via Flickr
Eli–a man who doesn’t believe in last names, or taxes–sits in a broken down sofa chair. A mess of half-read political zines lay spread on a table in front of him. “People are always surprised,” he says. “They come in here and they’re like, ‘I didn’t know anarchists gave away free clothes and free food, I thought they bombed shit.’ And we do! But we just bomb the people who don’t want us giving out this free stuff.”
Eli is working his volunteer shift at the Black Rose Book Collective. Born about three years ago from a community center that occupied the small house on N Mississippi, the Black Rose serves as a sort of omni-space for the local hippie-punks: part book and record store, part library, part meeting space, part music hall. The building’s also home to a “Freecycle”, a massive pile of free clothes and stuff.
“You get the homeless anarchist punks who appreciate the free clothes,” mentions Eli. “But you also get the yuppies who are clearly just picking out the good stuff to go and sell over at The Red Light… I can usually guilt them into paying a few bucks.”
Yuppies are a big issue for the Black Rose. The collective is at the heart of gentrifying North Portland–massive new housing projects can be seen just blocks away to the north and south–and the Black Rose’s rent jumped to about $550 over the summer. That’s not any easy price tag for a store that gives the appearance of never having actually sold anything.
For now, volunteers say the store is scraping by, bolstered by ongoing special events and music shows that raise some cash. But, personally, Eli is not sure how long they can keep it up. He worries about losing the building and what it represents: a place to share books, a place for lesser known bands to play, and place in the neighborhood for people to just come and hang out.
Eli says the volunteers have considered moving the store to cheaper ground, but they worry if they won’t just start the same gentrification cycle there. “I don’t want to shit-talk anyone who isn’t here, but I’m not sure the people who founded this place knew their part in gentrification… I’m a young, poor white guy. I’m the first stage! If I wasn’t here, the yuppies would be scared off.”
For now, though, the Black Rose is continuing to do what it does. Churches and other people keep bringing in donations for the Freecycle. And the general hippie-punk community continues its tenuous relationship with neighbors new and old–especially the man who owns the empty lot next to their building.
“I tried to set up camp over there, once,” mentions a patron. “He got pissed.” KB
also via Flickr
I don’t ‘believe’ in taxes either. That doesn’t make them not real.
Rent raised to $550 a month on prime Mississippi real estate? The horror. /sarc. That’s cheap as heck.
You see, when you don’t produce, create or enhance anything, there’s no flow of goods or cash. I’m not saying they’re not doing a good thing – only that they have no choice but to obey the laws of supply and demand, just like everyone else.
Declare yourself a non profit and establish charitable credentials.
Buy the place and tell the yuppies to piss off.
‘If I wasn’t here, the yuppies would be scared off.’
That statement makes no sense.
Deal with reality.
I give em 6 months.
‘I’m a young, poor white guy. I’m the first stage! If I wasn’t here, the yuppies would be scared off.’
Oh wait, now I get it. He’s a total racist.
i wish i had rich parents and could afford to be an anarchist.
What kind of fucking yuppie goes to a shitty-ass punk-anarcho-hippy fake storefront to paw through shitty-ass donated clothes to sell them at Red Light?
Not a fucking yuppie. Eli is retarded.
How can you people commenting be so presumptuous and spit so much venom while knowing so little about this guy – Eli – or his store?
“i wish i had rich parents and could afford to be an anarchist.” You know for a fact he and his store are supported by his parents?
“Declare yourself a non profit and establish charitable credentials.” The store can’t be declared a non-profit if it’s political.
And how is Eli a racist by commenting on the racism of other, more privileged, white people who wouldn’t come to Mississipi if their weren’t already white people moving in, laying the groundwork for gentrification? He was ruefully joking about his own contribution to gentrification.
All you close-minded cynics find a hobby, will ya?
I love how words like ‘Yuppie’ and ‘Gentrification’ are thrown around by the very people who characterize those words. At least admit that you’re a part of gentrification, whether you have a job to pay rent or your parents cover your ass.
Did you do an research into this post?
Did you ask them who their landlord was? Because it’s the mississippi co-op, the building next door. The rent isn’t rising because of gentrification, it’s rising because the loan on the house had to be refinanced as was always planned when the house was bought by those of us that lived there at the time (I was a tenet, then part “owner” of the mississippi co-op for years including when it was purchased.)
I realize your unpaid, but this is journalism 101, research into the issue. It seems this guy Eli doesn’t even understand his own situation. It has little to do with gentrification and more to do with an attempt to take back the land into the hands of the tenets.
I find it to be quite disturbing that there are so many who are commenting negatively about an anarchist bookstore, when anarchy, and those who embrace it’s freedom and idealism, clearly paved the way for so much of what people, especially those young, bitter, cliche’s of portland, enjoy daily.
I am sure these same shit heads that are so fucking cool that they talk shit about people trying to make a change, are the same shits that both quote Chomsky at parties and voted for Obama in the name of change.
