Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: NPR Morning Edition 2-16-15: Europe Experiments with Cohousing

[James Kacki (jimkacki]

On 2015-02-16, at 6:18 AM, Ann Zabaldo wrote:

> 
> RPD --
> 
> It's incredibly important that you write this in the NPR comments. Many 
> people who don't know about cohousing Will hear this piece on NPR and go away 
> with the wrong impression of cohousing. That's why the comments are so 
> important.
> 
> And, every opportunity to get the word out there is a great marketing 
> opportunity. The more people who comment show that we have a vibrant, Active 
> movement in this country.  
> 
> I will make my comments after I get to my computer later this morning. I hope 
> all of you will take a moment to do this as well. It's a short, painless way 
> individuals can contribute to the conversation about cohousing on a national 
> level. WOW. Let's do it!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Feb 16, 2015, at 6:16 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Don’t mean to be negative … But I am not convinced this article is all that 
>> helpful to the cohousing cause.  It makes cohousing sound like a poverty 
>> mitigation program, not like intentional community for the mainstream.
>> 
>> Europe in general is more comfortable than America with group living and 
>> congregate care as a way of reducing housing and service costs for the 
>> elderly, disabled, disadvantaged, and poor.  This particular project, while 
>> clearly of merit, is much in that same tradition.
>> 
>> But the American cohousing movement is more for mainstream households that 
>> want to experiment with intentional community in groups of about 30 to 60 
>> adults.  As I’ve argued elsewhere, there is no reason to expect cohousing to 
>> be “cheaper” than regular housing.  Households figure out what they can 
>> afford to pay for housing, and this number is not particularly elastic.  If 
>> they can spend $30K a year on housing, most will buy the biggest privatized 
>> unit they can get.  But a few will instead use that same amount for a 
>> cohousing investment — which means, smaller private unit, more common space, 
>> and a much different lifestyle.  Founder / developers of cohousing are often 
>> idealistic, and want to offer affordability for a diverse range of incomes, 
>> but this is not anywhere near “cheap”.
>> 
>> Overall, I think the Valencia story will put off some, and mislead others.  
>> I’m not sorry the project is happening, and there is no need to refute it.  
>> But I don’t think it’s much use to CohoUS.
>> 
>> Unless, of course, we want to go further than is customary for cohos in 
>> “trading and sharing space and resources”, as a means of living 
>> economically.  This might be a good topic for this list.
>> 
>> RPD
>> 
>>> On Feb 16, 2015, at 5:48 AM, Alice Alexander <alicecohous [at] gmail.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Please comment on this NPR story profiling cohousing in England and Spain:
>>> http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/02/16/385528919/not-a-group-house-not-a-commune-europe-experiments-with-co-housing
>>> 
>>> The online story has more depth than the audio I heard. Audio will be
>>> available online at 9:00 am eastern.
>>> 
>>> Many thanks!
>>> -- 
>>> Alice Alexander
>>> Executive Director
>>> www.cohousing.org <http://www.cohous.org>
>>> [image: The Cohousing Association]
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>> 
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