Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: New York Times article on the Rocky Corner foreclosure

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

This is, indeed, a very sad story. 

Sharon is surely right about the overarching constructs of money, debt, 
financing.  It’s just a shame.

I knew about this foreclosure some weeks ago.  When I first heard about it, the 
inclination for me was to jump in to analyze what went wrong to develop a 
strategy to prevent the from happening to other communities.  Like I really 
knew something about what went awry having read one email about it and having 
talked to a total of no one from the community.

What was I thinking?

What I would like to do is not Monday-morning quarter back this event. It’s 
waaaay too complex.  Instead, I stand quietly w/ the members of this great 
community of people.  They were … and are ... warriors.  They took on a big 
vision. And they didn’t falter. In the face of mounting pressure to complete 
their vision … in the vulnerability of acceptance of their fading dream … 
talking to a reporter about their loss … they didn’t falter.  

Warriors.

Sometime when the pain has lessened a little and the circumstances surrounding 
the disposition of the property and the circumstances of the community have 
played out a little more … then maybe we can have a conversation that might 
give us insights and might prove restorative to these Rocky Corner heroes.

And, if they want to talk now?  I’m here.

My thoughts only.

Best —

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Ex. Dir. & Mbr. Board of Directors
Mid Atlantic Cohousing
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
202.546.4654
zabaldo [at] earthlink.net

When life shuts a door, 
Open it again.  
It’s a DOOR. 
That’s how they work. 
Lilicloth catalog T-shirt Humor.

NOTE:  Please use zabaldo [at] earthlink.net for email.











> On Feb 11, 2022, at 5:04 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> On Feb 11, 2022, at 3:59 PM, Steve Welzer <stevenwelzer [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> This article will appear in the print edition of the New York Times on
>> Sunday (Real Estate section):
>> 
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/realestate/connecticut-cohousing-foreclosure.html
> 
> This is a very sad story about a failure that was more common in the 1980s 
> than now. This community had been under development for 11 years and had a 
> wide array of investors. The article is a good one in that it gives a clear 
> description of all the things that can go wrong in real estate development. 
> It has taken the movement a long time to realize that cohousing is a real 
> estate development. It involves land and bricks and mortar and that is hugely 
> complicated. And it takes professionals involved from the beginning to avoid 
> pitfalls. The work has to happen before any money changes hands. 
> 
> My condolences to all the Rocky Corner people. 
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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