Studio 17 was formerly the home of 70+ artists and one of the largest art collectives in San Francisco.  Then Rick Holman bought the building.   In June he refused to renew the lease of the artists working there.  When questioned about this move he assured everyone, “we are going to directly lease the space only to artists (not entrepreneurs, tech companies and other business”.  But when he said that, he was lying.

They are now actively trying to get the building rezoned so that he can replace studio space once reserved for artists, into office spaces to be occupied by anything but artists.  The plan is to move in a tech company called PlanGrid.  Do you know what PlanGrid does? It makes apps that help developers and construction companies build faster.  Now I don’t know if that is ironic or just sad.  The Mission artists are being replaced by a tech company that helps developers tear down and rebuild their neighborhood faster.

The plan is to re-allocate dedicated artist space to a storage level that has 8ft ceilings and no light, so that the tech companies can have the upper floors with nice natural light, and of course no pesky artists…you know, the people that space was promised to?

Artist Flora Davis and TODCO encourage you to sign this petition to the Planning Commission to reject submitted plans to convert the 17 Reasons/Redlick building from artist spaces into tech offices.  It is a well written plan that reaches an equitable compromise.

Sign Here via Change.org

They need your signatures today, let’s do our part to stop the destruction of the very fabric that makes the Mission, The Mission.