Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Street or Driveway?

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Would a stranger walking down a common street in a cohousing neighborhood feel
like he's trespassing?

Well, depends on how closed the street feels.  In our neighborhood, we are at 
the end of the road, with a large County sign at our entrance that says, End 
of county Rd.  There are two more signs a little further in, one says private 
lane, and a much more prominent sign that says: Sharingwood Cohousing. Its 
pretty obvious you are in a private development at that point, and many people 
do turn around.

If the weather is nice, there are usually a fair amount of people out and 
about on the street and so any stranger, who of course totally stands out, 
would be greeted at the very least with a hello how are you...

Other places, for instance, the "street" at Winslow or Puget Ridge is much 
more feeling of private development, the homes are much closer to the "street" 
and thus I couldn't image someone just walking through their without feeling 
they were trespassing in a private development. I've made many visits to both 
places and so feel very much at home, but still it is a private feeling, not a 
public one.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood.