In\nthe past several years, I have visited four makerspaces in southern California,\nand I recently decided to see how the COVID pandemic had affected these facilities.\n Makerspaces play a role in reviving the entrepreneurial\n\u201cmaker spirit\u201d necessary to rebuild and grow American manufacturing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfirst center I had visited several years ago was MakerPlace, located in San\nDiego, California. MakerPlace was founded in 2012 by Brian Salmon, Michael\nSalmon, and Steve Herrick. It was touted for its promising concept of a shared\n\u201cdream garage,\u201d where hobbyists or professionals could use high-end tools and\nindustrial equipment to make their creations. It had equipment for\nmetalworking, electronics, embroidery, sewing and specialty tools such as laser\ncutters and engravers. It also rented\nout studio and office space, making it a sort of workshop\/coworking hybrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\nI called to talk to the owner, I was unable to connect, so I searched online\nand found two articles in the San Diego Union Tribune. The first article<\/a> from\nDecember 6, 2019 said that the sole remaining business head of the company,\nSteve Herrick \u201cdecided he was ready for retirement and sought a buyer.\u201d In\nDecember 2019, Joseph Henseler and his wife and partner, Lorena Isabelle took\nover as the new owners. Hensler had ran\nhis construction and design firm, Duende out of the MakerPlace for six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsecond article,<\/a> dated February\n2, 2020, stated that MakerPlace \u201chas abruptly shut down, asking members to\nremove all their belongings in less than 10 days. The shop sent an email to its\nmembers with few details about the closure. \u2018MakerPlace is officially closing,\u2019\nthe email reads. The building will be open \u201conly for picking up your own\npersonal items\/tools\/materials. Anything that\u2019s not picked up by Feb. 14 will\nbe forfeited.\u201d The announcement of the closure came as a shock to members, and\nsome had paid in advance for months of use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since\nthe announcement of the closure occurred prior to the shutdowns for the COVID\npandemic, it is likely that MakerPlace closed for financial reasons not caused\nby the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsecond makerspace that I had visited on Manufacturing Day in October 2016 was\nOpen Source Maker Labs (OSML<\/a>) in Vista,\nCalifornia. OSML is the only makerspace\nin North San Diego County. Dan Hendricks\nopened OSML in 2013 to provide a high-tech digital fabrication lab where\nmembers can learn, collaborate, innovate, design, and build almost\nanything. Their lab is filled with open\nworkspace and tools: electronics, CNC\nmachines, 3D printers, laser cutter, panel saw, press brake, welding and\nsoldering tools, drawing and modeling programs, and a computer lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nI spoke to Dan last week, he said they closed down for two weeks until they\nrealized they fit the definition of an essential business that was allowed to\nstay open under Governor Newsome\u2019s order. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nasked what he has had to change. He\nsaid, \u201cWe follow the stage 2 guidelines and limit the use of our labs to\nmembers by appointment only and limit the number of people based on our square\nfootage. We practice a smart sanitization routine for our Maker Lab. We only\nlost a couple of older members worried about their health, but have picked up\nsome new, younger members. We haven\u2019t had to turn anyone away. We focus on R&D technology and have a lot\nof the software needed for designing new products. We offer a co-working incubator-type\natmosphere for startup and existing small to medium-sized companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\nadded, \u201cI\u2019m an Adjunct Professor at Cal State San Marcos, so we are doing some\nonline classes in partnership with the college. I will be doing an online class\non IIoT for the next term. Our strategy\nwas to ride out the pandemic and not change to be ready to help with the\nrecovery and support the new companies that will form during the recovery and\nprovide R&D resources for existing small and medium sized companies to do\ntheir R&D at our facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, I also visited Vocademy<\/a>\n\u2013 a Maker Space in Riverside, California, founded by Gene Sherman. Vocademy was\na combination of the “best parts of makerspaces, school shop classes,\ntrade schools, R&D labs, and dream garages, all in one place. His dream was\n\u201cto solve the skills gap for the manufacturing industry.\u201d Unfortunately, it was\nSherman\u2019s focus on providing shop classes for schools and being a vocational\ntrade school that made Vocademy an early casualty of the COVID pandemic so that\nit closed down on March 20, 2020 after Governor Newsome ordered all schools and\nnon-essential business to shut down because of the COVID pandemic. An article<\/a>\nin the Press-Enterprise of March 28th<\/sup>, stated: \u201cVocademy\u2026can\u2019t\nafford to stay open due to the state order mandating business and school\nclosures, wrote Gene Sherman, the nonprofit\u2019s founder and CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nacademy partners with schools, and when those schools closed until next school\nyear, 70 to 80% of Vocademy\u2019s revenue was lost, Sherman said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\naddition, many of our current students did not wish to attend class and other\npotential community students told us they will not be signing up because of\nvirus fears, Sherman wrote. \u201cWe are a small business and, unlike a public\nschool, our revenue does not come directly from educational funding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nbroke my heart to hear that Vocademy has closed because providing vocational\nshop classes to youth is critical to providing the next generation of\nmanufacturing workers need to rebuild American manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n