Hi Josh,

Also sorry to hear about this. :( Stressful and sad!

For what it's worth, Bikes Together in Denver is currently operating out of a 100% donated space owned by Denver Housing Authority (DHA). DHA is our public housing agency that has begun redeveloping urban projects into multi-story units with nonprofit community agencies on the ground floors. The complex we are in ("DHA Mariposa Development", focused on "healthy living") opened in 2016-2018 and we just signed our second 5-year free lease. From what I hear, this redevelopment has been lauded by public housing agencies and urban planners around the country for its "success" and is being actively replicated here and nationally. I could say a lot about what "success" has actually looked like, but sharing here to say that Bikes Together and probably staff at DHA Mariposa would be happy to share the story of how this came together and positive outcomes if that would be useful in your pursuits of a new place. Would love to help you find a stable location and navigate bureaucracy if public-private partnership becomes an option.

The Derailer Bicycle Collective (another bike co-op in Denver, defunct since 2013) went through a displacement/eviction many years ago and was able to leverage it into a donated warehouse space in 2006 after running a media campaign, but I'm hesitant to share the story because I doubt it would be replicable in the current climate. Email me if you want to know more.

In community,
Mac

On Fri, Sep 23, 2022 at 1:47 PM Josh Bisker via Thethinktank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:

Hey pals, the Mechanical Gardens in NYC is losing our home base and needs to find a new home. I'm wondering if people have advice on any of these topics:
Leveraging a crisis like this into successful fundraising campaigns
Propositioning other organizations to partner with you and donate space that can house you at a site they control — for example, government agencies, real estate developers, community development corporations, nonprofits, or for-profits.
Some other strategy i'm not seeing here...?
I'm eager to hear what's worked for you, as well as any lessons about what hasn't. I'm keen to hear specific pieces of advice about how to construct this pitch or frame the ask, who to engage with, and things like that, and I'd be grateful if you could share specific resources — a pitch deck, a proposal document, anything along those lines. NYC is an extraordinarily hard place for, you know, essentially everything, and real estate is the hardest thing of all, so things that may have worked in other places simply might not work here ... but I'm taking all the advice I can get.

xox

Josh

Josh Bisker | 914-500-9890 | Executive Director, Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op
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