Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Need Zoning Law Expertise

[Brian Bartholomew (bartholomew.brian]

> Whether capsules, trailers and tents should be incorporated into our local or 
> national housing strategy might be debated further.
>
> But not here.

I'm not convinced coho is only suitable for urban projects costing $450K for 
relatively small units, with members having a coastal urban worldview.  I don't 
see why the coho social arrangement won't work for different prices and 
worldviews, with structures shrunk all the way down to capsule hotels when 
necessary to meet cost requirements.

Mentally ill veterans building a tent camp in the woods, or drug addicts 
building a tent camp in the city?  Don't these projects have burning souls and 
plenaries with partial consensus?  What they don't have is sturdy buildings and 
some measure of property rights over their real estate, but that's due to the 
city council.

Genetically-related extended family appears dead as a familial organizing 
principle.  To the extent there's a replacement, it's fictive kinship coalesced 
around shared worldview.  As social security purchasing power declines 
10%/year, see http://www.chapwoodindex.com , the only way average boomers will 
afford assisted living is if they do it themselves in a coho.  Some other first 
world countries have the same demographic problem.  The future is coho.

Brian