From the article these machines are somehow $75k a pop. They didn’t do all 10 because there weren’t enough eligible organizations to run each one. I wonder how many machines Elon or Bezos could afford to put into U.S. cities?

^Sydney Atkinson, 36, who runs a barber shop on Central Avenue in Far Rockaway, said that at first he was worried that a vending machine across the street would bring new people who use drugs into the area.

”First couple weeks it had a bad reputation,” he said. “But people use it, and other people have kind of forgotten about it and go about their business as usual.”

WOW, it’s almost like being a NIMBY asshole is not actually justified.

I’m reading a book called “Mutual Aid” by Dean Spade. A project like this is exactly what the book recognizes as a good mutual aid project!

The sad news as that the end of this project with mired with almost every cause the book outlines as the downfall of most good mutual aid projects.

I hope this project can eventually be turned back around and salvaged into something more helpful for more people in a more sustainable and long term timescale.

I would like to learn about the “Mattress Network”