The Grex's Landlords item

Mar 4 13:29 UTC 1996

I'm not completely caught up after an absence from the co-op conference,
but this doesn't seem to be mentioned elsewhere here....

Grex is having landlord problems again.  Grex has two landlords, one of whom
lives in another apartment in the building where Grex lives.  In the past,
we have had trouble with other tenants in the building turning off various
circuit breakers, including Grex's circuit breaker, either out of confusion
about how circuit breakers work, or out of maliciousness; we aren't sure
which.  We bought a lock for the circuit breaker, so that the breaker can
still trip if a power overload occurs, but a human being can't turn off power
without using a screwdriver to remove the lock.  This landlord has both
removed the lock, and several times has turned off the power to either Grex
or to the whole building.  This, of course, causes Grex to crash and reboot,
and it can lose people's files.  One of the times that this landlord turned
off power to Grex, a staffer was right there and confronted her about it. 
She smelled of alcohol and was verbally abusive toward this staffer (STeve).
She asserted that it is *her* house and so she has a right to flip power on
and off whenever she likes.

There were several incidents in a row like this.  Grex staffers called the
police, who took a report on it.  The board held an emergency meeting (I
wasn't there, but read about it in e-mail) to discuss the problem.  They
contacted a lawyer who has knowledge about computers and about landlord/
tenant interactions.  He wrote a letter to the landlords, explaining which
laws they had violated, what the penalties are, that we would not like to
have to take legal action against them, and to please stop turning off Grex's
power.  

response 2 of 269:

Mar 4 16:54 UTC 1996

(Grex's staff strongly suspects the landlord removed the locks on the
circuit breaker; it wasn't proven or admitted to, last I heard.)

response 4 of 269:

Mar 4 18:00 UTC 1996

Friendly reminder for STeve to mail someone.. :-)

response 6 of 269:

Mar 5 01:43 UTC 1996

   A good commercial price is at least $60; I saw several spaces
that looked worse for $90 - $100.

   She took the breaker lock the second time--I saw it there one
minute, and wasn't there about 10 minutes later with her still
in the basement.

response 8 of 269:

Mar 5 05:24 UTC 1996

What kind of deal does m-net have for their space?  Can we get one like it?
Can we convince m-net to share it with us?  If we were sharing space, I hope
the grex and m-net staffs would be able to trust eachother with access to
eachother's hardware.

response 10 of 269:

Mar 5 09:58 UTC 1996

I don't think sharing space with m-net is a viable possibility at this
point anyways.  Some of the same m-net principals who were involved with
"queering" the WIN proposal are still involved with m-net, and given
some of the things those principals said publically at the time, as well
as the actions they took, I think we would have a lot of trouble
trusting them.  It's just as well anyways, though--I don't think there's
any real benefit to our sharing space with them, either for m-net, or
for grex.

The situation we're in now, in the dungeon, is still a heck of a lot
better than the situation we were in at the last place.  We do actually
have 24 hr access, a lease, affordable price, &etc.--in many ways, it's
still a deal that can't be beat.

Even so -- if it were me, a private individual, renting from them, I'd
be planning not to rewnew, & be looking elsewhere.  Life is too short to
waste it dealing with people who don't want you there.  Still, it hasn't
been too bad for me yet, and as long as other staffers are willing to
deal with it, I don't have any huge complaint.  Certainly, the location
can't be beat.  I can actually contemplate dashing over from work,
without my coat, even when it's kind of miserable out, because it's so
close.  I doubt Grex will ever again be anywhere nearly that convenient
to me.

response 12 of 269:

Mar 5 12:11 UTC 1996

Is it too much trouble to look for another location, without making any
commitments, of course, while you are trying to educate the landlord persons
to act like responsible adults? I think Grex needs a psychologist, at least,
to negotiate the deal with the present landlords. There is ample evidence that
the "law" is not being respected here. Why will this get better? Your
experience may be different than mine but my experience says there will be
worse to come.

response 14 of 269:

Mar 5 23:41 UTC 1996

If Grex is having problems with the lease or landlord then the
situation must be communicated to the users.  Grex belongs to
the users, not the staff, not the Board.  It is the Board's
responsiblity to keep them informed as stated in the Bylaws.

I suggest we look for a new location so that if the landlord
decides to serve us notice of non-renewal we aren't simply
left with 2 months in which to panic.

response 16 of 269:

Mar 6 00:34 UTC 1996

Did that extension ever make it to a formal agreement?

If not our current lease could expire October 31, 1996.

response 18 of 269:

Mar 6 06:17 UTC 1996

But our landlord does want us to stay. I am not certain whether the
multi year portion of the agreement is formalized, though. Without a
contract, of course, there is no certainty, but Nick has given us no indication
that he would be unwilling to extend the lease.

I have no objection to Grex investigating the possibility of moving, 
without committing itself. That's prudent.

I agree that the board should keep the users informed, but that doesn't
mean that all the details involving a dispute or negotiation should
be posted publicly. There are privacy issues and strategy issues that make
that work against the best interest of Grex.

response 20 of 269:

Mar 6 07:59 UTC 1996

I would think this would be obvious but, just in case...

Of course there may be a few details wound through a problem such as this
where it might be prudent to withhold some information from public
discussion.  But I'd suspect these instances are few indeed.  And even in
such rare cases the Board and staff's responsibility would still be to
keep the users in the know as much as possible.  I'd sure rather see an
item say, "Here is what's happening, but there are a few details we'll have
to leave out for the time being, but know we're working on getting this
resolved," than the entire discussion take place in baff mail or in the
Staff conference with the users totally out of the loop. 

This is not a trivial point.  It is central to what Grex is about.

response 22 of 269:

Mar 6 12:35 UTC 1996

There is a dispute resolution service around here in Washtenaw County,
someplace. It, most likely, is premised on two sides having some
ability to be rational, and that may not be the case with the rogue landlord
person, but it might be worth a try. Of course, the big hurdle will be
getting the rogue landlord-person to the table in the first place. Can the
issue even be discussed with the person causing the problems? If not . . .

response 24 of 269:

Mar 6 14:24 UTC 1996

   I will say that I'm always doing things like this, talking to people
and seeing if anything might happen farther down the road a bit.  I've
also started looking at other spaces in Ann Arbor.  I know more about
the commercial rental scene now than I did a couple of years ago, so
I expect that I'll find more possibilities this time 'round.  Of course,
it's still a matter of money: if we had $200 a month for rent we could
move next week.