Hi, Andrew.<br><br>Acquiring space seems to be the most difficult part of setting up a successful community bike shop.&nbsp; 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 . . .<br><br>We here at the Yellow Bike Project in Austin (<a href="http://austinyellowbike.org/">http://austinyellowbike.org/</a>) 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.&nbsp; This has really freed us up to work on a non-commercial basis, and provide our services for free to the community.&nbsp; 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.
<br><br>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.&nbsp; 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 &quot;white bike&quot; program that provided bikes for City employees to check out during the day to run errands etc.)
<br><br>Another likely place you might look for space is a school or university.&nbsp; If you intend to run educational programs, they may be interested in a partnership.<br><br>Good luck -<br><br>Jennifer<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">
On 7/20/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Andrew Bushaw</b> &lt;<a href="mailto:plan_9@riseup.net">plan_9@riseup.net</a>&gt; wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hello,<br>I&#39;m currently working in a collective to start a community bike shop<br>in Fargo, ND. So far so good, we have a fiscal agent that is very well<br>respected in the community and is very hands off. We have many
<br>interested volunteers, an agreement with our favorite LBS to get their<br>old tools and quite possibly their used bike inventory. We have quite<br>a bit of community support and really feel like we can make this work.
<br>However, we have had difficulty procuring space. We as a city are<br>currently going through a period of &quot;downtown revitalization&quot; which is<br>gentrifying many possible locations. Downtown is strategically located
<br>between two cities and three college campuses, so we would really like<br>to make that our home. Does anyone have any experience partnering with<br>other organizations? Does anyone have any good ways to talk to<br>property owners who are holding out to develop into office or condo
<br>space? What are the incentives to rent/donate space to us? Also, we<br>are beginning our grant writing and are wondering if anyone has an<br>approximation as to how much we can reasonably write for, who are<br>friendly foundations, ect. Is there any shop that is funded in some
<br>way other than through grants? Thanks, Andrew<br>_______________________________________________<br>Thethinktank mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org">Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
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<br>-- <br>Web Servant<br>Austin&#39;s Yellow Bike | <a href="http://www.austinyellowbike.org">www.austinyellowbike.org</a><br><br>&quot;Be the change you would like to see in the world.&quot; - Gandhi <br>&quot;Keep Cycling: it is Undoubtedly the Best form of Activism there is.&quot;