"Base Model" Cohousing
From: Dan Suchman (71756.2661compuserve.com)
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 16:21:48 -0500
I've received several email messages in support of my October 11 post to
cohousing-l titled "'Base Model' Cohousing - Hold the Options, Please".  But I
have not received any dissent or opposing points of view.  I suspect there is
plenty of it out there.  Let's hear it!  Through open and rigorous discussion of
these issues we might actually learn something from one another.

In the mean time, I have another plug for "Base Model" Cohousing, unencumbered
by extraneous ideologies.  Katie McCamant and Chuck Durrett, who coined the term
"cohousing" and are arguably the parents of American cohousing, are quoted on
the back of each issue of the Cohousing Journal as saying that American
cohousing is "based on democratic principles, that espouse no ideology other
than the desire for a more practical and social home environment."  Notice that
this definition has nothing to do with the "Owner/Builder/Developer" Option, the
"Green/Environmental" Option, the "Consensus/Process/Feelings-Oriented" Option,
the "Spiritual" Option, or any of the other required, non-mainstream value
systems that have been heaped upon American cohousing, and which make it seem
strange, inaccessible and unappealing to the bulk of our society.

I wish to reiterate that all of the foregoing options are admirable and
potentially valuable contributions to our society.  But lets not try to learn to
juggle and roller-skate at the same time.  First, let's make "simple" cohousing
more prevalent and part of the American mainstream.  We can always add the
refinements later.  But I fear that trying to do too many things at once makes
it difficult to do any of them well (if at all).

Dan Suchman
Winslow Cohousing
Bainbridge Island, WA

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