Everybody has different views on gentrification. But speaking for myself, the kind that bothers me is the high-security condos with on-site parking where rich people get cheap real estate and then have zero incentive or inclination to engage with their neighbors. They drive to work, drive to Whole Foods, and in between sit behind bars on their balconies while their neighbors push shopping carts by their fortresslike front doors to the recycling center.
Sudo Room *exists* to build community. It may not build the kind of community that everybody wants to participate in, but it does offer opportunities that don't exist absent a hacker space. It's hard for me to imagine Sudo Room doing damage to its neighborhood, and even if something unexpected happened, I think its community would act quickly to correct the problem.
Pete