LinkedIn Show Notes #38 from the Coworking Values Podcast Bullpen.
🎙️ Listen to these stories and hundreds of others on the Coworking Values Podcast.
Employment support. Economic resilience. Anti-displacement work. This is what coworking looks like when it chooses infrastructure over amenities.
Not premium (ish) coffee. Not networking events. Not “community vibes.”
Essential services that councils recognise as civic infrastructure.
Three countries. Three approaches to the same problem: coworking spaces that serve as neighbourhood infrastructure rather than lifestyle amenities.
The Assignment
The assignment: Build coworking infrastructure your neighbourhood actually needs, not lifestyle amenities for people who can afford them.
Williamz Omope runs the Finsbury Park Job Club at SPACE4 in London. Every Friday. No eligibility criteria. No signups required. Open doors for anyone who needs employment support.
Xavier Damman runs Commons Hub Brussels, where members pay in euros AND community tokens earned through care work. He’s building economic resilience infrastructure for the “meta-crisis.”
Alycia Levels Moore runs in Polaris in Birmingham, Alabama, ensuring “folks who’ve lived here 10, 15, 20 years get to participate in their community economy” whilst their neighbourhood transforms. Watch her welcome video here. 💚
Three countries. Three approaches. One pattern: they stopped talking about community and started building infrastructure their neighbourhoods can’t do without.
The Injustice We’re Tracking
Here’s the tribal warfare happening in every city:
Tribe One says: “People like us deserve premium amenities.” High membership fees. Filtered demographics. Beautiful interiors disconnected from local needs.
Tribe Two says: “People like us build infrastructure for everyone.” Free services. Open doors. Deep neighbourhood integration.
McKenzie Lad was calling out Tribe One’s jargon in last week’s edition of LinkedIn Show Notes.
These three represent Tribe Two’s answer.
The system currently rewards extraction over infrastructure. Coworking spaces are celebrated for raising rents, attracting affluent professionals, and creating “exclusive communities” that price out locals.
Meanwhile, the spaces doing essential neighbourhood work—employment support, economic resilience, anti-displacement organizing—get treated as failure stories because they haven’t scaled or optimised for profit.
This isn’t accidental. It’s the market economy treating the community as a commodity.
But neighbourhoods need infrastructure, not amenities.
Williamz Omope: Remove Every Barrier
Williamz runs the most radical employment service in North London.
Every Friday at Space4 in Finsbury Park. Job Club.
No eligibility criteria. No assessments. No bureaucracy.
“Just come,” Williamz explains. “We’ve got computers, internet, and printing. Someone to help you write your CV or teach you how to use ChatGPT to write a letter to your landlord about the mould in your child’s bedroom.”
This isn’t corporate “digital inclusion.”
This is neighbourhood infrastructure.
Williamz partners with local libraries and NHS services. The council recognises Job Club as essential community provision because it fills gaps the state can’t fill efficiently.
Space4 itself operates as a cooperative in Finsbury Park—one of London’s most rapidly gentrifying areas. They run affordable workspace specifically to prevent displacement. £2.5 million in social value delivered to Islington Council so far.
But the Job Club is pure civic service.
Williamz sees people who wouldn’t come to SPACE4 otherwise.
- Single mothers.
- Long-term unemployed.
- Young people who are shut out of the economy.
The service is continuous, not one-off appointments. People return because they trust the space.
“It’s become a safe place for the community to get support, information, and improve themselves,” Williamz says.
This is what McKenzie Lad meant. Just work. No jargon required.
Xavier Damman: Change the Currency
Xavier spent 10 years in Silicon Valley building startups.
He knows the extraction game.
Then he moved back to Brussels and faced his 12-year-old daughter’s future: climate collapse, institutional failure, the “meta-crisis.”
His response wasn’t protests or petitions.
It was Commons Hub Brussels.
“Community is immunity,” Xavier explains. “When everything around us is falling apart, what’s going to remain is each other.”
Commons Hub operates on dual currency.
Members pay euros because rent still requires traditional money.
But they also pay in Commons Hub tokens—earned only by contributing care work to the community. Organising events. Watering plants. Cleaning.
“Every contribution is valued, recognised, and gives you access to the community,” Xavier says.
This isn’t crypto speculation. This is neighbourhood economic infrastructure.
The token system ensures the space operates on relationship, not just transaction. People who can’t afford high membership fees contribute through care work instead.
Xavier calls it “the care economy”—making visible the unpaid labour that keeps communities functioning.
Brussels locals treat Commons Hub Brussels as civic infrastructure because it provides economic resilience that the market won’t supply.
Alternative currency systems. Mutual aid networks. Community stewardship.
McKenzie Lad would understand this immediately. It’s work that strengthens neighbourhoods instead of extracting from them.
Alycia Levels Moore: Root in Place
Alycia runs Polaris BHM in Birmingham, Alabama’s Woodlawn neighbourhood.
She could have chased affluent demographics and rapid expansion.
Instead, she chose anti-displacement infrastructure.
“How do we make sure folks who’ve lived here 10, 15, 20 years get to participate in their community economy whilst their neighbourhood changes?” Alycia asks.
That’s the core question about gentrification and coworking spaces.
