Hi there! I know, the website is looking a little bit... sparse.
If you're looking to get in contact with me (Zenen), send me an email to zen@zenen.space
With fall coming, Credenso's garagecafé is going to be moving into hibernation soon. At the same time, I'm taking the opportunity to revisit some of the core principles of what I want the space to represent... or even if I want it to exist anymore.
I didn't start writing this with the intent of making a blog post, but now that I'm here I guess that's what I'm doing.
I have officially run the garagecafé for 3 summer seasons now. This past year, I had dozens of visitors. It's a huge improvement in terms of traffic compared to 2023, and that has happened despite me having the space open significantly less than years past. During open hours, I've learned more about my neighbors and helped to foster a handful of connections between folks in the neighborhood. This has always been the primary goal of the garagecafé - connection. I'm happy that I can say that I have achieved some tangible success towards this goal.
Furthermore, there's been talk about extending café operations in new ways. Other people have mentioned stepping in and helping out in their own way. Tool libraries, bike clinics, art nights have all come up in conversation.
At the same time, I often find myself asking the question of "well, what's it all for? Why am I working so hard to put this together?". I think it's a question that comes in equal parts from within myself and outside of myself. Given that what I do is a long ways from the societal norm, "because it makes sense" seems to be insufficient as an explanation. I'll try to elaborate a bit:
The garagecafé is my 1:1 scale model of a community space. Much like an artist needs a reference in order to properly draw a still-life portrait, I need a reference to know how to build tools that support and endorse community. Without the first-hand experience of establishing a community, it would be difficult for me to know what it takes to be an organizer. At the same time, the circumstance of running a non-profit, unincorporated space means that I am limited in the resources that I have access to.
While most communities are supported by business or grants, this garagecafé has neither of those. In some ways, this has been an intentional decision to make sure that the core of what I build is accessible to people regardless of their economic status. In another sense, I believe that catering to shareholders and investors is one of the main ways that community initiatives begin to drift off-course. I would rather avoid these pitfalls entirely rather than believe myself to be uniquely capable in navigating them myself.
My prime motivation for building community is to figure out how to build community, particularly in adverse conditions. While it may not be clear how suburban Ontario is adverse, the high level of affluence in this neighborhood means that people place a high value on 'financial independence'. While humans are generally collaborative, we are also fearful and inclined to seek stability. Many of the people in my neighborhood find it easier to depend on income rather than their community. On this front, real-world connection is a resource that many people in my neighborhood have learned to live without.
My goals have been to figure out just what it takes to get people out of their bubbles and into the world around them. The answer, I've found, is that it takes a lot of hard work and persistence just to get people to look up and pay attention. Even so, the work I've put in has put me in a position to start applying everything I've learned so far.
Up to this point, I have been relying almost exclusively on analog methods for sharing information about what I do. While I have good reasons for this, the main reason is that there are no digital platforms available for doing what I want to do. While establishing myself on Facebook would allow me to reach a wider audience, it also obliges me to operate within the walled gardens of a company which is actively making the world a worse place. The same logic applies to nearly every digital platform that people use on a daily basis.
To that end, I am using the garagecafé as a reference for building a platform that delivers on everything that I need as a community leader. It needs to be flexible, robust, easy to use, and completely free. By comparison, building the physical space has been easy.
Regarding the software, I have gone through seven iterations of the same basic idea - a toolkit for building applications like the one I need for Credenso. Each iteration has sharpened my mental model and given me a better idea of how to keep things simple as possible. At this point, I believe that success will depend less on my own development skills and more on my ability to teach others how to use the tools I build.
With autumn on the way, I will soon be embarking on my eighth revision of this toolkit. To be honest, it's been exhausting work to continually build the same thing and then throw it away. Thankfully, I can see the progress in every step. As we step into the colder half of the season, I will be focused on putting together something that can deliver on all aspects of what a community space needs in order to succeed in the current day and age.
My target for 2026 is to deliver on all fronts mentioned so far. Starting from the basic framework, I will be leveraging my current mental model to build the simplest possible application that delivers on all of my needs as a community leader: hosting events, booking resources, and managing responsibilities. By the time I open the garage doors in Spring 2026, you'll be able to find the results of my work right here at: https://credenso.cafe
As I said before, I've been running the café for 3 years now. While I've acheived some measurable degree of success in my goals of creating a community space where people feel welcome to stop in and visit, it has been an uphill battle to reach this point. Whether I feel encouraged to continue with Credenso's garagecafé once the prototype has served its purpose will depend on how the neighborhood responds.
Stay tuned - or stop by - to find out.