Restart Radio: Community spaces, gadgets for (April) fools

We talked about the pressure on libraries, community centres and pub function rooms. Across London, these places are getting the squeeze, either from local authorities or developers, who are treating them as income-generating assets above all else. In a rare rant, we lament that the spaces we need to run our radically open community repair events are under assault.

Our pop-up Restart Parties are only as sustainable as the venues we depend on. The only places that we feel are secure and thriving are membership spaces, like churches and workshops.

Is this the kind of city we want to live in? We must value, maintain, use, and invest in community spaces in order to save them.

We then talked about a couple of gadgets – some were legitimate April Fools pranks (like iFixit’s “Smother Bag”) and other ones, while seemingly pranks, were really not… like the $700 internet-connected juicer and the prototype of a fork to shock the tongue into simulating a salty taste.

Then to prove that we do not dismiss new technology out of hand, we talked about Ugo’s new Pebble watch.

Links we mentioned

• Friends of Carnegie Library “Carnegie Occupation“
• Sir Richard Steel pub owners fight protection status for upper floors
• iFixit’s “Smother Bag” and video
• Report on the electric fork prototype
• CSM “Would you pay $700 for a juice machine“

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