Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Seniority-Much Ado About Nothing

[Howard Landman (howard]

> that the less important an issue is, the more it gets discussed.

This reminds me of Pavlov's finding that the smaller the difference between
two choices, the harder it is to decide between them.  So the most mental
effort is spent on the things that matter least.

> I think it has become a place where people go to pat themselves on the back
> for being so fabulously progressive, while in fact, it is an enclave for the
> rich and guilty.

Why do you assume that rich = guilty?  I certainly don't.

> They come here to feel better because they have made such a
> conscientious choice about housing. But have you? Does your community have
> any permanently low or moderate income help for buyers?

I don't see that as necessarily a coho issue, but rather a generic one.

> Do you prevent urban sprawl?

Yes, we're an infill development about 1000 feet from the center of downtown.

> Do you use green building methods?

Yes.  That's one of the things that drove up costs substantially and made
units less affordable to buy (although more affordable to live in).  Oh
my, am I implying that lofty ideals like affordability and green building
may sometimes come into conflict and have to be compromised?  Yep, sure am.

> Do you give a shit if this
> movement becomes just another way for the privileged to isolate themselves
> from the gritty realities of daily life?

Translation: Trying to make your dwelling and community a nice place to live
is unfair to people who can't or don't.  Sorry, I don't buy that.  You're
basically arguing that everyone should live in slums because some people do.

One issue is that most cohousing is brand new, and generally speaking, poor
people don't live in new houses.  They live in older more run-down houses
that rent for less.  But eventually, even coho units will get old, and may
drift downscale.  And at that point, poor people will be living in something
better than the run-down suburban tract homes that would otherwise have
been built.

I don't know if coho is great.  I don't even know if it's good.  But I do
know that it's better than the bulk of what's getting built these days.
If you think you know a better way, by all means try to make it happen.
But until then, your complaints remind me of Alan Kay's comment that the
Macintosh was "the first personal computer worth criticizing".

        Howard Landman