Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: List purpose, Cohousing Information (Much Ado About Nothing)

[Peter Scott (ps]

I am part of a group who has just had our turning the first sod ceremony in the
weekend. I think it is fair to say that we have applied sweat, tears, and in
some cases blood  to get this project this far, and not just for our own
benefit, but also to expressly act as a model and catylyst for better
development.

Personally for me there is a certain something in Liz's post. Take for instance
the "scaling down" thread...interesting as it is, compared with say, for example
my earlier request for visitor data.
In the end i got a grand total of 4 responses (FYI find the summary of this data
within the grant application at http://www.ecohousing.pl.net/resource/IA2.html )

I even had one reply  that inferred that what i was asking was unreasonable, and
that people are just too busy to gather such data, data that in my own opinion
has huge potential to help spread this movement.

Having just completed a planning degree with a research project focused on
developing cohousing in practice (On line FYI at http://pl.net/~ps/rp/) it
became clear to me that there is more we can do. One simple thing we can do is
to get a database going which records each projects general vital stats such as
unit numbers, unit sizes, density, materials etc, but also stuff like visitor
numbers, appraisels, resales frequency and prices. This could be a webbased
interactive thing. In regards the survey i did i had a good response to this,
but many did say they were a bit overwhelmed with requests for surveys. A
database avoids having to survey and resurvey.

This said, to some degree , I guess the tendancy to feel that what we/ I  am/are
doing is better than the rest, is kind of always in there, part of the human
condition?. At the end of the day, when the asteroid hits, will all that any of
us have have done be pretty much immaterial? Maybe...maybe not.

Regards,

Peter Scott
Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood Auckland NZ
Eco-homes in an Eco-Neighbourhood <http://www.ecohousing.pl.net/>
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*where i calculate we will save on average $1600 per year per house
  on house running costs (compared with average),   and which will offset
  the cost of our units   by $33,000,  discounted at 7% over 20 years.
  For houses that may last  500 years thats ...well...just the beginning...
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