[hackerspaces] Starting a Hackerspace - Buffalo NY

[john arclight]

Christopher,

I'd say that you just need to find 1-3 people with interests compatible to
yours and a little extra money.  If one person wants a space to get away
from his kids while he's programming and someone else needs a place to work
on his Jeep, you can probably get a combination office/warehouse space at a
good price.  Once you actually do it, people will start showing up to your
events.

With a shaky economy and companies moving out to cheaper areas and overseas,
you're in a good time to negotiate rent and terms.  Just make sure you have
a couple of people who can float the expenses without a big group being
there just yet.

Arclight

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Christopher J. Pilkington <cjp at 0x1.net>wrote:

> I'm interested in what steps you're taking to "get the word out".
>
> I made attempts although limited to try to get the word out in
> Syracuse, but the only people I found that were interested were only
> looking for co-working space.  It seems that the hackerspace concept
> is lost in this city, as most people really are just clinging onto
> their employment.
>
> Have you had similar responses?
>
> The problem with Syracuse, and likely other similar cities in the
> North America is sprawl.  The city itself has lost over 50% of its
> population since its peak, most of which has moved to the suburbs and
> rural areas around the city.  This has also occurred in the commercial
> real estate, businesses prefer a nice shiny new office building 10 km
> outside of town with ample parking rather than an older building with
> no parking.
>
> I'm not sure if Buffalo has suffered the same fate to the same extent.
>
> Ultimately, if there is a substantial community of individuals
> interested in this sort of thing, geography/socioeconomics can be
> overcome, but Syracuse has been brain-drained for a long time now,
> there is little growth here in tech.
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