900% rent increase for ascii
ascii@squat.net - 13.10.2001 21:00
Fort van Sjakoo and ASCII, located in the Jodenbreestraat 24, Amsterdam, are threatened with a 900% rent increase
Jodenbreestraat 24 on the street
900% rent increase
The internet werkplaats, ASCII, has received, along with their
bookshop neighbours, notice of a rent increase of more than 900%. Our
landlords, the Woningbedrijf Amsterdam (Housing Corporation
Amsterdam), find this to be a "reasonable proposal". A letter received
from them began, "The Housing Corporation Amsterdam wants the rent
from their commercial spaces adjusted to the market price level". This
startling rent increase is to start on Sept. 1 and go from f 580. to f
5100. per month.
Reasonable?
Though The Housing Corporation finds this to be a reasonable proposal,
ASCII members, the volunteers of the bookshop Fort Van Sjakoo, and the
volunteer-run Window to Europe, with whom we share our space, cannot
come up with this kind of money. Once this money is demanded, the
volunteer-run non-profit organisations sharing this space will be
forced to find new premises, and face the loss of these initiatives.
Not only can we not pay, we also find the thrust of the Housing
Corporation to be unconscionable and excessive, pushing, as they are,
more and more non-commercial, idealistic initiatives out of the city
centre and towards extinction.
We need support
We beseech you now to support us in our struggle. ASCII started life
in a squat on the Herengracht, and moved into the basement of
Jodenbreestraat 24 in January 2000, to become the neighbours of the
Fort van Sjakoo, and the Window To Europe. We are run entirely by
volunteers, and survive in an entirely autonomous way. We supply the
people who could not otherwise afford it with free internet access,
and we support the activist community with computer access and a space
to communicate. We have an online radio news hour once a week, with
live streaming and incisive interviews, and every Sunday we have
experimental jazz. We also run courses, including the popular
Genderchanger Academy, teaching women computer hardware basics. We run
popular courses in Linux and basic HTML. We have regular workshops
that explain a range of technology related subjects, from PHP
programming to monitor hacking. ASCII is also a meeting point for
programmers and IT workers with a social conscience, who get together
in the spirit of open source and share ideas, start new initiatives to
support projects such as indy media, and give support to open source
software such as Linux. The internet werkplaats is run entirely on
Linux, with one computer running Free BSD, and the chance for
volunteers to delve into other open source operating systems. Most of
the hardware is recycled and donated. ASCII strives to prove that
outdated, no longer fashionable computer hardware is perfect for
low-end computer tasks such as internet surfing, and things thrown
away by some can be used by others.
History
The Fort van Sjakoo has been at Jodenbreestraat 24 since 1977. The
building was squatted 2 years earlier as a protest against its planned
demolition to make way for an office building. The squatters made the
building liveable and on the ground floor a successful bookshop was
started. Thus the squatters´ resistance was successful and the
building was saved. In 1989 the city bought the building for next to
nothing; the residents and the bookshop became renters. The Housing
Corporation was then still a part of the municipality, and they got
possession of the building. Since then the company has become
privatised. The bookshop supplies people with all sorts of information
that they can´t easily find elsewhere. The collection consists of a
wide range of left-wing political, social criticism, avant-garde,
artistic, rebellious, odd and environmentally friendly books and
magazines, often impossible to find else where.
Also housed in Jodenbreestraat 24 is the foundation Window To Europe,
created in 1989 with the goal of promoting the cultural consciousness
and mutual understanding between people who were for a long time
separated by the Iron Curtain. They have through the years
concentrated on the traditional musical cultures from the different
ethnic groups who live in the former Soviet Union. Lately they´ve
added a form of electronic music. In the bookshop is the office from
the foundation European Juggling Association, who organizes, among
other things, a yearly festival which attracts more than 3000
jugglers.
Alternative Amsterdam?
These four initiatives are all non-commercial, non-profit and
vibrantly contribute to the life that makes Amsterdam the unique city
that it is. If the Housing Corporation is successful in its push to
make more and more money, they will be responsible for the
sterilisation of a famously artistic city, a *dumbing down* of a city
that prides itself on its creativity and social inclination. The
Housing Corporation is not allowed to raise its rent for living space
but is legally within its rights to raise the rent for buisnesses to
the market level. This thinking comes from the assumption that
businesses by default turn a profit. And The Housing Corporation
Amsterdam isn´t legally bound to differentiate between rent increases
for different types of businesses and organizations. But there are
many non-commercial idealistic organisations which are purely
altruistic in nature that are being turned out on the street with the
gentrification of the city centre.
The commercial space in Jodenbreestraat has recently increased to
absurd levels as its level of popularity has increased. For decades
the street was full of unpopular ugly buildings, which were falling
apart, and construction sites. The last few years the city has been
busy with fixing up the street. First they took away the terrible
buildings. Then came new buildings and the pavement was redone with
fancy stones. The junkies were kicked out of the area, and since
recently there is an alcohol ban. The policy of the city hall was
successful: tourist attractions like the Holland Experience, big chain
stores like Blokker and Albert Heijn wanted to be on the now upscale
street. And the price per square metre increased in record time to 10
times higher. As these non-commercial and social organisations are
under pressure because of the enormously inflated rent increases, the
only way to stop the trend is to have a non-profit rent catagory for
social and non-commercial initiatives.
Demand
We, along with our neighbours Het Fort van Sjakoo, the Window To
Europe, and the European Juggeling Association, want the Housing
Corporation Amsterdam to withdraw their rent increase. Support from
the people who believe in what we all do is warmly welcome. We would
really appreciate it if our supporters began their own actions in
support of us. If you want to know what´s going on you can put
yourself on a couple of mailing lists:
 sjakoo-announce@squat.net
(subscribe at  https://squat.net/mailman/listinfo/sjakoo-announce)
ascii-announce@squat.net
(subscribe at https://squat.net/mailman/listinfo/ascii-announce)
Please send your opinion about the rent increase to the directors of
the Woningbedrijf Amsterdam (Housing Corporation) and send us a copy
too.
Woningbedrijf Amsterdam
Muntendamstraat 1
1091DR AmsterdamPostbus 94278
1090GG Amsterdam
Fax 020-6630829
e-mail:
binnenstad@woningbedrijf-amsterdam.nl
ASCII
Jodenbreestraat 24 sous
1011NK Amsterdam
e-mail: ascii@squat.net
http://www.squat.net/ascii
International Bookshop Het Fort van Sjakoo
Jodenbreestraat 24
1011NK Amsterdam
Telefoon: 020-6258979
Fax: 020-6203570
e-mail: sjakoo@xs4all.nl
http://www.xs4all.nl/~sjakoo
 E-Mail: ascii@squat.net  Website: http://squat.net/ascii
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