The charmingly faded pink walls and balconies look out on unspoilt fishing villages like Llafranc and you can enjoy live jazz performed by local groups on the communal terrace on weekends.
And from coal mining areas to fracking and pipeline zones across the country, that resistance has been led by local groups on a shoestring, not national organizations with big budgets, dedicated to a fossil fuel-free future and climate justice, not simply single issues.
It's wonderful that the green corridors of the Brent have been preserved, but their proximity to the North Circular (the noisiest road in Britain, carrying 85,000 vehicles a day) means keeping them green and clean is a challenge, one mainly taken on by local groups rather than councils.
The Fondation, meanwhile, was successfully challenged by local groups dedicated to protecting the Bois, on the grounds that it broke rules intended to preserve the character of the park, and the project was stopped by the relevant tribunal.
PCTs, controlling the purse strings in the NHS, could be owned by the populations they serve and run by boards representing them, with the possibility, also, of being supplemented or supplanted by local groups (including local citizens and GPs), depending on their performance.
"In this case... you have a well-coordinated attack that involved heavily armed men, multiple gunmen, holding dozens of people hostage — you don't see those types of attacks carried out by local groups, or at least local groups acting on their own.
From the Chambers The classical music scene this week on the Island is dominated by local groups.
But they are being received very differently by local groups.
These include plays, concerts and performances by local groups.
Already artist Lizzie Jordan is working with local groups on projects inspired by the tower: one man whose life was in chaos was so transformed by picking up a paintbrush for the first time since he was 12 that he now has his own flat, and has left the hostel a gallery of paintings which now cover the walls.
He foresees a country in which volunteers perform tasks previously carried out by the state; in which local groups take on more responsibility for areas like health and education; in which people move off welfare and into jobs; and in which citizens are defined "not by what we consume, but by what we contribute".
