Re: Alexandria VA wants to group cohousing with Boarding houses - please speak up
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2021 07:23:29 -0700 (PDT)
I also did not see Ann’s message before I responded to Chris. Ann has been 
having some email challenges lately so it is possible it didn’t appear at the 
time it was supposed to have appeared.

Sharon.

> On Apr 9, 2021, at 10:00 AM, Chris Roth - Communities Editor <editor [at] 
> gen-us.net> wrote:
> 
> A note of explanation/apology: I subscribe to the daily digest, and was 
> responding to Becca-Person's message on that. I just went online to the 
> current state of the messages (which I only very rarely do)--and noticed a 
> subsequent message from Ann Zabaldo (written yesterday), which for some 
> reason did not make it into the digest I received at 6 am this morning. It 
> seems unfortunate that the digest doesn't include the latest messages, 
> because if I'd seen Ann's message (discouraging anyone from contacting Alexa) 
> before following my impulse to respond to Becca-Person's message, I would 
> have refrained from writing or sending the message to Alexa. Now, having read 
> Ann's message from yesterday in the archives, it seems like a bad idea to 
> have written Alexa. Is there any way to program the digest so it includes 
> up-to-date posts? Otherwise, this kind of thing may easily happen again, for 
> those who rely on the digests and don't carefully double-check vs. the online 
> archive each time.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Chris
> 
> On 4/9/2021 8:59 AM, Chris Roth - Communities Editor wrote:
>> 
>> Here's a letter I just sent to alexa.powell [at] alexandriava.gov, the 
>> contact listed at the bottom of the page linked in Becca-Person's message:
>> 
>> Hi Alexa,
>> 
>> Thank you for this initiative. I fully appreciate what you are trying to 
>> accomplish and promote here. And...
>> 
>> As you have probably heard from others by now, Cohousing is a 
>> well-established term with national and international recognition and quite 
>> a number of published books, as well as a national association (Cohousing 
>> Assocation of the United States) and other groups associated with it--and 
>> what you are describing here is NOT what this established word means. I 
>> applaud what you are promoting here and these kinds of housing initiatives, 
>> but I hope you will find another name for it, as your using this term seems 
>> likely to create confusion as well as possibly even animosity/opposition 
>> from those who would like to see this term used correctly to represent a 
>> movement/form of community that they care about. I edit a magazine 
>> <https://www.gen-us.net/communities/> about intentional communities and 
>> other forms of cooperative culture that frequently features cohousing 
>> projects (according to the accepted definition--see www.cohousing.org 
>> <https://www.cohousing.org/>--a combination of private homes with spaces 
>> held in common, in a cooperatively governed intentional community) and we 
>> are very careful to use this term correctly, in its intended meaning. 
>> "Shared housing" would be a much more accurate term, without a specific 
>> other meaning, for what you are describing, and I urge you to consider using 
>> it, or some other term that accurately describes what you are promoting 
>> without already having an accepted, different meaning.
>> 
>> Please let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like me to connect 
>> you with any further resources related to anything I've written about.
>> 
>> Thank you!
>> 
>> Chris Roth
>> 
>> -- 
>> Chris Roth
>> Editor, Communities
>> 81868 Lost Valley Lane
>> Dexter, OR 97431
>> editor [at] gen-us.net
>> 541-937-5221
>> gen-us.net/communities
>> 
>> for Communities advertising,
>> please contact Joyce Bressler:
>> ads [at] gen-us.net
>> 845-558-4492
>> 
>> for photos and layout,
>> please contact Yulia Zarubina:
>> layout [at] gen-us.net
>> 910-617-6136
>> On 4/9/2021 6:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2021 10:31:01 -0500
>>> From: Becca-Person Brackett<brackett3 [at] gmail.com>
>>> To:cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org, Fred Olson<fholson [at] cohousing.org>
>>> Subject: [C-L]_ Alexandria VA wants to group cohousing with Boarding
>>>     houses - please speak up
>>> Message-ID:
>>>     <CA+D2w7f0FqofJOThW7jJFkHNowuvJqC_Qv5jp3+veWfnOeVLxw [at] 
>>> mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>>> 
>>> My Google alert on the word "Cohousing" keeps turning up misuse of the term.
>>> Maybe it's a losing battle,  but I would urge anyone in the state of
>>> Virginia  or cohousers in the DC area to send the word to the City Council
>>> of Alexandria that cohousing is NOT boarding houses and renting out extra
>>> bedrooms!
>>> 
>>> https://www.alexandriava.gov/planning/info/default.aspx?id=120969
>>> 
>>> They are planning regulations to encourage co-living and allow more
>>> density, make more affordable housing, and those are wonderful goals-  but
>>> the cohousing community needs to tell them DON'T CALL IT COHOUSING.
>>> I like to refer officials and journalist to the wikipedia page
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing
>>> and especially the first sentence:
>>> " *Cohousing*[1]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing#cite_note-1>  is
>>> an intentional community
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community>  of private homes
>>> clustered around shared space. The term originated in Denmark
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark>  in late 1960s.[2]
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing#cite_note-2>  Each attached or
>>> single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen."
>>> 
>>> If we don't speak up, the misinformation will continue - damaging the image
>>> of true cohousing projects.
>>> Cohousing  home purchasers should be able to benefit from any govt program
>>> that assists in making home ownership more affordable.
>>> How is Alexandria addressing that need?
>>> 
>>> I will keep on the alert!
>>> Becca Brackett
>> 
> -- 
> Chris Roth
> Editor, Communities
> 81868 Lost Valley Lane
> Dexter, OR 97431
> editor [at] gen-us.net
> 541-937-5221
> gen-us.net/communities
> 
> for Communities advertising,
> please contact Joyce Bressler:
> ads [at] gen-us.net
> 845-558-4492
> 
> for photos and layout,
> please contact Yulia Zarubina:
> layout [at] gen-us.net
> 910-617-6136
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 


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