Wanted: $6.5 million to save artists’ refuge
Mission District’s landmark Redstone building is up for sale
Spend an afternoon at Chile Lindo, a Chilean empanada and coffee shop at the Redstone Labor Temple, and you might make a new friend. Its owner, Paula Tejeda, meets every old and new customer with joy, learning about their day in between taking orders and decorating desserts.
“It’s a doorway for a lot of people coming to the country for the first time,” Tejeda said, who describes Chile Lindo as a “pathway” for immigrants.
Chile Lindo is one of about three dozen tenants in the Redstone, a historic red brick building designated as a city landmark in the Mission District on 16th Street. Redstone was founded more than a century ago in 1915, and its long history is rich with artistic creativity and grassroots organization. Tenants include the Lab, El/La TransLatinas, the Living Wage Coalition and the International Indian Treaty Council, among others.
“Things do have a spirit,” Tejeda said, “and that spirit is in this building.”
But that spirit may be under threat. The building’s landlord, David Lucchesi, reportedly wants to sell the Redstone. He could not be reached for comment this week, but the news has its tenants worried — if new buyers raise rent in the rapidly gentrifying city, then the artists and activists fear they will be at risk of eviction.
The Mission Economic Development Agency is trying to prevent that from happening by buying the building to keep it as a refuge for artists and activists, as well as Latino, indigenous and working class communities. The development agency has an Aug. 1 deadline to come up with $15 million — and that’s a drop from Lucchesi’s original price of $22.4 million, which the agency says it was able to negotiate down in the spring after building appraisals revealed a need for modifications, most notably a seismic retrofit.
“It’s really going to take a much bigger effort than just MEDA coming in like a white knight to save the day,” said Christopher Gil, the development agency’s associate director of marketing and communications. “We need the city, we need philanthropists, we need investors to come and step up to the plate to help save the Redstone Labor Temple.”
The development agency is al
ready a little more than halfway there with $8.5 million, including $500,000 from the city thanks to a resolution that Redstone tenants rallied for on June 20. But there is still $6.5 million needed to complete the deal.
“People who come to the Mission for the culture, who enable and allow the removal of places like the Redstone will be removing, and displacing, and killing the Mission’s culture,” said Tiny GrayGarcia, cofounder of parttime tenant Poor Magazine.
The Redstone “literally saved our life,” GrayGarcia added. Since Poor Magazine moved into the building 10 years ago, the publication has been able to carry out projects that have served the homeless and poor communities in artistic ways and otherwise: a newsroom for “folks in struggle,” a bilingual media project called “Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia,” and a “theater of the poor.” The list goes on.
The tenants are trying to protect that kind of work. April Berger, an artist whose studio has been in the Redstone for about 25 years, is part of the Redstone Labor Tenants Association, which has been trying to protect the building from wealthier buyers who could evict its current tenants.
“I’ve been in the Mission District for 39 years, and the Mission District has changed so much,” Berger said, referring to the mass departures of artists. “It’s just lost a lot of its soul recently.”
But Berger admits it has always been a battle. Txutxo Perez, another artist of the Redstone, said that even decades ago, it was difficult for artists to “survive the first wave of dotcoms.” Perez also points out that it’s not just the artistic culture that the Mission will lose; the district is home to a large Latino community, which hasn’t been immune to the city’s changing landscape.
“It would be really tragic if a tech company takes over to open up their own enterprises,” Perez said, adding that he would miss contact with Spanish speakers, the food, “the old lady who sells dollar pupusas in the shopping cart.” If the trend of gentrification continues, all of that may not endure.
But, if the development agency is successful, then Redstone’s survival won’t be a story easily dismissed.
“If we keep that,” Perez said, “it will be like a victory for the neighborhood.”
“We need the city, we need philanthropists, we need investors to come and step up to the plate to help save the Redstone Labor Temple.” Christopher Gil, associate director of marketing and communications, Mission Economic Development Agency