Indoor Public Space

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Studio.89 – A Café that allows itself to be shaped by its Community

Many businesses are parachuted into a community with a one-size-fits-all plan for extracting money.  Others emerge from a community organically, both serving and reflecting the people who live there.  Studio.89, a fair-trade café in Mississauga, didn’t start out as a business at all — it began as a student-run non-profit called Youth Troopers for Global Awareness.  In 2006, a group of students at John Fraser Secondary School came to the conclusion that their community needed greater awareness of local and global issues and their potential solutions.  YTGA was created to meet this need.  Members of the group quickly identified art as a way of amplifying their voices and sharing their knowledge.  As their work expanded, they identified a second, related need — people in Mississauga needed space for events (especially artistic and non-profit events) that was accessible, free and easy to book.  Recognizing that Mississauga also lacked places to buy fair-trade coffee and quick, environmentally-conscious meals, YTGA created Studio.89 — a space designed to meet a variety of community needs all at once.

Studio.89 provides free event space to students, artists and community groups and pays the rent by selling fair-trade coffee and affordable vegan and vegetarian meals.   I recently interviewed Jazzmine Lawton, the executive director of YTGA, about Studio.89 and the people it brings together.

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Inputs and Outputs

In terms of inputs, Studio.89 sells a lot of coffee, but it also makes use of grants and non-monetary inputs like volunteer staff and in-kind donations.  Studio.89 receives grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the City of Mississauga.  While it has some salaried staff, volunteers serve the coffee and the people running events keep it spick and span.  Volunteers come from local high schools, as interns from colleges, and through youth justice programs.  They gain experience in the food industry, but also learn about local arts and advocacy groups.  Many high school students have stayed on after completing their required volunteer hours because they found the space comfortable and the work meaningful.  Drawing volunteers from different places also increases the perspectives in the mix, strengthening Studio.89’s decision-making capacities.

Rent is Studio.89’s biggest expense, followed by admin salaries.  Fair-trade coffee is another big expense.  Studio.89 could have higher margins if it used cheaper coffee or charged higher prices, but either choice would undermine the space’s mission.  Running a business that also has social goals is challenging, but balancing economic and social imperatives gives the café its own eclectic character.  Fair-trade coffee at a reasonable price makes Studio.89 stand out from both franchise donut shops and trendy cafés.

Even when sales are buzzing, there are no profits to speak of — potential profits are funneled right back into the organization because a social enterprise’s real output is community well-being.  While competition between profit-oriented businesses may gradually find the most profitable use of space, there may be an even more efficient use of space to be found by balancing a variety of needs and goals against one another.

Challenges and Advice

Studio.89 is bustling and vibrant, but it hasn’t always been easy.  In fact, the hustle and bustle itself can be a challenge, as admin staff sometimes have trouble focusing on paperwork in such a lively, social atmosphere, even resorting to bringing their work home with them just for peace and quiet.  Having two bottom-lines, one monetary and one social, can feel like an unwinnable war.  When staff focus on the economics, they risk letting social programming slip, and when they focus on programming there’s a chance that business operations will falter.  But at other times, the two aspects work harmoniously — as when an especially popular event helps them sell a ton of coffee and food.  Or when a socially-motivated choice like using gender neutral washrooms leads to increased bookings and business from the local LGBTQ community.

For anyone thinking of opening a similar enterprise, Jazzmine suggests building wide-spread community support in advance.  Keeping an event space full and paying the rent can be a struggle and it helps to have partnerships and alliances laid out in advance.  Jazzmine also suggests taking the business aspect seriously out of the gates and working out a detailed feasibility plan.  Working with a non-profit budget and mindset, Studio.89 chose a space that was inaccessible to pedestrians and transit-riders because it was cheap — something they might not have done if they had thought of their initial expenses more like an investment.  As a result, Studio.89 doesn’t get many walk-in customers at their present location and has to rely almost entirely on events to draw people in.

