Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Racial diversity and cohousing

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

Living in "The most diverse city in the nation" (quote from a recent article
about Sacramento-was it Time magazine??), I have a perspective on this that
might help.

The original reason I decided to stay in Sacto (we were transferred here),
is that I felt a comfort in the diverse central city neighborhoods that I
never felt anywhere else. I didn't get that vibe that I got in SF. The one
where someone stares you down on the bus because you're white, or female, or
straight, or whatever they don't like about your outward appearance. Don't
let a reputation for liberalism fool you. There's plenty of racial tension
in SF, as well as most other cities I've been in, despite the diversity.
Just because there are lots of different color (and whatever else) people,
doesn't mean they like it that way.

And just because your cohousing community ends up being mostly white,
doesn't mean you have to be an island. I'm proud to live alongside of some
of the most intense neighborhood activists in this city, or anywhere. People
in my cohousing community have been instrumental in getting a community
center built and getting it staffed, as well as a new community garden going
in two blocks away, amongst numerous other neighborhood events.

We are accepted members of the larger community, because of the sincere
efforts of the residents to be a part of it, in all its messiness and
politics. Why should our neighbors have to live in cohousing to be our
neighbors? You can have it both ways, have cohousing and ethnic diversity,
if you choose a location that permits it. If you want to be involved.

I wouldn't want to be accepted into a cohousing group just because of my
color, and that's what you're talking about. Get people into your group
because they are going to be contributing members of the community, not
because you don't want anyone to think you're a racist because you don't
have any black people in your group.

-- 
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California
tamgoddess [at] attbi.com
> From: Diana Porter <porterd [at] cinci.rr.com>
> Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 17:41:31 -0400
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_Racial diversity and cohousing
> 
> Since i am the one who posted the quetsion that started this discussion,
> I guess it is time for me to weigh back in.
> 
> We are a small beginning cohousing group in Cincinnati, a city that
> came to national attention in the last months for problems of police
> brutality and racial inequality.     The April 2001 uprising was a
> wake-up call for some in our city but many have gone back to sleep.  The
> good that has come out of this has been a renewed focus on the quality
> of life for African-americans in our city.
> Home ownership for african-american families has become a development
> priority for our city developers.  We have all the usual road-blocks to
> ownership--from the institutional racism of bank's red-lining
> neighborhoods to the typical rust-belt moving to cheaper markets of the
> higher paying union jobs to middle-class white and Black flight to the
> suburbs leave public schools to languish.
> 
> We are currently looking for property in a particular city neighborhood
> because of its "diversity, rich history and greenspace."  (from our
> vision statement).  The community we are looking into is about 50% white
> and 50% black and is very socio-economically diverse from section 8
> housing to estates that go back to the days when these were the country
> homes of rich folks who lived downtown.  This neighborhood was 15% Black
> in the 1870.  It is a good place for Black and white families to raise kids.
> 
> In looking around many of the web sites, it seems that most cohousing
> communities are overwhelmingly white.  I  posted my original question to
> try to get folks to respond to what attempts they have made to make
> their communities more diverse.  I would like to know what works and
> what doesn't.  We are the beginning of this process of building a
> coohousing community and we want to have a diverse group before we go
> too far.  I have heard that some communities have had rental units so
> that lower income folks could move in.  Unless it was rent to own, this
> seems to set up inequalities from the beginning.  Please share your
> ideas and experiences with us.
> 
> 
> 
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