So there are these community machine rooms. You get a 5% bonus for using those machines. Blocks have no current use in the game other than street projects. Food, on the other hand, people use everyday, all the time, and it has this huge skill tree of stuff for it. Why don't we have community kitchens? Don't even worry about providing equipment, b/c (like blockmaking really) anyone who uses the skill is gonna shell out the currents for the stuff. Just give a 5% bonus for cooking whilst in the room. Maybe allow a greater bonus for co-op cooking, like 10-20% depending on how many are cooking? Maybe have a vendor that sells both produce and grocery.
I'm sure this has been proposed before, I think even by me. But the reason I'm dedicating an entire post to it is that I want to point out why this is such an awesome idea and should be given priority. It's because of what we've just learned from the Ajaya fiasco. Namely that if you attach a significant benefit to an area, people will congregate, and then people will socialize.
Nobody uses the machine rooms because, well, who-the-hell cares about blockmaking other than very advanced players, and even then only when a street project is calling for them. And what could be more boring than a 4 kinds of building blocks, as contrasted with the huge, lovely, constantly expanding array of food available.
Ajaya had an allure for newer players because of the get rich quickness of it. Community Kitchens (maybe in Ix) will approximate that draw without creating the conflict, because there won't be a limited resource to get possessive over.
In sum, I argue that implementing Community Kitchens will take the place of Ajaya Bliss, insofar as it provided a way to excelerate wealth and level accumulation while it fostered team spirit.
Thanks for listening!