You are absolutely correct! I want to find such communities myself, but I think that a lot of this has to be built since we are living in a time when such communities are far and few between.

The stuff that I'm meaning to participate in more going forward:

• There's a "local" makerspace I want to visit, but it is so far away that I've yet to go there. But I want to at least check it out, and talk with the people there. It's a too expensive membership considering how far away it is, as I will not be able to utilize it much.
• I went to my local library for the first time this week! I plan to go more often, and I know the host some events from time to time that looks interesting.
• There is a community farm nearby - I tried to join that last year, but I had a very difficult time participating as expected next to my job. Due to lack of skills and experience, I was unable to just start doing things on my own schedule and needed to join up whenever there were common sessions - but those were usually too early for me to get home from work to join. I also missed out on several harvest sessions. This is something I would love to rejoin if I manage to get my work life more flexible again.
• There seems to be not much going on in my neighborhood though, apart from religious stuff (I am not religious). But there certainly is room to join up more with my neighbors.