Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
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
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle", (continued)
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" Jose Marquez, March 29 2000
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" Jose Marquez, March 29 2000
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" vbradova, March 29 2000
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" Victoria, April 2 2000
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" Jose Marquez, April 2 2000
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" OldCoHo, April 2 2000
- Re: Defining "the cohousing principle" Fred H. Olson, April 24 2000
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