Polaris operates as a “modern civic infrastructure” integrated with local businesses and community initiatives. Not separate from neighbourhood life—embedded within it.
Alycia understands coworking’s role in neighbourhood transformation. Spaces like hers either contribute to displacement or build resistance against it.
“We focus on how to make sure that folks who have lived here get to nurture their entrepreneurial endeavours whilst their community is changing,” she explains.
This means deep neighbourhood integration. Supporting existing residents’ businesses. Creating economic opportunities rooted in place rather than extraction-based models.
Alycia describes her approach as ensuring members “understand what it looks like to work together” beyond transactional relationships.
The space becomes infrastructure for community wealth building rather than wealth extraction.
Local authorities recognise spaces like POLARIS Birmingham as essential because they address neighbourhood stability in ways pure market solutions cannot.
Coworking spaces that prove their neighbourhood value through action, not jargon, get recognised as essential infrastructure.
The Pattern: Neighbourhood Infrastructure That Councils Actually Recognise
- Williamz removes barriers.
- Xavier changes the currency.
- Alycia roots in place.
None of them apologises for rejecting the premium amenities model.
They’re all building infrastructure that their neighbourhoods can’t do without. Employment support. Economic resilience. Anti-displacement organising.
This is Jon Alexander’s shift from Consumer to Citizen, documented in practice.
The Consumer story says: optimise for affluent demographics, treat community as marketing, create lifestyle products for people who can afford them.
The Citizen story invites: build infrastructure that serves neighbourhood needs, integrate with local systems, create economic security rooted in place.
Williamz could have charged for employment support and filtered for “the right people.”
Xavier could have stuck with traditional membership fees and maximised profit.
Alycia could have focused on attracting remote workers rather than on longtime residents.
Instead, they’re all proving the same point: coworking works best when it functions as neighbourhood civic infrastructure.
Not amenities for lifestyle. Infrastructure for life.
Your coworking space is already this infrastructure. The question isn’t whether you’re doing this work. The question is whether councils, residents, and local authorities recognise you as essential.
That recognition comes through action, not advertising.
How Neighbourhoods Transform Themselves
Next Monday, December 1st, 6:15-7:30PM London time, Jon Alexander sits down at The Conduit with Imandeep Kaur and Indy Johar to explore what it looks like when neighbourhoods drive their own transformation.
Not gentrification imposed from outside.
Transformation led by residents.
Imandeep bought a barge, parked it in a Birmingham canal, and called it the “Floating Front Room.” Then she asked neighbours: “Come help us work out what comes next.”
That conversation became CIVIC SQUARE — inch wide, mile deep movements that schism the existing paradigm.
Jon Alexander provides the framework. Imandeep shows the practice. Indy connects the systemic implications.
🔴 Get your spot here on the YouTube livestream.
If you’re reading about Williamz, Xavier, and Alycia, thinking “I want to build neighbourhood infrastructure like this,” December 1st is when you learn the framework.
Who This Is For
This is for operators who choose neighbourhood infrastructure over lifestyle amenities.
You’re tired of coworking being treated as a lifestyle choice for affluent professionals, whilst essential community services get defunded.
You want councils to recognise your space as civic infrastructure, not a business venture.
You’re building economic security rooted in place, not extraction systems that drain wealth from neighbourhoods.
Your tribal choice: “People like us remove barriers and build infrastructure” vs “People like us deserve premium amenities and filtered demographics.”
You’re not failing because you haven’t optimised for affluent users.
You’re succeeding because neighbourhoods need what you provide.
Permission: You don’t need anyone’s approval to build neighbourhood infrastructure. You need neighbourhood recognition that you’re essential.
That comes through work, not words.
Fearless Front-Facers This Week
Shout-out to Job Clubs running in coworking spaces. You’re proving that employment support works best with wraparound community support, not isolated appointments.
Shout-out to spaces experimenting with alternative currencies and community tokens. You’re making care work visible and valued.
Shout-out to operators choosing anti-displacement over gentrification. Your neighbourhood needs you more than the industry acknowledges.
When you deliver essential services your council can’t provide efficiently, you become infrastructure they can’t afford to lose. This is NOT a new idea, it has been happening in coworking for decades.
Next Steps
1️⃣ How to Save Democracy: Neighbourhood Power Mon 1 December, 6:15pm – 7:30pm – via YouTube livestream – click on the YouTube Link to RSVP.
2️⃣ February 2026 London Gathering – Join 150 coworking community builders building neighbourhood infrastructure with each other – Join the waitlist.
3️⃣ Start thinking about European Coworking Day 2026. One of the best ways on earth is to join with other like-minded coworking community builders in your local area and collaborate on European Coworking Day.
4️⃣ Hear how ACTionism Screenings Help Members Go From Solo Mission to “I’ve Got a Crew” with Ellie Meredith on this Coworking Values Podcast.
Connect with today’s guests:
- Williamz Omope | Space4 Job Club
- Xavier Damman | Commons Hub Brussels
- Alycia Levels Moore | Polaris BHM
🎙️ Listen to their stories and hundreds of others on the Coworking Values Podcast.
We’re documenting next from the Bullpen.
More Job Clubs in coworking spaces. More alternative currency experiments. More anti-displacement organising.
The neighbourhood infrastructure movement is growing. We’re just documenting the proof.