Making Space for Free – and Distinctive – Events

Studio89’s event space — in a loft area above the café — is the heart and soul of the enterprise.  Last year, they hosted 673 events — about 1/5th were planned by the program coordinator with the rest reflecting the diversity of local interests and ambitions.  The artademic centre hosts open mic nights and documentary screenings, but it also provides meeting space for non-profits and small businesses.  Unlike many city-run facilities where booking space can be a procedural nightmare, turn around time at Studio.89 is usually within 24 hours.  Bookings are done through an online form and reviewed by the program director.  Studio89 approves almost all events — though a few events have been cancelled or denied because they made the space unwelcoming to others.  Balancing as many community needs as possible, while also holding space for those who are most often excluded, is the programming rule of thumb.  Booking the space requires a credit card — but it’s only billed in case of a cancellation or clean-up fee.  Charging to cancel a free service weeds out people who don’t take a service seriously just because there’s no price attached without burdening those who really can’t afford to pay.

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In our interview, Jazzmine discussed Studio.89’s nuanced response when they noticed that small businesses were dominating their booking calendar.  Small businesses are a key component of a thriving community and provide valuable connections for other participants in the space.  Studio.89 didn’t want to exclude them, but they also wanted to make sure that those groups they had initially identified as needing better access to event space got their time to shine.  The Studio.89 staff made a few changes to their policies: strongly encouraging, but not requiring, donations during regular hours and charging a fee for bookings before the café’s regular hours, a time period that was popular for business meetings.  Since then, they have reached a healthier balance between business and non-business bookings.  Those businesses that got the most value out of the entire Studio.89 package have stuck around, while those who who were just looking for the cheapest option have moved on.  And the early morning bookings are a new source of revenue.

How A Loose Vision leaves Space for the Local Community

Jazzmine explained to me that Studio.89 began with a loose vision of their future.  They knew they wanted to sell socially-conscious food and drink and provide a free space where people from Mississauga could connect with one another and speak out about global and local issues — but that conception includes a wide horizon of possibilities.  A detailed vision can give a space direction, but it can also cloud one’s gaze, preventing you from looking closely at the texture of your local community.  Studio.89’s loose vision has served them well.  As they have connected with different resources and needs in an omnivorous way, they have brought together groups and individuals who might never have met under a more tightly planned arrangement.  Having found that artists and students are mainly looking for space in the evenings, they are reaching out to seniors’ groups to see if they need free space during the day.  Outreach to seniors is a connection that a high-school social justice group might not typically make — but it is one that reflects the reality of the local community.  By adapting to the needs and opportunities that surround it, Studio.89 more and more closely mirrors the demographics of Mississauga.  The space also helps to draw the community itself together, weaving new connections and knitting new friendships.  People getting coffee hear about local poets; entrepreneurs get to know high school students; comedians meet activists and vice versa, creating considerable cross-pollination between groups.  Volunteers report that learning about new groups and activities is one of the biggest perks of working at the café.  And Jazzmine and her staff are always working to strengthen these connections, pitching in with marketing efforts for causes and shows that need assistance.

As the years have passed, Jazzmine has been amazed by the way that the community has shaped Studio.89.  What started out as a loose vision has gradually become a distinct image that draws energy and character from the people of Mississauga.  An open-minded outlook lets Studio.89 react honestly and directly to the people around them — rather than focusing on a predetermined model.  Having deep roots in the community has also made the space unique.  Cookie-cutter chains feel the same everywhere, because their brand is cooked up by a transnational marketing company, rather than being seasoned by the many different people who walk in the door each and every day.

Stephen Lewis Workshop

All photos courtesy of Studio.89

 


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Junction Commons Townhall Meeting

On Wednesday April 16, I attended a townhall meeting about the ‘Junction Commons,’ a proposed community space on the site of a vacant police station in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto.  A volunteer task force has been developing a vision of the Junction Commons, collaboratively, over the past 18 months.  Even as some members have come and gone, the idea has carried itself along.  The current vision for the site is a building which contains accessible public space for events, programs and socializing with one floor of revenue-generating rental space that will cover the costs of the entire building.

