Re: Fifty Plus Cohousing + ?
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 17:14:01 -0700 (MST)

Cohousing is a housing development that is designed and managed by the residents who intend to create a community. Do those residents have to include people under the age of 50 in order for it to be a community? Can a community afford to meet the needs of all categories and ages of people?

This is a question that should not be so easily dismissed in a society where the generational spread is greater than at any other time in history. We have no experience with living in a community where the age spread is 100 years. Can one relatively small community like cohousing afford to meet the needs of those over 65 and under 25 at the same time without shorting one or the other?

We are having to stretch to meet the needs of age groups of under 5, 6-10, and 11- . We need play space for all those ages and they don't mix very well. They need indoor space and outdoor space. Sharing a video space is hard -- can adults watch an R rated films during the day if children might be looking in the windows? Can we afford space for both a library of adult books and one for children? Can the children have access to all the games? Can we afford storage space for strollers, tricycles, bikes (a million), three wheeled bikes, wheel-chairs, walkers, grocery carts, wagons, etc.

How much do adults have to restrict their activities because there are children around? In a 50+ community these questions go away. There are many other needs to be addressed, and these needs get more attention than they do with herds of children around.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines, Washington DC
Where all roads lead to Casablanca

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.