Imagine arriving to work at a downtown historic building, where your workspace has high ceilings, brick walls, and huge windows. You can meet with clients or have informal discussions with colleagues working in industries as diverse as software development, photography and green building; the rest of the time you work at your own desk or a hot desk space. Need to develop new marketing strategies for your fledgling business or learn strategies to foster social change? Just sign up for one of the many workshops offered at the office. HiVE Vancouver is an innovative shared workspace that fosters individuals and organizations in the sustainability and creative sectors. It’s part of a growing trend worldwide: technological developments have made working in virtual space common, and doing consulting work for multiple clients has become a widespread practice as organizations try to keep their costs down. But for small start-ups, non-profits and individual consultants, trying to find affordable office space has become increasingly difficult. Shared spaces mean shared amenities (like meeting rooms, phones and kitchens), a real plus for those that can’t spring for the overhead costs of their own offices. HiVE members have a choice of a dedicated workspace (starting at $475/month) or a hot desk space (monthly plans range from $25/month for five hours to $350/month for unlimited hours). As a non-profit, HiVE uses its member fees to lease and improve the space. But the HiVe is about more than just sharing space: members are “a community of change-makers” who thrive on collaboration, fun, diversity and social responsibility. HiVE Vancouver modeled itself after Toronto's Centre for Social Innovation, which opened in 2004 with the idea that collaboration on the complex problems facing society could produce better solutions. The Centre's founders merged the ideas of co-location (different organizations merely sharing space), community hubs (shared spaces providing direct services to their members such as job training and workshops) and social innovation. Toronto's Centre is an affiliate of the Hub Network, a social enterprise working across 30 cities and 5 continents.

[caption id="attachment_1493" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Saturday Afternoon on Hornby Street (Photos by Kathleen Corey and Brian Gould)"][/caption] [Ed: A video montage of the lanes is also available -bg] Several bike lane related reports and surveys will hit council on Thursday, providing statistics galore. Some, like the June-to-June midweek ridership increases of 50% on Dunsmuir, show clear benefits. Others, like the economic impact study results, rely on merchants' anecdotal reports to estimate a 4% decrease in sales - meanwhile, vacancy rates on Hornby are down from last year's 12% to 2%. The positive results are recognized not only by cyclists but by area visitors as well, with support for the Hornby lanes up to 64%. Numbers aren't required to see that the lanes are increasing ridership by making cyclists feel safe - that takes only a bike ride to find out. Unfortunately, those among the entrenched 28% opposition are also least likely to take this opportunity. If they did, they'd find an easy and protected False Creek crossing on the Burrard Bridge tying into the Hornby lanes and a quick and seamless route from quiet streets on Union and Adanac, over the Dunsmuir Viaduct, and into the heart of downtown. They'd also find plenty of other Vancouverites to keep them company.