Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing Ads

[Becky Schaller (bschaller]

Hi Hal, Based on my experience of being a member of two cohousing groups -
one in Chicago and one in Tucson; I believe that a group in Chicago needs to
be much more focused than a group in a smaller city.  If I remember
correctly, the group in Chicago was looking for a location with 4
characteristics:
1.  good neighborhood school
2.  reasonable cost
3.  good public transportation
4.  access to a green area (grass) This probably meant being close to a city
park
5.  low crime rate

I know I said 4 characteristics and I listed 5. I'm not sure where my memory
fails me.  What we found was that while these characteristics could exist in
one place theoretically; reality in a big city was a different matter.  It
was practically impossible to find an area that fit all these
characteristics.  

In Tucson, we did have to make some trade offs.  (For various reasons, none
of the children in our community go to our neighborhood public school.)
However, Tucson is a much more homogenous city than is Chicago.  So the
trade offs were much less.

So back to your question, I would recommend a fairly clear focus when you
are starting the community. Then attract people with a similar focus.  It
might even make sense to choose the neighborhood or the elementary school
district first and then target people in that area.  In Chicago, if you move
a few blocks, crime rate, real estate values, and the desirablity of the
public school can change drastically.  Move a few blocks and you could
attract a totally different group of people for a cohousing community.
That's not the case everywhere.

Becky Schaller

> 
> Here in Chicago Marty has been trying to form a core group Chicago Village
> Cohousing (formerly Lake Village Cohousing) for a Cohousing community in
> the city of Chicago.
> 
> Although we have over 60 contacts we can't seem to get people together for
> meetings.
> 
> I would like feed back from cohousing groups and communities on ads they
> have created to attract new people.
> 
> What has worked or what does not work.
> 
> Hal, Chicago Cohousing Network
> 
>