Re: Burning souls and money
From: Alan Carpenter (acarpentdirect.ca)
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 11:02:20 -0500
> From: Paul Barton-Davis <pbd [at] Op.Net>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: burning souls and money
> 
> Given Kathryn's (and many others') acknowledgement that there is often
> a "burning soul" involved in the initiation of a cohousing group, I
> wondered if anyone has any opinions on the appropriateness of "burning
> soul-ness" extending to the financial arena.
> 
> More specifically, how advisable it is for the money for outright
> purchase of the land for a cohousing group to be made by a minority of
> the group (perhaps a minority of *1*) ? On the one hand, it seems like
> a "nice" thing to be able to do, and eases several problems during the
> early part of the development process. On the other hand, it seems to
> get perilously close to some of the problems encountered by communes
> during the early 1970's, when a child of wealthy and "understanding"
> parents arranged to buy the land, and ended up with numerous ego
> problems within the group.
> 
> Just to make one thing clear: I'm not being precise about the exact
> relationship between payment and ownership. The minority "payers"
> could own and lease the land for 100 years to the group or to
> individuals for trivial or realistic amounts. The "payers" could
> simply give the funds to some legal entity representing the group, and
> ownership would be with the entity. Etc. etc. etc. Would any of these
> different arrangements (or others) ameliorate potential problems with
> minority payment ?
> 
To add to this message: A burning soul can buy a piece of land and have
that still work for a group. To do this in an effective way an agreement
can be made with the group to buy the land at some point in time when the
group is strong enough maybe at move in which by agreement will give the
group control. In this way if the group "ownes" the land by agreement then
the burning soul can be a part of the group as well as initiate the
process. Having the agreement worked out up front as a group forms is
critical in my opinion. 

> Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 10:11:04 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Fred H Olson <fholson [at] maroon.tc.umn.edu>
> Subject: Re:  City vs Country
> Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.96.970912095654.1497C-100000 [at] maroon.tc.umn.edu>
> 
> 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:
> Cohousing-L  See www.cohousing.org        and      nbhd-tc  the
> Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list. See www.freenet.msp.mn.us
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of COHOUSING-L Digest 270
> *****************************
  • burning souls and money Paul Barton-Davis, September 11 1997
    • Re: Burning souls and money Alan Carpenter, September 12 1997

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