socialist utopias

Sometimes Berkeley seems too good to be true. For my last couple of weeks in Philadelphia, I kept talking about how I wanted there to be a public space with tools and materials for cooking and crafts and building. Like a sewing cafe. Places that would stock tools that are expensive for an individual or household to get, and that nobody needs to use all the time. It turns out that there are two in the Bay Area: the Tinkers Workshop in Berkeley and CELLspace in San Francisco. And they both have bike workshops and youth programs too. Plus there's a tool lending library for Berkeley residents or anyone over 18 who owns property in Berkeley, at the goddamn Berkeley Public Library.

Stuff like this makes me want to stay here forever. It feels like home. It also makes me worry that I'd get too comfortable too easily, though, and not feel like I had to really work to make it better, because it would already be so awesome.