March 1, 2008: Opening date of Shipyard 2.0, the second coming of Berkeley-based artist collective The Shipyard, whose ramshackle shipping container community had been previously shut down by the city in May of 2007. March 4, 2008: The Shipyard is given 3 days to vacate the premises or face fines totaling $2,500 per day. Total length of comeback tour: one weak week. Boo. Though by all accounts a peaceful group of artists and makers, The Shipyard has nevertheless been at odds with the city for years, as they've been cited for various fire, building code and safety violations. Though the 'yard produces its own solar power (a plan developed out of necessity following the city's decision to boot them off of the power grid as an intimidation tactic), even that isn't enough to sway solar-obsessed Berkeley, and thus the group has finally announced its decision to leave Berkeley. Coming to a town near you ...
· The Shipyard [website]
· Evicted: Berkeley's Shipyard maker community [Boing Boing]
[Image courtesy Flickr photog tobo]
[Editor's note: So we've made a grossly egregious error here, folks— the biggest we've ever made in our years of blogging. The above scenario did take place on the days mentioned. However, that was back in 2007. (Picture us ducking and covering here, as though the audience were about to pelt us with tomatoes.) We caught the item in our Google Alerts, obviously didn't catch the date, and went forward. Our intention was to help though, not to hurt, and so we apologize wholeheartedly for any difficulty we may have caused The Shipyard. Long live, folks.]
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