I'm from Sac also. In ~2012 (just a bit before Hacker Lab) I remember some of the people from Parallax Inc in Rocklin getting together to start a hacker space (Dweeb Den[1]). I went to 4 or 5 meetings with attendance of around 20-40 people and I was really impressed with the community-oriented spirit that was forming. We had plans to get a booth at the state fair, distribute puzzles and cards[2] to attract attention, and were working on getting a 501c3. Just about that time, we heard about Hacker Lab getting started, and it was better funded and further along, so we pivoted to supporting Hacker Lab. It turns out Hacker Lab was SIGNIFICANTLY more entrepreneur-focused (which is fine, just not what I was looking for). I ended up disappointed that Dweeb Den got dropped and we lost that nerd/maker/artist community feel. I'd love to see something like that come back around. Unfortunately, my Charisma score is low enough that I'd have to be behind-the-scenes assistance in starting anything of the sort.
[1]Dweeb Den entry on Hackerspaces.org: https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/DweebDen
[2]Here's a png of the card I found: https://imgur.com/a/dweeb-den-card-S027r5I
replies(1):