[kibwen]

> nobody so far has been able to scale it

I'd say the point is that community spaces should "scale" in the sense they inspire imitators to create their own spaces. We know this kind of scale works because this was how art and culture endured through human history for thousands of years. If anything, the urge to scale up, centralize, and delegate everything to for-profit corporations is what destroyed these sorts of community spaces.

[motohagiography]

"Artists are the storm troopers of gentrification," was some famous Toronto graffiti and I've been a part of the gentrifying class in a few cycles and neighborhoods in my life. It's never organic. Everything cool is a real estate play.

By this point there should be a 3-5 year formula where someone can finance buying a crappy strip mall or corner building and turn it around as the hip new thing and exit for 5x anywhere in the world. Invest in loss making restaurants and music venues operated by the people who care about them.