[hackerspaces] Abbenay hackspace building status

[Koen Martens]

On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 12:08:06PM -0600, Robert Ward wrote:
> I think this may be one of those cultural differences that people are  
> always talking about.  Forgive me if I make incorrect wide sweeping  
> assumptions.

Might be, but probably not between us culture and eu culture (or any
such random division). I myself would not be comfortable with squatting
a building to start a hackerspace, and neither are most of our current
members. This is in The Netherlands, where there is quite a strong culture
of squating places. Even within the Dutch squatting scene, there's a lot
of difference. Some do it with the ultimate goal to make the world
better, others just to avoid paying rent, yet others because they think
having empty buildings is a waste.

As a sidenote, a law is currently being passed in .nl to make squatting
illegal. Before, it was perfectly legal under the right circumstances
to squat an empty building for which there is no plan for future
development.

Gr,

Koen