Cohousing-L Mailing List: A Sense of Place

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 Dahako [at] aol.com wrote
in the thread: Re: [C-L]_Moving out for a job :

> A few people have asked what job could be worth leaving cohousing for.
> That's what I love about cohousing in particular and intentional
> communities in general, I don't think too many other Americans past
> the age of about 17 would ask that question seriously.  Balancing
> one's life choices involves invoking individual values, of course.
> For us, community context matters a lot too, and living in cohousing
> certainly has made our decision to take a promotion - even for a
> really neat job - that meant a move out of our community much more
> difficult.
>

Actually I think people tend to be in two categories:

o People who live near where they work
o People who work near where they live

I think there are many people in the latter category who put place as
higher priority than work. In fact I suspect that a factor in
Minneapolis's relatively low level of cohousing development is that people
here get attached to their (conventional) neighborhoods and are reluctant
to move to another neighborhood to live in cohousing.  (Instead we get
multiple proposals to start cohousing in various places but can't attract
enough people willing to move from their neighborhood! )

Of course many people do move long distances.  I'm interested in family
history and I often ask relatives how they happen to live where they do.
Most often it is work related but not necessarily their own. Often one
relative moved for a job and the family put down roots in the new
location and developed a new sense of place there.  Presumably the more
attracive the job in the 'new' place or the more desparate the job
prospects in the 'old' place, the more likely the option of moving.

I sometimes wonder if cohousing communities take job prospects into
account enough when making site decisions.  The proposals for rural sites
at a distance from the nearest city in particular look suspect to me.

Fred

--

TEMP ADDRESS 4/9/02 My "From:" address has temporarily changed;
My preferred address IS NOW and  continues to be as below.
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)

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