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JEROME CHANG
WEST: Santa Monica
1450 2nd Street (@Broadway) | Santa Monica CA 90401
ph: (310) 526-2255
CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | Los Angeles CA 90036
ph: (323) 330-9505
EAST: Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | Los Angeles CA 90013
ph: (213) 550-2235
I want to respond to this directly because I have been involved in running and setting up both non-profit and for-profit coworking spaces. The social economy does not equal giving things away for below cost. A social enterprise still needs to operate as a business entity - just one that puts profits behind delivering a good service.
Unless you own the building or are subsidized/bankrolled by some wealthy folks, your operating costs are driven by the market. Commercial real estate for those of us who lease space is both a supplier and a direct competitor at some level.
We are not greedy, soulless bastards who fall asleep in a pile of money surrounded by naked women. We work hard to provide a good service to a community - usually at not much above our costs. Very few people are getting rich in this business.
As for those not able to afford coworking, at the HiVE, I always allocated a number of desks (usually 5% of the total desks) that I could give away for free or next to free for groups in need. Usually charities or non-profits doing a lot of social good. That's how I helped people in tough situations.
Do I feel like not giving the starving artist a free desk somehow means that I have lost my way? Fuck no. Coworking is a privilege, not a right. I'm not the social safety net. I have to build communities that will thrive and grow and create impact in the community.
Unemployed people have many resources available to them in my country - that is paid for by the taxes I pay and my tenants pay. I do not need to provide a free service to them.
Should we give a free pickup truck and lawnmower to the person who is unemployed and wants to start a gardening business? Most people would say that is ludicrous but you're suggesting I do the same thing by 100% subsidizing overhead costs for someone trying to make a living as a creative class professional. Why should I do that?
/rant
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Aaron Cruikshank
Principal, CRUIKSHANK
Phone: 778.908.4560
email: aa...@cruikshank.me
web: cruikshank.me
twitter: @cruikshank
book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank
linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cruikshank
JEROME CHANG
WEST: Santa Monica
1450 2nd Street (@Broadway) | Santa Monica CA 90401
ph: (310) 526-2255
CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | Los Angeles CA 90036
ph: (323) 330-9505
EAST: Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | Los Angeles CA 90013
ph: (213) 550-2235
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