Hunters' Point artists

The May issue of artLTD (a West coast art magazine) is out now and it has a good story about Hunters' Point, repeating a lot of the rumors I've been hearing about the artists' studios out there. As usual, no real hard info about who has to move, or when:

For over 20 years artists have worked out on the old shipyard, which is among other things an old naval base, a toxic waste site, and the largest plot of open land in San Francisco. It happens to be located in one of the city’s most dangerous and blighted neighborhoods. Here in Hunters Point, dislocated from the hub of downtown, among an ongoing radiological remediation project, a sewage treatment plant, 100 Brownfield sites, a recently closed PG&E power plant, over a third of the city’s hazardous waste generators, 325 underground petroleum storage tanks, and a public housing project know ominously as “The Hill,” a couple hundred artists have found an affordable place to work.

But why would anyone (or more specifically, hundreds of artists) intentionally make their place of work one of the most toxic sites in the United States? ... the proximity of the studios has led to many friendships among artists who would not otherwise have met. These connections contribute to the strength and resiliency to the entire artist community in San Francisco. With rent at about 50 to 75 cents per square foot, having a studio at the shipyard can also be a matter of simple economics.

(In 2005) San Francisco sold the shipyard for the price of $1 to the Lennar Corporation, which is the third largest homebuilder in the United States and which is also in charge of five other military base redevelopment projects in California. As the Navy cleans up the parcels, they are eventually passed to Lennar, which has been working with local constituents to redevelop the site.

Their Spring Open Studio is coming up in a few days, April 28–29, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.