Losing Our Space, Looking for Strategic Guidance & Advice
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 http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B19145009890 http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B19145009890| Executive Director, Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op http://bikecoop.nyc/ 2022 Donation Drive is ON! Support Bike Equity in NYC Today! http://bikecoop.nyc/donate Funkrust Brass Band http://funkrust.com/ | Kessel Run Radio Show on Maker Park Radio https://makerparkradio.nyc/shows/the-kessel-run-w-joshjoshjosh/
First, how soon?
On Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 12:47 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 http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B19145009890 http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B19145009890| Executive Director, Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op http://bikecoop.nyc/ 2022 Donation Drive is ON! Support Bike Equity in NYC Today! http://bikecoop.nyc/donate Funkrust Brass Band http://funkrust.com/ | Kessel Run Radio Show on Maker Park Radio https://makerparkradio.nyc/shows/the-kessel-run-w-joshjoshjosh/ ____________________________________
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Hi Josh,
I can relate to what Mechanical Gardens is going through. We had to relocate Positive Spin twice over a three year period. The first time we had plenty of time to find a new location, but we had to downsize from a significantly larger space, which involved making many changes to our operating model, and it was not even clear if we would remain viable because of the higher rental cost, but we did! The second time, we had about 1 month to leave, and it was in the middle of the Winter. We explained exactly what we could afford, along with our space requirements, to the public and all the potential landlords. Again, we succeeded! It did involve getting the word out, a detailed search, and it helped that we had an established track record. That being said, successful bike collectives do need to become experts at positive adaptation and transformation. For instance, we have become experts at maximizing our space, but it meant thinking outside the traditional way we had been doing things.
Gordon provides an excellent outline of actions. In that spirit, I ran Mechanical Gardens situation by my niece who currently resides in NYC, and she suggested giving Pioneer Works - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Works - a visit, which is about a 5 minute walk from Mechanical Gardens. If you move fast, you may even secure a residency - https://pioneerworks.org/residency/ (deadline September 30). It would be worth the try to give the founder, Dustin Yellin [5], that 30 second elevator pitch. At the least, this organization may be able to provide leads.
-Jonathan
On 2022-09-23 15:46, Josh Bisker via Thethinktank 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 [1] 2022 Donation Drive is ON! Support Bike Equity in NYC Today! [2] Funkrust Brass Band [3] | Kessel Run Radio Show on Maker Park Radio [4]
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Links:
[1] http://bikecoop.nyc/ [2] http://bikecoop.nyc/donate [3] http://funkrust.com/ [4] https://makerparkradio.nyc/shows/the-kessel-run-w-joshjoshjosh/ [5] https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/05/article-2336368-1A2A2A37000005DC-...
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 http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B19145009890 http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B19145009890| Executive Director, Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op http://bikecoop.nyc/ 2022 Donation Drive is ON! Support Bike Equity in NYC Today! http://bikecoop.nyc/donate Funkrust Brass Band http://funkrust.com/ | Kessel Run Radio Show on Maker Park Radio https://makerparkradio.nyc/shows/the-kessel-run-w-joshjoshjosh/ ____________________________________
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participants (4)
-
Jim Bledsoe -
Jonathan Rosenbaum -
Josh Bisker -
Mac Liman