Re: City vs Country
From: Fred H Olson (fholsonmaroon.tc.umn.edu)
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 10:12:38 -0500
On Thu, 11 Sep 1997 Dspreitzer [at] aol.com wrote:

> Rob, and other interested cohousers:
> 
> I am surprised by your vehemence regarding city life.  I think instead of
> putting down city life and city dwellers, you should thank them since in this
> day and age, they are allowing you your rural lifestyle (unless you are
> totally off the grid and living as humbly as the unibomber).
> 
> Not everyone can live in the countryside.  There just isn't enough room on

Well stated post Donna, thanks.  I agree with you.  Sharingwood's exurban
site is nice but not for me.

I usually restrain myself from commenting on cohousing sites on the urban
fringe or even rural areas that are built with the tacit assumption of
communting to the urban area or at least to the urban fringe for
employment.  The transportation / resource implications and contribution
to sprawl strike me as major drawbacks.

Communities - generally not cohousing - that are mostly self-sufficient or
communities that are based in small non urban communities do not fall in
this category in my view.

BTW a somewhat related historical note.  My ancestors came here from
Scandinavia in the 1870's and many got land under the Homestead Act.
In Scandinavia, most farmers lived in villages and and farmed nearby land.
The Homestead act required that they live on the land that they farmed,
thus preventing the formation of rural settlements.  Another factor was
that farms were bigger than in Scandinavia making distances from a
settlement further.  

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] tc.umn.edu    Zipcode: 55411  
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
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Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list. See www.freenet.msp.mn.us


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