I can’t wait to move back to Portland, and to work in ssolidarity with te comrades there, and to smash the fucking ignorance of portland’s hipster community. If that means smashing the face of on it’s mustached, mulleted, hipster fucks, so be it.
Right On, Eli, and Right On Black Rose! UP THE FIGHT!
tenet? tenant?
tenet? tenant?
only thing worse than a goddamn hippie is a worthless anarchist.
get a job.
‘how is Eli a racist by commenting on the racism of other, more privileged, white people who wouldn’t come to Mississipi if their weren’t already white people moving in, laying the groundwork for gentrification?’
By assuming white people are privileged and ‘racist’, ignoring white people who have lived there for years before his oh-so enlightened lazy ass, by stating that non white people are ‘scary,’ by trying to break stereotypes while actually cementing them.
Ruefully joking? No, he’s painting with the broad brush he claims to stand against.
Lobster, I did research who the landlord was. And while I didn’t talk to the co-op (Portland Collective Housing Inc, as it’s actually called), I don’t think refinancing a loan on a property with sky-rocketing value is exactly going to bring payments down.
‘I don’t think refinancing a loan on a property with sky-rocketing value is exactly going to bring payments down.’
Sure it will — interest rate — that’s a big reason why people refinance in the first place.
I just wanted to clarify this discussion with some additional information that is actually completely factual. I am currently a resident of the Mississippi Co-op (part of the larger Portland Collective Housing), and have been a resident for the past 3 years, in addition to being a former volunteer at the Blackrose. Therefore I think I have a pretty good understanding of what has happened between my house and the Blackrose Collective, both currently as well as historically. The “jump” in rent that the Blackrose recently underwent was actually $26, from $524 to the current $550. In my opinion, we have done about as much as we can to mitigate an increase in the Blackrose’s rent amidst our refinancing. I think the main thing that has happened with this article is that “unpaid news intern” did a poor job of researching and reporting. I just hope this person is rewarded for this by remaining an unpaid news intern for a very long time.
$26 rent increase? Oh, the humanity.
Oh my lord! Those zany anarchists have definitely lost their minds this time around! Firstly, they tried to set up alternative infrastructure against the norm while still trying to survive the norm. Then they try to give a shit about the community (or ex-community) while everyone else walks by to their new condo (I love my new condo!). They try to sell radical books for cheep? God, their parents must be rich to support this madness!!!
I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 10 years so I couldn’t possibly be privileged or racist!
I hope these ignorant, racist people get shut down by 6 months from now. Giving free stuff to everybody? Idiots.
It’s weird to see so many negative comments.
Just to let everyone know, neither I or any of the other Anarchists / infoshop volunteers at the BlackRose who I know personally are supported by their parents.
It also seems foolish that anyone would assume that Eli is racist based on his statement. Part of being a ‘zany anarchist’ is opposing racism. In a loosely researched article about a loosely organized center for community building and media distribution, you should probably forgive Eli for voicing his opinion on the reality he sees in which rich white people move into North Portland neighborhoods and destroy whatever community existed.
The majority of these comments seem to be backed by somewhat of a seething anger at “hippies”, perceived racism, perceived undeserved wealth, etc. But the real message I am getting is that a lot of this anger is stemming from a resentment these people have at being trapped in the “norm”. They don’t like that there are people fighting to live outside of it and so they trash their ideologies and goals. Kind of pathetic. And, I can’t stand when people say things like,”Get a job!” as if that’s the easiest thing in the world. As if you should just get any job you can and work at it your whole life and then die because the whole point of living is to work at a goddamn job, right?
This is interesting indeed.
As an ex-volunteer and “collective member” of the Black Rose, I feel like there are several issues going on here. Many of these issues are riddled with hyper generalizations that don’t actually warrant much attention. I feel like it might have been a misstep of the anarchists to open the article discussing bombing, considering that anarchists seldom if ever bomb anything these days. It’s a romanticized idea that’s over all alienating to anyone but starry-eyed punks, or ex-punks. I was cringing to see that the article opened with that quote from Eli.
But more importantly, the Anarchist community needs to recognize some key problems with its recent organizing strategies. Many Anarchists of the past have cited economics as the key to revolutionary strategy— and let’s face it, comrades, we’re all paying rent. Infoshops are facing hard times these days, and they will be the first things to close due to economic instability. I think it’s high time we start organizing in a way that puts us in a good position to whether the capitalist fall out rather than drowning in it’s wakes.
There are many Anarchist projects, shops, businesses, collectives, and houses that offer the movement more than the “free” wastes of capitialist excess (coughcoughdumpsteredgoodscough)..they offer sustainability, and a new path for everyone (not just our black clad friends). So when the Black Rose goes under, (and it will one day) I hope we look forward to the renewed efforts by the freed up comrades to effectively challenge our dominant society rather than being stressed out by simply coping.
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