Early last year, some of my favorite casual NYC tech meetups were meeting in coffee shops and the New York Public Library on the weekends. Then, suddenly, I was getting e-mails from all three meetups about a free new venue on Sunday afternoons — at a co-working place called AlleyNYC, right under Times Square and to the west of Bryant Park.

In my opinion, it was excellent marketing for the space.

Turns out AlleyNYC also hosts weekend hackathons and other meetups that require eventbrite ticket purchases to attend, but generally on Sunday afternoons, the space is wide open for anyone to bring their laptop over to hack and chat.

A quiet late Sunday afternoon:

Perks of being on the 17th floor in midtown Manhattan: the sunlight from the setting sun continues to stream through!

When I have the opportunity to go, I’ve tended to meet a lot of cool people here, and exchanged much knowledge and tips. The audience tends to be a wide mix of beginners learning to code, startup entrepreneurs working on their apps, and seasoned developers who go to be social and to help others.

Sharing economy, indeed.