What kind of landlord raises your rent by $3,000 per month?! Shit, I thought they had rent control in Berkeley – apparently not!

From the 924 Gilman Blog:

On July 1, 2010 our rent will increase by nearly $3000.00 a month, jeopardizing the future of 924 Gilman.

A little background…

The club’s rent has been increasing every year for the last twenty three years, and up until now we’ve been able to make the adjustments needed to compensate for those increases, but what we are facing now is the equivalent of having twenty years of rent increases condensed into one, and once it goes into effect the clock will begin to tick away as we struggle to generate the extra $31,000.00 a year needed to cover this massive rent hike.

If you’ve ever been to 924 Gilman then you know it’s basically just a graffiti-laden garage with bathrooms. It’s not your typical club scene with food and alcohol. Actually, everyone that works there is a volunteer and they only charge a few bucks admission to each show. There are basically no other places for young’ns to go listen to touring metal and punk bands, so it would be rad if this place could continue to survive.

The venue is accepting PayPal donations via their website here: http://www.924gilman.org/blog/?p=116 and if you contribute $25 you get a sweet Gilman t-shirt!

I’ll be requesting an XL.

-DS