Re: Defining "the cohousing principle"
From: Jose Marquez (marchpowerworldnet.att.net)
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 11:39:11 -0600 (MDT)
Victoria writes:  (all > quotes by Victoria)
> When we talk about all the wonderful bonding that takes place during
> creating and building communities, I think we have de-emphasized a very
> important piece:  affordability.

Sometimes doing something yourself IS the cheaper way to go....our community
has saved lots by having members willing to do tremendous amounts of work
for no pay, of course.

> Certainly I am one of these, being
> a single working mother.  (I was luckier than most in my divorce
settlement,
> otherwise I wouldn't be able to live in cohousing, which I love.)

Two of our members are single moms without divorce settlements or much of
any outside support....and they were around for much of the development of
the community.  It can happen!

> " Until developer-led cohousing is the
> norm, cohousing is going to remain a fringe, upper-middle class, white
> activity."

I agree that until land developers (who build 99.9% of new homes) get
involved in these types of projects it will remain a fringe event....however
our community was specifically geared toward creating low-cost homes.  We
have *Diversity* in our community....racial diversity & economic diversity &
cultural diversity!  AND for a long period of time the founders of the
community closed new member acceptance to only Minority (specifically
African Ancestry) applicants....yet there were none.  So, yes, aside from
some children of African Ancestry and a few Hispanics I suppose we are
mostly white.  BUT, I have a problem with this being seen as unusual.  Let's
consider more deeply:

    (1)   Most "white" people in the USA are not new immigrants....they come
from families that have been here for awhile and I believe that many of them
have experienced middle-class suburbia growing up and have had an
opportunity (thus) to decide they want something different.  Many "white"
families are spread all over the country after years of American-style
opportunity, moving, and focus on nuclear familes, etc.  SO....this group of
people has a high probability of wanting to try cohousing...even more so
with Hippie mythology, etc.

    Now, if you look at recent (just heard on NPR) statistics on Hispanic
communities...they avoid many of the problems linked to poverty despite
having a high rate of poverty generally.  It is considered likely that the
existance of strong extended families in Hispanic communities might be the
cause of this difference.  Perhaps, with extended families and strong
community...the desire for or need for cohousing might be different?

So....might it be possible, that it's not just that non-white people are all
poor?  If mostly disillusioned Americans of European Ancestry tend to make
cohousing happen for themselves more than some other ethnic/racial groups,
why is that?  Why don't we have rich Asian families doing this more?  There
are a lot of upper-income folks in my area who are from India, yet they're
not banging down the coho doors!  Ah....these groups are often first or
second generation Americans with a strong desire to obtain the American
dream....and they often have extended families or cultural communities to
lean on.  I think it is easy to target "upper-class white people" when there
might be many more non-black and white (no pun intended) reasons for mostly
white folks to be involved in coho!

> It is particularly likely to benefit
> those who don't have much time or money - people who can pool resources if
> the model is available to them.  But these people can't be expected to
> participate in creating such costly projects.

Why not?  One of our members has been on the edge financially (as a single
mother) for the 3 years she's been involved...and yet she's made it happen!

> It simply is not realistic to
> expect them to, and unfair to accuse all of them of having their
priorities
> out of whack.

I agree it is unfair to accuse people of having their priorities out of
whack AND very disrespectful to expect others to live up to your life
choices!  Additionally, I'm not going to assume that people can't help
themselves to what they do want to achieve!  Too often I think the tendancy
is to assume that people who are "poor" are that way purely by accident or
no fault of their own.  While admitting that our society can make it very
hard for people to break out of poverty, I know (from my own life) that if
you set your mind to doing something you can almost always succeed.

Anyway, I hope that as communities grow and people learn more and more about
them that big developers will take some of that wisdom to heart in their
architecture.  Still, it is up to the people to make the community.....and I
don't see why existing communities can't create more togetherness if they
want to!  The reasons for lack of community are much bigger than building
plans.

March
Duwamish Cohousing
West Seattle, WA

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