I’d surprised if most local groups in big cities didn’t have a “Lighthaven-shaped hole”, of course the problem is that making one is hard so I imagine the east coast (whether DC, NYC, Philly, or Boston) is probably only getting one. The advantages of DC that you list (regarding politics, like) are interesting.
But like, here in New York, I feel like a lot of those quotes you list up top could apply! The community isn’t that fragmented, I feel like the weekly OBNYC meetups are the biggest component… but there’s clearly a lot of adjacent community (EANYC, Fractal, Homebrew (? they hosted Gwern’s meetup so I guess they get included), some new group house called Canopy, maybe this Collider you mention, and just various other adjacent groups of friends or group chats) that I feel like one misses if one only goes to OBNYC (and ACX meetups, and Megameetup). Something more central would be nice! And yeah meetups are most commonly at the Solarium, but that’s a private apartment, you can fit like 25 people in there, maybe 30, more is hard… I saw 60 people squeeze in there once, it wasn’t pretty. Same goes for the other people like Zvi and Laura who sometimes host events. For the big ACX meetups we usually just use a public place like a park or Brookfield Place. Megameetup rents out a hotel but that’s only once a year.
So like I’m all for doing this in DC on the basis that
the politics thing singles out DC, and
you, who are the most likely person to do this, are apparently in DC, and you’re going to do it where you are, not go around scouting out different East Coast cities; and it’s far more important that it happen at all, which if it were to be in another city, it might not
But I expect a number of the other factors you mention aren’t specific to DC and could likely apply to other big cities, since, after all, there’s only one Lighthaven at present.
My property search recently led me to https://www.crexi.com/properties/1212749/new-york-424-west-44th-street. I rarely pay attention to old church/etc properties in NYC because use permits would be prohibitive for my goals. This is the first time I’ve seen a large event space and bedrooms in the same existing building, in a prime location. It’s smaller than anything else I’d consider, but obviously space is at a premium in Manhattan.
Is there a Lighthaven-shaped hole in the Philadelphia community? What would filling it look like?
I’d surprised if most local groups in big cities didn’t have a “Lighthaven-shaped hole”, of course the problem is that making one is hard so I imagine the east coast (whether DC, NYC, Philly, or Boston) is probably only getting one. The advantages of DC that you list (regarding politics, like) are interesting.
But like, here in New York, I feel like a lot of those quotes you list up top could apply! The community isn’t that fragmented, I feel like the weekly OBNYC meetups are the biggest component… but there’s clearly a lot of adjacent community (EANYC, Fractal, Homebrew (? they hosted Gwern’s meetup so I guess they get included), some new group house called Canopy, maybe this Collider you mention, and just various other adjacent groups of friends or group chats) that I feel like one misses if one only goes to OBNYC (and ACX meetups, and Megameetup). Something more central would be nice! And yeah meetups are most commonly at the Solarium, but that’s a private apartment, you can fit like 25 people in there, maybe 30, more is hard… I saw 60 people squeeze in there once, it wasn’t pretty. Same goes for the other people like Zvi and Laura who sometimes host events. For the big ACX meetups we usually just use a public place like a park or Brookfield Place. Megameetup rents out a hotel but that’s only once a year.
So like I’m all for doing this in DC on the basis that
the politics thing singles out DC, and
you, who are the most likely person to do this, are apparently in DC, and you’re going to do it where you are, not go around scouting out different East Coast cities; and it’s far more important that it happen at all, which if it were to be in another city, it might not
But I expect a number of the other factors you mention aren’t specific to DC and could likely apply to other big cities, since, after all, there’s only one Lighthaven at present.
Edit: I forgot EANYC, d’oh
My property search recently led me to https://www.crexi.com/properties/1212749/new-york-424-west-44th-street. I rarely pay attention to old church/etc properties in NYC because use permits would be prohibitive for my goals. This is the first time I’ve seen a large event space and bedrooms in the same existing building, in a prime location. It’s smaller than anything else I’d consider, but obviously space is at a premium in Manhattan.