Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Best ways to seek collaborators? (Tiffany Lee Brown)

[Tiffany Lee Brown (magdalen23]

Thank you, Thomas, for sharing your idea and experience. If I find an existing  
community that suits our basic requirements, I will certainly see if we could 
sign up! For us, that means being within a few hours of our extended family in 
Eugene and Portland, Oregon; semi-rural or rural (it seems like most co-housing 
opportunities in Central Oregon are urban/suburban Bend); and dry, such as the 
High Desert of Central Oregon. 

We are being pushed out of our amazing neighborhood community in Portland by my 
health problems. A drier climate with less outdoor mold is necessary for my 
recovery. That rules out the many communities in Ashland, Eugene, Corvallis, 
etc.

I am hoping we can take short visits to communities in various climates of 
Oregon and California, talking with folks who are willing to share a moment 
about their collective lives. We have a little travel trailer and flexible 
jobs, and I need to head to California to see a specialist doctor anyway...

Long term, my hopes may be unrealistic, but they may result in some form of 
cohousing or development. My family and I have a strong background in the arts 
and in the creative economy, including strategy and branding. We help 
businesses figure out who they are, what they truly want, and to communicate it 
to the world. Now I want to use this experience toward starting an ambitious 
new project of our own.

My hope is to embed creativity, wellness, and compassionate entrepreneurship in 
the DNA of a community. The model would not operate as a commune, but would 
explicitly facilitate small business among its members (possibly both 
residential members and community members who do not live on-site), focusing on 
artistic, artisanal, craft, and sustainability- related pursuits. 

The nonprofit I head up is working toward a new artist residency program as 
well, and in my fantasies, that would occur on this mythical piece of land in 
Central Oregon too. I envision setting out with a goal not just of creating 
community but of building multiple streams of revenue into the project from the 
outset: and in Central Oregon, that means tourism dollars. 

This all sounds rather mercenary, but since we're stuck in our colonialism and 
capitalism, it makes sense to insure a long future for a project, something not 
entirely reliant on real estate and on community goodwill for survival. 
Especially for younger folks, personal life, community, creativity, and small 
entrepreneurship/freelancing often meld together. This shouldn't just be 
reflected on our Facebook feeds, Instagram photos, and LinkedIn pages, but in 
our real lives, boots on the ground. Having a place to share that community in 
real life, realtime, could be amazing...

- Tiffany

Tiffany Lee Brown
Editor, Plazm magazine
Back issues: plazm.com/store


On Oct 12, 2015, at 11:26 AM, Thomas Lofft <tlofft [at] hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tiffany Lee Brown from Oregon wrote:   What would you experienced co-housers 
> recommend as a way to connect with people who might be interested in starting 
> a community?
> 
> Thanks...
> 
> Tiffany
> In Oregon Hi, Tiffany and all wannabes - start-up cohousers: I recommend that 
> any small group in particular, especially those who are thinking of breaking 
> new ground as pioneers, or who may have made a best effort and folded their 
> program,  to consider moving en masse to an established community which may 
> still have multiple lots, condos, or home building opportunities still 
> available.  Many experienced builders over the past years combined the 
> companies rather than risking trying to restart in an uncertain economy. Why 
> start over on a four to ten year risk loaded enterprise when an energetic 
> community is waiting to embrace you all only a few hours airline flight away. 
>  E.g., Liberty Village, MD, has 18 homes completed and ten platted lots 
> immediately available to start construction. We are working vigorously to 
> determine what makes new housing even more affordable more quickly: Smaller 
> Houses? Lower Quality? Different Technology? Dropping geothermal ground 
> source heating systems and
>  focusing on smaller and tighter homes with photovoltaic instead? We believe 
> we are open to all creative thinking. As we complete the next ten new homes, 
> we will have ample land and zoning available to build another ten later to 
> bring us to our approved community size of 38 total new homes. Liberty 
> Village has already moved in at least three households relocated here from 
> California and all appear to be well assimilated as settlers even if they 
> missed the opportunity to join us as pioneering burning souls 15 years ago. 
> One retired to move here; another kept her CA job and works here remotely 
> with ample time to walk her dog every day instead of driving to an office;  
> another negotiated  job reassignment to her company's MD office and left 
> cohousing in CA to leapfrog to MD.  There are 28 households here including 
> renters now sharing the existing 18 homes, enjoying community meals every 
> week in a charming, delightful, photovoltaic energized Common House. More 
> residents may mean even mo
> re common meals as well as less work for everyone.  Please check us out and 
> bring your family, and your entire start-up group. Why start over on a four 
> to ten year risk loaded enterprise when an energetic, experienced community 
> is waiting to embrace you all only a few hours airline flight away.  Cheers 
> and best cohousing wishes, Tom LofftLiberty Village, MD 
> Http://www.LibertyVillage.Com Please check out all our neighboring cohousing 
> communities:Http://www.MidAtlanticCohousing.org    
>                         
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