Re: New Orleans
From: jazzuptown (jazzuptownaol.com)
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:18:15 -0800 (PST)
Does anyone know of any alternative building projects in New Orleans re: Post 
Katrina construction?
 
Thanks,
 
Linda Fletcher 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: fergyb2 [at] yahoo.com
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Sent: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Senior's needs? (was Achieving age diversity)


The big conflicts between seniors needs and small
childrens needs in mixed age communities that I've
noticed are:

  1)     First and foremost --noise levels in the
Common House at common meals.  Children are naturally
noisier than adults but this doesn't really become a
big deal until you add in the age related hearing
loss.  Increasing the ambiant noise levels can make it
go from difficult to follow the conversation to
impossible to follow the conversation which can drive
seniors away from common meals which are usually one
of the main social "glues" in functioning cohousing. 
All moneys invested in sound dampening in the Common
House are well worth it in terms of community
investment and should not be considered optional in
mixed age communities in my humble opinion.  And with
the advent of ipods this issue can be expected to
increase in importance in the future.

2)   Small children tend to need to eat earlier and
working adults need to eat later which makes for some
tension around deciding common meal times

2)      The risk of falling increases if there are
toys/bikes/trikes left on the main walkways or kids
running wildly and falls are more life threatening as
you age since a significant number of elderly people
never make it out of bed again once they fall and
break a hip.  And age related calcium loss makes
breaking bones a more likely consequence of falls when
you age.  Toys blocking walkways is also an issue for
wheelchair users of any age since it can block access
to wherever you are trying to go.

For myself (no significant hearing loss yet and not in
a wheelchair) the joy the young ones bring makes it
all worth it but I can see how the equation might fall
differently for others.

                          Bonnie Fergusson
                          Swans Market Cohousing
                          Oakland, CA




 
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