You cannot find people who share your niche interest in your city — subreddits are global but meetups are nonexistent

You are into mechanical keyboards. There are 1.2 million people in r/MechanicalKeyboards. You live in Portland. There is no Portland mechanical keyboard meetup. You search Meetup.com — nothing. You search Facebook Groups — there is a group with 200 members but the last post was 8 months ago. You post 'anyone in Portland want to do a keyboard meetup?' on Reddit. Two people respond. Not enough for an event. Your hobby community is vibrant online and completely nonexistent in person. So what? This pattern repeats across thousands of niche interests: aquascaping, homelab servers, analog photography, sourdough baking, amateur radio, vintage synthesizers. Each has a thriving online community and zero local presence. The online community gives you information and inspiration but not the social connection of sitting next to someone who shares your passion. You know there are other keyboard nerds in Portland — Reddit proves it — but there is no way to find them locally. The gap between 'online community member' and 'local friend who shares my interest' is unbridged. Why does this persist? Meetup.com charges organizers $25-33/month to host events, so nobody creates a group for a 5-person niche meetup. Reddit has no location-based matching. Discord servers are global with no local channels. The transaction cost of organizing a local meetup (finding a venue, picking a date, getting commitments from strangers) is high enough that nobody does it for groups under 20 people. There is no lightweight tool for 'I am into X and I am in Portland — show me the 7 other people who match.'