Hannah Dobbz discusses “Nine Tenths of the Law : Property & Resistance in the US

at Buffalo Street Books
215 N Cayuga St, Ithaca, New York 14850-4329
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Author and part owner of Pittsburgh’s The Big Idea Cooperative Bookstore reads from and discusses her book, Nine Tenths of the Law: Property & Resistance in the US on Monday November 11th at Buffalo Street Books at 6pm. This event is free and open to the public.

How does “property” fit into designs for an equitable society? Nine-tenths of the Law examines the history of squatting and property struggles in the United States, from colonialism to twentieth century urban squatting and the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s, and how such resistance movements shape the law. Stories from our most hard-hit American cities show that property is truly in crisis:+One in five homes in Buffalo, NY, are abandoned.

+Our national housing vacancy rate is 14 percent. If we gave a house to every homeless person in the United States two-thirds of that stock would remain empty.
+In May of 2011, one in every 103 homes in Nevada was in foreclosure.Nine-tenths of the Law expands our understanding of property law and highlights recent tactics like creative squatting ventures and the use of adverse possession to claim title to vacant homes. Hannah Dobbz unveils the tangled relationship Americans have always had in creating and sustaining healthy communities.”Millions of foreclosed homes and abandoned buildings on one hand; millions of Americans desperate for decent shelter on the other. Hannah Dobbz makes the necessary addition of resources and needs in a book that is both a brilliant history of squatting in the USA and a template for the next stage of the Occupy movement.–Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums and Buda’s WagonHannah Dobbz is a writer, editor, filmmaker, and former squatter. In 2007 she produced a film about squatters in the Bay Area called Shelter. The film has screened widely at universities, bookstores, and community spaces, including the 2009 Three Rivers Film Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Ryan Clover-Owens

I'm on a mission to prove that we can live in a society that reconciles with our history, respects difference, cherishes the land and animals, and can create solutions to the challenges we face.