Berkeley Wants to Create a Cultural District Where Artists Can Afford to Live

The Berkeley City Council is considering creating a new cultural district on the city’s west side, which — thanks to a recently passed state law — could also include affordable housing for artists.

“This is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” said City Council member Terry Taplin, who is also a poet. “The need for affordable housing is a big part of my vision for the city — you know, Berkeley being this place where people come to create opportunities in society that they want to see.”

The council is scheduled to vote Tuesday night on whether to study the creation of a cultural district under AB 812, which went into effect this year. The law allows cities to create state-approved cultural districts and designate 10% of any affordable housing in the area for artists.

It also comes eight years after the deadly Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which killed 36 people. The unlawfully converted warehouse was home to many artists and shined a light on the lack of safe and affordable housing for artists in the Bay Area.

Kim Anno, a retiring member of the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission and notable painter, photographer and video artist, is part of the team of artists working with the City Council to create a cultural district. Some of her students died in the 2016 fire.

“It’s in my mind for the rest of my life, so creating a daylight for the need for housing is the first step,” she said. “The whole idea is to make a mutually beneficial ecosystem of the city so that the people who work here also live here.”

According to a 2021 survey commissioned by the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission, more than half of the artists who lived in the city earned $69,000 or less per year, which qualified them as “low income” in Alameda County. Less than a third of the 163 artists surveyed were employed full-time as artists, while others paid their expenses with the help of part-time or contract work.

Tuesday’s City Council vote would only be a small step toward creating a cultural district. If the council decides to move forward, members of the Civic Arts Commission, local artists and residents will weigh in on any plans, and state officials will have to certify the district before any affordable housing could be offered.

In the meantime, organizations like Vital Arts, founded to honor the victims of the Ghost Ship fire, offer displacement prevention grants for artists in Alameda County dealing with high rents or looming threats of eviction.

In Oakland, the Unity Council, a nonprofit community development organization, is pursuing plans to develop affordable housing on the site of the Ghost Ship warehouse.

The company purchased the property in 2023 and construction could start on the site as early as 2026, according to Mary Alexander & Associates, a law firm that represented 13 victims of the fire.

Cameron Woo, a current member of Berkeley’s Civic Arts Commission, said there is a “certain amount of synergy” around the need for more affordable housing and the benefits of artists living within a city.

“There’s the economic benefit of the arts programs that contribute to the health and well-being of a community — not only financially but culturally as well,” he said. “We know this is not the magic wand, the solution to all the needs of this community, but it’s one step.”