The Junction Commons task force won a Trillium grant to hire Urbanmetrics and ERA architects to complete a feasibility study.  The big news at the recent Town Hall was that the study (which should be available on the JCP website soon) found that it would be possible to renovate the building to create both community space and income-generating rental space.  The study also concluded that the rental income would be sufficient to cover the building’s maintenance and staffing costs and pay off a bank loan for the renovations (app. $3.5 million).  Because it would be difficult to cover the costs of purchasing the property outright and still maintain sufficient public space, the task force is currently negotiating a long-term, low-cost (like $1 a year low) lease from the City of Toronto.

The task force envisions the Junction Commons as a community hub.  Referring to earlier research on Community Hubs, the JCP task force described a community hub as a space which intertwines the following objectives: service delivery, place-making and community building.  The Junction Commons will be a place where people can obtain services, a space that’s comfortable and attractive, and a space where local people can gather, get to know one another and pursue collective objectives.  The JCP task force is seeking to make the Junction Commons financially sustainable, so that it won’t be reliant on government funding — a valid concern in these times of global ‘austerity.’

Early renderings of potential designs, produced by Ryerson planning students, were on display at the Town Hall.  The task force has also held design charettes with local people throughout the neighbourhood in order to better understand their needs for the space. From the various activities, programs and events suggested in these charettes, the task force developed five ‘pillars’ of the Junction Commons:

ARTS – The Junction Commons will be a site for the discussion, production and experience of theatre, music and visual arts.

FOOD – The Junction Commons will be a place where people can come together to eat and cook.   It will be equipped with a community kitchen and host a farmers’ market.

HEALTH –  The Junction Commons will be a space for exercise, dance, yoga and a site for the provision of health services.  The University Health Network was mentioned as a possible anchor tenant.

COMMUNITY BUILDING – The Junction Commons will be a space for both casual conversations and community meetings.

LOCAL EXCHANGE – The presence of so many different people in the Junction Commons makes it an ideal site for local development and learning.  It will be an excellent site for co-working, public lectures, skills exchanges, sharing and local trade.

209 Mavety Street from Google Streetview, with a little photoshop spice.

209 Mavety Street from Google Streetview.

At the outset, creating a commons requires real initiative and effort from one or more individuals, but as the idea and project grow and more people are drawn in by the vision, the work can be distributed.  Hundreds of people have come to JCP meetings and townhalls.  Thousands have signed a petition to delay the sale of the property until the completion of the feasability study.  It would be difficult, if not impossible, for a for-profit company to produce a space like this.  It will be possible to fund the public space within the Junction Commons from rental income, in part, thanks to the efforts of so many volunteers.  Eighteen months of planning, design and outreach by a private development company would be extremely expensive — as it stands however, the JCP will only have to cover the cost of the physical renovations.  The JCP is currently looking for new volunteers to step up and help to shoulder some of the load.  The task force has formed a non-profit organization and will soon be electing a volunteer board.  If you live in the Junction – especially if you have legal, marketing or accounting experience — consider becoming a Junction Commoner and volunteering your time.

After the presentation of the feasibility study and the preliminary plans for the space, Vandra Masemann of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society took the stage and spoke passionately about the importance of open and accessible ‘third places‘ — spaces which are neither home nor work — in building a community.  As access to schools and churches becomes more tightly controlled, it becomes harder and harder for ordinary people to find places to gather and discuss community initiatives.  The self-sustaining, community-driven model developed by the Junction Commons Project is one possible solution to this problem.


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Hackerspaces.org

"Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects."

… are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects.”

Earlier today, we were combing through a list of hackerspaces and makerspaces on hackerspaces.org looking for spaces to add to our own directory.  The thing was, most, if not all of them, seemed like amazing, community-based organizations that fit our criteria.  And on top of that, hackerspaces.org already had a well-curated, easily-sortable list that contained all the information we were hoping to share with our visitors.  Instead of cherry-picking a few, particularly public, spaces from their list, we decided it was better to simply link to their entire list through our organizations section.

