Can you imagine a service whereby the government provides table saw for use by the general public? I just do not think the government is equipped to manage this kind of risk.
Maker-oriented kids can also go to the city-run Adventure Playground (https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation...) and hammer or saw away to build their own play structures (though they just have hand tools, no power tools that I've seen).
Yes, it seems pretty straightforward, and would work the same way it works with a maker space.
We trust the general public to operate a table saw unsupervised, so I think it would be completely imaginable for the government to offer a supervised space and equipment (and safety training).
It’s absolutely not hard for me to imagine that at all.
On the other hand, due to sovereign immunity, the government is uniquely positioned to completely ignore the (legal) risk associated with this kind of scheme. I don't think our government (at basically any level) is capable of actually doing something this useful anymore though.
Speaking at a local level of a library board, school board, planning board, and working with a conservation commission, or a health commision, or municipal council on aging or even public works and roads department...
...funding and implementing operations of a municipal school system, making a community space for learning and meeting (libraries), and other outcomes that go with education, or revising zoning, reviewing proposals for building and housing development, protecting wetlands and land (conservation commission), or guiding proper installation of septic systems, placemment of wells, inspection of food production, or for elders providing community resources from meals on wheels, to social workers, and another kind of community space and service (council on aging), or maintaining roads and streets (and in winter causing them to be plowed for snow)...
...your views on capability and actual work of government are nihilist compared to what they actually do accomplish towards making municipalities personally growthful (educationally), safe, and acceptable even vibrant locales to live in.
Providing an education is utterly different from providing access to the tools to use more or less anytime you need them. Both are valuable, but they are quite distinct.
> "Plenty of community colleges are run from state funding and have all kinds of adult education shop classes. You can learn to weld, do carpentry, etc."
Once you are done learning the basics which takes about a week, you still have to participate in class and do "class" projects. These classes are not convenient to begin with and access to the shop ends when the class is over. You could buy a small contractors table saw or cheap flux core welder for the price of one class in my area. Not worth the price of admission imo.
I am sure there are ways to deal with this. Home Depot sells table saws to the general public and somehow manages the risk. I don’t see why a library couldn’t provide table saws.
Maker-oriented kids can also go to the city-run Adventure Playground (https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation...) and hammer or saw away to build their own play structures (though they just have hand tools, no power tools that I've seen).