization Prompts Eugene Celebration’s Cancellation for 2014

The Growing Success of Eugene Celebration Outsizes Available Space Remaining Downtown

Kesey Enterprises, Inc. today announced the cancellation of Eugene Celebration for 2014, a necessary step for raising Eugene’s most celebrated annual event to the next level of community pride and enjoyment. Ironically, two impressive accomplishments during the past year lead to this decision: first, the sheer projected size of Eugene Celebration for 2014, based on the unprecedented success of 2013’s event, and second, the growing momentum of Eugene’s downtown revitalization.

Kit Kesey, longtime President of Kesey Enterprises, Inc., noted, “Hands down, Eugene Celebration 2013 surpassed the successes of past years when we consider our attendance, the caliber and diversity of performers and favorable feedback from the community.”

Kesey continued, “Downtown’s growth gained more momentum during this past year than most of us could have imagined. This resurgence requires us to modify key features of Eugene Celebration. For instance, the empty lots and vacant storefronts that blighted downtown for many years provided essential staging, logistics, and venue space for countless Eugene Celebrations. Today, impressive new structures, such as LCC’s Downtown Campus and the new Commerce Building, have replaced these urban blank spots. We have simply run out of space to produce the Eugene Celebration at the size it has become, in the space that is now available.”

Kesey revealed the central dilemma faced by Kesey Enterprises, Inc. “We considered many adaptations for continuing the tremendous success of previous Eugene Celebrations, given the new constraints imposed by downtown’s growth. Every scenario we imagined should include community input, serious planning and accurate implementation. Although this will take time, our singular goal for 2015 will remain clear: we’ll take Eugene Celebration to the next level, without compromising the aspirations of volunteers, downtown businesses, sponsors, and everyone else who makes the Celebration a great event for the entire community.”
Kesey also offered a personal observation about the cancellation. “I deeply understand and share the disappointment the community will feel upon learning about the 2014 cancellation, especially as someone who h s also attended Eugene Celebration since the early 1980’s. I’m also a downtown business owner, so I love the way Eugene Celebration brings folks to the center of our community. In fact, last year’s theme was Get Down Town. I ask all of us to honor the core spirit of the traditional event by looking forward to future progress for bringing Eugene Celebration to the next level together.”