Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Seeking to connect ... Genesee Gardens Coho in Lansing MI

[Diana Leafe Christian (diana]

Thanks very much, Fred. I did email the address on the Coho/US directory 
listing for them, but didn't look them up in the FIC's online Communities 
Directory yet. I appreciate having the additional contact information, and . . 
ta DA! I just got an email directly from a Genesee Gardens resident. I'm really 
happy about, and we're going to talk soon. Asking for help on the wonderful 
Coho-US list worked fast!

By the way, by writing "urban retrofit" communities, I didn't mean retrofitting 
an existing building, although of course that's also what this term means.

I meant communities in which people create community in the neighborhood where 
they already live, still living in each of their own homes and co-creating 
community activities among themselves, like potluck meals, a child care coop, a 
bicycle coop, a car coop, a central composting and/or recycling station for the 
neighborhood, a community garden, street festivals and so on. And then others 
might move to the neighborhood to join them in the community activities. At 
Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage in Cincinnati, for example, about 1/3rd of the 
households along a 3/4-mile cul-de-sac street (no cross streets) have actively 
participated in community activities over the years. Another 1/3rd or so have 
participated sometimes. The last 1/3rd or so don't participate but they're not 
against it either. They created a long hiking trail through the woods (yes, 
woods!) behind everyone's backyard, and a CSA Farm with growing space in 
several of the large backyards of ecovillage residents. They also bought the 
bar, a fairly dangerous crime-ridden dive, on the corner by the cross street at 
the entrance of the cul-de-sac part of the street, and turned it into a 
wholesome community space, including as a pick-up point for their food co-op. 

As I understand from the video, Genesee Gardens has done something quite 
similar among some residents along a shorter cul-de-sac street in Lansing.

Los Angeles Eco-Village (LAEV) has a similar create-it-where-we-live-now 
situation, except the residents live in two adjacent apartment buildings and 
one quadraplex apartment building across the intersection. They've done a lot 
of cool things there, like create a local land trust to own the land underneath 
the buildings, and a housing co-op to own the buildings themselves. They are 
huge advocates for bicycle culture ($25 off on your rent if you don't own a 
car), and one of their members started a free bicycle repair workshop space in 
one of the building's empty rooms, which later became it's own business. LAEV 
successfully advocated to the city to create a slow street by their buildings, 
and now that slow street is quite friendly and safe for bicycles. 

And at N St. Cohousing in Davis, CA, people bought almost all the houses 
(perhaps by now, all the houses) all around a city block. 

In all four examples, more people have moved to houses or apartments on nearby 
streets in order to become part of the community and participate in its 
activities. Very cool!

I'm honored to work with Jim on writing the "how-to" chapter of his book about 
the Enright Ridge community.

Diana

> On May 30, 2023, at 2:33 PM, Fred H Olson <fholson [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Have you tried ggcohousing [at] gmail.com from their directory entry:
> https://www.cohousing.org/directory/genesee-gardens-cohousing-2/
> 
> Thanks for posting the youtube link to the video about
> Genesee Gardens Cohousing, an urban
> retrofit cohousing community in Lansing, MI.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eHgnTc7Oys
> It was posted 10 years ago to youtube...  I wondr what has happened
> since.  Note the folks in the video were a lot younger than many
> cohousing folks.
> 
> You may want to try:
> Perry Godwin <peregryn2356 [at] yahoo.com> who on  17 Mar 2005  posted:
> http://lists.cohousing.org/pipermail/cohousing-l/msg21431.html
> Quite a while ago but maybe... He was last subscribed at that address
> in 2006. The Email Validator https://www.cleancss.com/email-validator/
> says it is valid.
> 
> Perry may work at THELEMA NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES, LANSING, MI 48915
> (517) 485-2544
> 
> Fred