But the moment a space goes indoors, it's expected to pay rent, sell memberships, or serve coffee. This is why millions of Americans have nowhere to go. Indoor Commons is the fix.
They are usually discussed separately. They share a solution.
America is experiencing a structural aloneness problem — not an emotional one. 24% of working-class Americans have no close friends. Civic participation is at historic lows. The spaces that produced social connection — parish halls, union halls, public squares — have closed, been sold, or been priced out. This is a spatial and infrastructure failure, not a personal one.
E-commerce gutted Main Streets before COVID. Hybrid work emptied office buildings after it. Across America, malls, storefronts, and ground-floor commercial space sits vacant — with utilities, bathrooms, parking, ADA access, and central locations in communities that desperately need civic infrastructure. This is not urban decay. It is latent civic infrastructure.
AI and automation are displacing workers across entire categories of labor. The people most affected are working-class Americans without college degrees — the same people who have already lost their third places, their civic organizations, and their social infrastructure. Displacement without community makes adaptation nearly impossible.
We accept that parks have a negative financial return. Cities pay to maintain Golden Gate Park, which costs more each year than it takes in from permits and parking. We fund it anyway because we've decided outdoor space produces diffuse public value: higher property values, public health, social cohesion.
The same logic applies indoors. We just never applied it.
Corporations, governments, and universities understood this long ago. They built campuses, conference rooms, workshops, and lounges — non-revenue indoor space — because they know it produces collaboration, creativity, and human connection. Citizens don't have access to any of it.
Outdoor civic space (parks, plazas, public squares) is accepted as a cost-center public good. Indoor civic space is not. This is a cultural default, not a law. It can be changed.
Every major institution has solved this for its own people. Campuses work. Innovation labs work. Staff lounges work. The only people without access to this infrastructure are citizens without institutional affiliation.
AI-driven economic disruption has created the physical substrate for Indoor Commons at scale. Millions of square feet of vacant commercial real estate — utilities intact, ADA compliant, centrally located — sit idle in communities that need civic space most.
Every major technological transition in American history produced new civic infrastructure. Libraries during industrialization. Parks during urbanization. Universities during the knowledge economy. The AI transition requires infrastructure too.
A free-to-access, indoor civic space with no fixed purpose — shaped entirely by the community that uses it. The indoor equivalent of a public park. Non-deterministic and emergent by design.
This is not a fixed program. It's what happens when space is free and people are trusted.
[freespace] — the proven model that Indoor Commons is built on — has been running since 2013.
Mike Zuckerman and two co-founders negotiated a vacant 14,000 sq ft Mid-Market warehouse for $1 for one month. They posted on Facebook asking for help cleaning it. Dozens came. They held a silent disco while sweeping. Days later, it opened — with one rule: everything free, everyone welcome.
209 events. 6,000 people. Three lasting projects: The Learning Shelter (vocational training for homeless residents), Homefront Fan (women veterans employment), and the SF Yellow Bike Project (free bike share). The experiment lasted 5 months and spawned a toolkit that spread to 14 countries.
Within 19 months of the first freespace:
Societies have always responded to technological disruption by building new civic institutions. We are overdue.
| Era | Technology | Disruption | Infrastructure Built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrialization | Factory / steam | Agricultural displacement, urban crowding | Public libraries, settlement houses, labor unions |
| Urbanization | Rail / automobile | Rural-urban migration, civic fragmentation | Parks, civic squares, community recreation centers |
| Knowledge economy | Computer / internet | Skill shifts, educational access gaps | Community colleges, public universities, libraries 2.0 |
| AI Era | Artificial intelligence | Mass job displacement, commercial vacancy, social fragmentation | Indoor Commons — to be built. |
Indoor Commons is built by people, buildings, and institutions working together. Here's where you fit.
You know your community. We have a 13-year-old toolkit, an operational playbook, and a global network of people who have done this. If you want to activate a vacant space in your city, we want to hear from you.
Start a conversationVacant commercial property is a liability. Indoor Commons converts it into community value — foot traffic, press, demonstrated use, and goodwill. If you have a building sitting empty, you can change that.
Tell us about your spaceCities with high commercial vacancy and measurable social fragmentation are our priority partners. We bring the model, the playbook, and the activation expertise. You open the door — politically and literally.
Talk to usIndoor Commons is not a charity. It is civic infrastructure — and civic infrastructure gets funded through a combination of institutional investment, public partnership, and community support. Here are the pathways.
AI is accelerating job displacement, commercial vacancy, and social fragmentation simultaneously. The companies leading the AI transition are uniquely positioned — and, we would argue, uniquely obligated — to fund the infrastructure that helps communities adapt.
This is not anti-AI. It is human infrastructure for an AI-abundant future. The physical layer that makes adaptation possible.
Cities fund parks because they've decided outdoor civic space is worth paying for. Indoor Commons makes the same case for indoor space. Cities with high commercial vacancy have a direct stake in activation — it reduces blight, generates foot traffic, and builds civic capacity.
We work with cities as partners: they open regulatory doors, we activate the spaces, and the community shapes what happens.
Loneliness is now a documented public health crisis. The Surgeon General said so. Foundations working on health equity, economic mobility, civic resilience, and creative placemaking have direct reasons to fund Indoor Commons.
We are building toward 3-year grants that fund the transition from temporary pilot to permanent civic institution.
Vacant property costs money. Indoor Commons activation adds value — foot traffic, publicity, demonstrated use, potential tenant attraction — without the risk of a long-term tenant who doesn't work out.
We propose a building activation partnership: owners provide the space at low or no cost; we activate it; everyone benefits. At scale, a modest activation fee from building owners helps fund the coordinator and the platform.
Golden Gate Park costs more to maintain each year than it takes in. The gap is covered by a combination of city budget and philanthropic support — including a "Friends of Golden Gate Park" organization. Indoor Commons is designed for the same governance: a civic institution supported by a mix of city partnership, anchor philanthropy, and a dedicated "Friends of" community that contributes to the groundskeeping of civic life.
Five locations. 24 months. Rigorous documentation. A replicable model for permanent civic infrastructure.
Post-industrial downtowns · Rural towns · Secondary cities · Major urban neighborhoods with high commercial vacancy and measurable social fragmentation
Return rate (repeat visitors) · Named relationship formation · Cross-class encounter · AI literacy + workforce adaptation · Economic spillover · Community cohesion
Full documentation of 5 activations · A tested, replicable playbook · Outcome data for funders · A model for converting temporary activation into permanent civic infrastructure
5 pilot locations · 2 paid coordinators per site · Full evaluation and documentation · Replication playbook · Path to permanence for each location
Whether you want to run a space, open a building, fund a pilot, or partner as a city — we want to hear from you. Tell us who you are and what you're interested in.