I'm familiar with all the pitfalls and bad loops of communal space and direct democracy, but I still think it's important to look at those models. How many people would it take at $25 a month to get some dedicated office space you can use anytime? That's just a matter of cost per month vs. square feet of space per person...with a side dish of "available outlets" and "oh shit the power bill."
Here's another great model, although much larger in scale:
Community Food Center:
http://www.growingpower.org/headquarters.htm
Community Food Centers are local places where people can learn sustainable practices to grow, process, market, and distribute food. The prototype for Community Food Centers, as mentioned in our mission, is the Growing Power facility at 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This historic two-acre farm is the last remaining farm and greenhouse operation in the City of Milwaukee. Since 1999, our Community Food Center has provided a wonderful space for hands-on activities, large-scale demonstration projects, and for growing a myriad of plants, vegetables, and herbs. In a space no larger than a small supermarket live some 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits, and bees.
Definitely raises the important question: what facilities will communities need in order to replace the industrial food system? Collective food processing spaces seems like an important first step.
