Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: condos communities vs. co-housing communities

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Nov 28, 2020, at 1:08 PM, Diana Porter <porterd1334 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have been reading this list serve for years and it has helped me work 
> towards positive solutions to some of our issues. It is not co-housing, but 
> it is a great a place to live in community.  We have 20 people in a now zoom 
> bookclub now reading Isabel Wilkerson and someone at the last meeting said “I 
> love it that I live somewhere that i can be in this bookclub with my 
> neighbors discussing race and caste in America!”

Thank you for taking the time to describe your building. I also have lived in 
condos that have warm cultures and responsive, open boards. I think we 
stereotype condos in order to make a stronger point for cohousing. Buildings 
vary greatly and for people who are renting, residents might not reach out. 
Renters are considered temporary and the fact of having renters is not always 
the decision of current residents.

A number of years ago I realized that with all the huge condo buildings around 
that that was the next frontier for cohousing. _They were already built._ 
Adding child friendly features and opening up common spaces, and having places 
for people to share potlucks would change the building culture and not be so 
hard to do. Maybe the child friendly would — the buildings may not be built for 
running feet.

I started and stopped a newsletter called "Building Community: Coops, Condos, 
Cohousing, and Other New Neighborhoods.” Marketing was much harder than I 
expected and other life events intervened. I think it is still an idea whose 
time has come.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org