Andrew R Stewart 

I tried to hook up with two different "maker space" type collectives when I moved back home 15 years ago. One wasn't allowed (wood floors and fire code) to have welding done (or tanks even just stored inside) and the other was rife with guys who seemed to seek the alpha dog position regardless of their skills or knowledge. But these collectives of like minded dooers can be a good way to access tools and space unavailable elsewhere.

In Chicago Owen at Blue City Cycles set up a collective frame building/painting collective as another example. A number of people had their own shop space in an old warehouse. My sister has much the same studio space in an old manufacturing building here in Rochester. She much have a dozen+ artist neighbors there. Andy