[TheThinkTank] Start-up question.

[yellow bike]

Hi, Andrew.

Acquiring space seems to be the most difficult part of setting up a
successful community bike shop.  Because of the work that we do, we must be
centrally located, and it seems that all the cities in the U.S. these days
are experiencing central-city gentrification of some sort . . .

We here at the Yellow Bike Project in Austin (http://austinyellowbike.org/)
have been around for ten years now, and have been extremely fortunate to
have developed a relationship with the City early on; they have donated
space to us for over eight years.  This has really freed us up to work on a
non-commercial basis, and provide our services for free to the community.
However, we are currently in the process of finding a new space and working
with the City again because our current space is slated for demolition so
that (ironically) a road can be paved over it to access the redeveloped old
airport site.

We have gotten a commitment from the City to provide us with a piece of
land, but will likely have to build our own warehouse since unoccupied
City-owned space is much harder to come by these days. But the point here is
that you may want to approach your City to see if they can help.  Maybe you
can approach them with some sort of tangible service that you will provide
to the City such as a free bike program for City Employees (we had a "white
bike" program that provided bikes for City employees to check out during the
day to run errands etc.)

Another likely place you might look for space is a school or university.  If
you intend to run educational programs, they may be interested in a
partnership.

Good luck -

Jennifer

On 7/20/07, Andrew Bushaw <plan_9 at riseup.net> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I'm currently working in a collective to start a community bike shop
> in Fargo, ND. So far so good, we have a fiscal agent that is very well
> respected in the community and is very hands off. We have many
> interested volunteers, an agreement with our favorite LBS to get their
> old tools and quite possibly their used bike inventory. We have quite
> a bit of community support and really feel like we can make this work.
> However, we have had difficulty procuring space. We as a city are
> currently going through a period of "downtown revitalization" which is
> gentrifying many possible locations. Downtown is strategically located
> between two cities and three college campuses, so we would really like
> to make that our home. Does anyone have any experience partnering with
> other organizations? Does anyone have any good ways to talk to
> property owners who are holding out to develop into office or condo
> space? What are the incentives to rent/donate space to us? Also, we
> are beginning our grant writing and are wondering if anyone has an
> approximation as to how much we can reasonably write for, who are
> friendly foundations, ect. Is there any shop that is funded in some
> way other than through grants? Thanks, Andrew
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