Hackerspaces.org defines a hackerspace as a “community-operated physical place, where people can meet and work on their projects.”  Many of the spaces on the list also define themselves as makerspaces.  Some of them explicitly highlight their connection with visual and performing artists.  Most of these spaces are membership-based, but have very open policies towards the community at large.  In some cases, membership guarantees 24-hour access to the space, but the general public is welcome to drop-in whenever the space is open.  As you can see, these organizations display many of the characteristics that FfIPS is looking for in indoor public spaces.  What’s more, the list is truly international with spaces — some of them offering residence options — listed for Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The list itself also has a number of cool features.  For example, it is linked to a world map and is sortable by any of its columns.  But the best feature — and the one that made us realize it would be a travesty to duplicate, in a lesser form, the fine work that had already been done on this site — was the automatic ‘last updated’ column, which lets you know which spaces still have a lively web presence.  While we plan to confirm that our links are active once a month, doing it automatically is beyond our technical expertise.  If our organization gets big enough, we would love to get a lesson on how to build such a lovely and functional directory.

Way to go, Hackerspaces.org!

UPDATE: April 9, 2014: We found another albeit shorterlist here: http://hackaday.io/hackerspaces/


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At this Mall, Closing Time Means Open Space

By day, Stratford Shopping Centre is an ordinary shopping mall.  But after the shutters are rolled down, the doors stay open and the rollerskaters, rollerbladers and skateboarders roll in. The mall includes a 24-hour, public right of way and — as you can see — it is well-used.

Open Doors & Smooth Floors from 32LDN on Vimeo. This film is part of the 32LDN project — a series of shorts seeking to answer the question ‘What does it mean to be a Londoner in the 21st Century?’.  It’s lovely and intriguing, but it doesn’t offer up much information.  Google results are a little spotty as well.  A few reviews of the mall on foursquare mention how much they enjoyed the rollerskaters, with one user proclaiming that “the best time is when all the shops are closed and there’s a lot of people skating and dancing, it becomes an indoor practice spot !!!”  An old petition on change.org suggests the police have begun stopping the skaters, but other sources — including the film above which is only two weeks old — suggest that the skating is ongoing.  Anyone in London feel like checking it out and reporting back?  According to this post Tuesdays at 10pm are the best time. There is also a thoughtful blogpost from 2011 on a site called Rethink Childhood.  The author is in favour of the skaters and observes that “they make the place feel safer.”  It’s a sort of Jane Jacobs approach to safety — more eyes and feet on the street means more safety — and one that makes good sense.  A club or restaurant that’s open late helps to keep a neighbourhood safe because its lights are on and people are coming and going.  And yet we are often so afraid of our young people that we drive them away with classical music (we use it in subway stations in Toronto and elsewhere), high-pitched squeals that only they can hear (no, really), anti-skateboarding infrastructure or the more prosaic night-time security guard saying ‘move along.’

And it’s not just rollerskaters who are looking for this kind of indoor space.  

Daytime
Nighttime
Nighttime

When I lived in Japan many shopping concourses would come alive with young people practicing different styles of dance –popping, locking, house, bboying — from the moment the shutters rolled down until very late at night.  These photos are from under Hirakatashi station outside of Osaka, but similarly scenes can be witnessed each night throughout the country.  Middle-aged couples and seniors would often stop to take a look at what was going on.  No one seemed to mind.

It’s a massive waste to leave spaces like these empty all night when there are so many people desperate for places to exercise, dance, rehearse and perform.  I understand that there are security issues, but surely they can be solved if police, property managers and local people put their heads together.  The benefits of this public access are immense and the costs are quite low.  While governments are spending millions on motivating people to exercise, just unlocking a few malls at night would make exercise more accessible for many, many people.  It would be a great chance for shopping malls to give back to the community and get some positive publicity.  If they are reluctant, municipal governments might consider requiring a certain amount of space with continuous public access in order for new shopping centres to receive zoning permits.  Although shopping malls are ostensibly dying out, they are still the closest thing we have to public squares in many neighbourhoods, so we need to think about how we can ensure that they serve public needs.  This is a topic this blog will return to, but, for now, just imagine what young people in your city could do with a few thousand extra square feet of warm, dry, smooth floors each evening.