more work related fun stuff

I have a meeting today with the other artists on my floor at the studio. It seems that the fire department has issued a laundry list of violations to our building, and specifically for our floor. This is a particularly sketchy issue for me, as I am the only one there who does anything that could actually be a fire hazard, if I was a moron and didn't know how to properly run my welding equipment. Unlike the painters and clay sculptors, who might have some dangerous chemicals which aren't properly stored, I have stuff that burns metal. My plan of action in dealing with such fire inspections has simply been to avoid them. We usually have a day or two notice, and I simply find something else to do on the days I've known they were coming to inspect. This is not because I think my studio is particularly dangerous. In fact, it's as safe as that kind of studio can be. It's just that fire inspectors don't seem to agree with one another when it comes to what is sufficient for safety, and I have no desire to make constant adjustments to the placement of fire extinguishers and the like.

The real problem is that all of the other artists who are on my floor came from 111 First Street, which had many, many run-ins with the fire department, health department, pretty much every department there is. There were artists illegally living in their spaces, the building was in terrible shape, and it became an ugly situation in the end, involving class action law suits and forced evictions. The building is now being completely gutted, like much of the property in that area. This is the neighborhood where Trump is putting up his giant luxury condo towers. As you can imagine, the various interests involved in that situation outweighed that of the artists who refused to leave their spaces. So, everyone is out of there and the situation is history...why does any of this matter now? Well, apparently the various departments of public safety and protection have a bug in their ass about the former 111 people, having made their jobs so difficult in the past. This could be a bad thing for me, who had NOTHING to do with that building (except that I did purchase some kickass warehouse doors from there before they padlocked the whole place...more on that at another time).

Wish me luck in dealing with this nonsense.