Well designed studio, unfortunately occupied by new-age "spiritual" folks. Managed by a young,…read morefaux-spiritual, spiritual hipster. If you're looking for a hipster spot this is it. If you're looking for classes and community learning, this is not the place for you!
So why one star?
Well, I've long wanted to create a community based school for intermediate to advanced rock guitar. I've been playing for over 20 years, have studied at Berklee and completed the GIT program at Musicians' Institute. I love this stuff and I have a lot to offer. (Article, with example from my book: http://www.guitar9.com/columnist109.html )
I found about Free School and went to Warren, who pre-approved this ("It would be great having you as a teacher of electric guitar at the free school - thank you so much for offering to do so!" (sic)). I then spent around 40 hours preparing for a course to cover fundamentals, considering a range of skills and backgrounds, not excluding people who cannot sight read, focusing on creating a foundation, and challenging all.
I met Warren, took his course on teaching for Free School, and he discussed about scheduling for the studio room at HI. He followed up with this, too.
Then Warren told me that he'd turned facilitator duties of HI over to a young man who goes by "Mylo -gan". I contacted Mylo by email. From there, everything went downhill.
Mylo replied only to one of my emails -- the one in where I asked him about parking my computer there for shared use. He wanted this (my computer). But he didn't reply to my any emails where I'd asked about teaching my course. I got an uneasy suspicion that maybe Mylo didn't want me to teach the course there.
Since Mylo was ignoring email and since I had no phone number to call, I went there in person. I went in to use my computer but primarily talk to Mylo.
Mylo was busy talking to somebody when I arrived, so I told him I'd wait. I went to use my computer while I waited. But I accidentally banged my head on a plant that had been hung in front of and above my computer, just above eye-level (couldn't see it). I moved the plant out of the way. Then their "decorator" came back and saw it and got emotional, spilling his plant and dirt all over my computer. I left his disturbing emotional outburst and found Joergan, who teaches campfire guitar.
Mylo came to me usher me away from Joergan right away to "have a word" about the complaint he'd received. Then he told me that nobody had complained. I was astonished at Mylo's unflinching contradiction (lie) and told him so. I returned to Joergan, but Mylo followed, asking and waiting for me to leave. Essentially ushering me out of HI.
I'd pretty much gotten that the course would not happen at HI. I waited a few weeks and filled out their form to teach a class, https://docs.google.com/document/d/16FYcuDUtgQ5CA1_y_15fXwjFOBky3fmfOiI3yMlcfwM/mobilebasic?hl=en_US , linked from their site. Unsurprisingly I got what I expected: no reply.
Several weeks later, I returned to talk to others there regarding time banking (look it up). Mylo was there and when I mentioned that I might have found another place, he said I could teach the course there. I asked if he was sure about that and he confirmed. I told him that I'd pretty much figured he didn't want the course to happen but he denied that. I asked again if he was sure of himself and mentioned that I'd received no reply after completing their web form. He confirmed that I could teach the class there and denied knowledge of the form.
Two weeks after that, and months after Warren had approved my course, I went back to HI to get in-person confirmation (so as to avoid confusion with my such emails being skipped). Mylo eventually opened the door but just stood in the doorway, blocking it. I had to ask if I could come in. And after I'd gotten in, I asked about booking the room for teaching my course. Mylo folded again and said that I might be able to teach "somewhere else" but "I might be able to work with Joergan" (same guy he'd previously ushered me away from). I asked if Joergan was there. He wasn't. This new story reaffirmed my initial suspicion that Mylo simply did not want me to teach the course there.
I wonder how they pay the rent, though I suspect someone decided to grant these people money. Such great community potential here, squandered. A pity. Well, unless you're only looking new age stuff and don't mind loose moral values (e.g. lying, fraud).
If you like to be "spiritual" by sitting in circles with angelic smiles, full of fake compassion and gossip over tea, this might be a good place for you.
Me, I'm looking for a community learning center in SoMa where I can teach the class that I designed.