West Berkeley Artists Facing Tough Times

West Berkeley artist Deanna Westberg does not know where she can go if she is forced from her home and workspace in the Drayage building, a converted warehouse on Third Street.

Westberg, who paints, sketches and makes collages, has lived and worked in the area for 12 years and is among the more than 30 tenants of the building who have been ordered by the city to vacate their homes by April 15 because of building code violations.

"I don't think I can stay in the neighborhood," Westberg says as she walks through the building's paint-splattered hallway, adorned with collages and sculptures. "And I'm kind of upset about that."

Westberg is not alone. Artists and craftspeople in the greater West Berkeley area say they have been facing an uphill battle for years trying to find affordable spaces to work and live. These sanctuaries, they say, are becoming increasingly rare in a city where preserving an arts culture has taken a backseat to urban and commercial development. The Drayage shutdown is the most recent and explosive episode in this larger battle artists say they are losing.

The artists say their struggle is one of economics.

Development along Fourth Street from an industrial neighborhood into an upscale shopping district-which has brought higher property values-has made them fearful of losing their spaces, artists say.

Median home values in the area have increased 110 percent in the last five years, in comparison to a weaker appreciation in other areas of the city, according to a survey by Ira Serkes of RE/MAX Executive in Berkeley.

"It's a very old story that artists move into an area that's undesirable and make it (desirable)," says Maresa Danielsen, another Drayage tenant. "People have been living there before all Fourth Street was developed, and now that it is desirable, and now that a developer has his eye on the place, we are suddenly being evicted, after two decades of residents living there."

The Drayage is facing shutdown of its residential space after a potential buyer requested an inspection-which brought forth the building's code violations.

Artists say the only solution is owning their own space.

"If you don't own your own space a lot of people get chased out," says Betsy Morris, president of the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation. "The space where people can make things is precious."

But West Berkeley artists are not strangers to losing their workspace, many of them having moved to West Berkeley because of rising rents in their previous workspaces.

Painter and jeweler Susan Brooks moved to the area when skyrocketing rents in Berkeley's Strawberry Canyon quadrupled. Brooks now works in the Sawtooth Building, a studio on Eighth Street.

"All the warehouse places artists used to work in have been gentrified," says painter Donna Duguay, who left her Emeryville live-work space under similar conditions. "The big squeeze is on worse than ever."

Some artist communities still feel secure in West Berkeley. The Berkeley Potters Guild, a 30-year-old organization founded by artists that provides a communal workspace for 20 potters, has owned its property on Jones Street since 1971.

Other artist spaces like the live-work Durkee Building on Heinz Street are protected by the West Berkeley Plan, which enforces rent control. Even though the building itself is protected, development in the surrounding area has led to the decline in a culture that is artist-friendly, artists say.

"I feel confident (the Durkee Building is) okay, but I think West Berkeley is under siege by developers," says painter Betsey Strange, a Durkee resident. "It's going to be really hard on artists with all the traffic and noise and pollution."

Some artists say their presence is at the core of Berkeley culture and that their absence would leave a void.

"Berkeley's long-respected tradition of liberalism depends on people like us," says Alan Hillesheim, a letterpress printer and Drayage tenant. "Can the city of Berkeley afford to lose us over increasing rents and the loss of affordable live-work spaces?"

Editor's Note: The recent Drayage

building controversy in West Berkeley has brought forth issues about the role of artists in the area. This is the first in a three-part series on West Berkeley's arts district. Look for part two tomorrow.

Tags: