Coffee shop community ? [test2]
From: Fred H. Olson (fholsoncohousing.org)
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 07:27:12 -0600 (MDT)
I heard an interview on public radio this morning with the
founder of Caribou Coffee shops (fairly big locally at least).
One of his comments was something like:

   Neighborhood coffee shops are popular now in part because more 
   people work in home offices and businesses but they still 
   want / need social contact with other people during the work day
   so they go to the coffee shop.

I bring this up because I wonder how true it is.  Do coffee shops serve as
community building / gathering places (rather than just places to buy and
consume coffee)? If so, how does this social contact compare to that in a
cohousing community?  Clearly it is much more limited but I think it could
(if it is comparable to the kind of interaction that takes place in
British pubs - "the local" ) be put on the other end from cohousing of a
community building institution continum of some sort.

One of the possible (minor?) explanations for the minimal amount of
cohousing activity in the Twin Cities I speculate, is that we have
relatively more opportunities for social contact than some places. We have
many relatively liveable neighborhoods, many community organizations,
(organizations of all kinds - the land of 10,000 organizations), block
clubs, parks and park buildings with organized activities.  Social contact
takes place at all of these.  To what degree does that reduce the felt
need for intentioal community like cohousing?

Fred (who does not drink coffee and rarely goes in coffee houses)


[Test2 note about cohousing-L : ]
This message is also in part related to the suspicious lack of messages
over the list in the last 36 hours. My first test went thru and one other
message has come thru but still...  I did not think to mention in my
previous test about if you have clear evidence of a problem... 

If you send (have sent) a message to the cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org and 
you dont get a copy back via the list server in a short 
while (worst case 15 minutes (?)):

1) check the address to which you sent it  
2) look for a "reject message" typically because you sent it from and
   address other than your subscribed address (if so write me)
3) if these were not the problem, send me a copy and a note.  


--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
Cohousing-L and Nbhd-tc (Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list)
More info:   http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/sig-detail.htm


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