Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing that has evolved in existing neighborhoods

[Diana Leafe Christian (diana]

Hello, 

Yes! I completely forgot about Ganas, probably because they specialize in a 
secular form of personal growth, quite different from ecovillages and cohousing 
neighborhoods. Perhaps Ganas members spoke of this in the info session, 
Melanie, but the last I knew, they had seven houses all around a city block a 
short walk from the ferry station on Staten Island, and one house whose kitchen 
and large dining room served as the shared community building/Common House. 

I believe their founder, Mildred Gordon (who died about 20 years ago) and her 
friends and followers bought one or two small two-story houses adjacent to or 
near each other on the block. As their group grew larger they bought more, 
ending up with seven in all, although some years ago they began selling off 
some of the houses, I heard. They had, and perhaps still do, have three 
concentric circles of community members. The inner circle was nine cofounders 
and/or early members who co-owned all the houses and were the landlords. They 
were an income-sharing, polyfidelitous family — all lovers with one another 
(though not outside their group of nine) — who all lived in their houses, owned 
and worked in their three "Anything Goes" community businesses (selling used 
books, recycled clothing, and recycled furniture), ate with each other in the 
daily community meals, and  shared in the income from rent and the businesses. 

The next circle of residents rented rooms in the houses, worked in the 
businesses, and shared in the community meals but weren't part of the 
polyfidelitous group that owned the houses and businesses. The third circle of 
residents were the least involved in the group: they rented rooms in the 
houses, shared in the meals, but didn't work in the businesses (most worked in 
Manhattan). 

Mildred Gordon started Ganas based on a process she called "Feedback Learning," 
in which she and other community members, who were apparently her followers, 
spent several hours in daily meetings to give each other critical feedback 
about themselves, presumably so people could get used to and live comfortably 
with being in the hot seat. The inner circle of nine and most members of the 
next-out circle or renters and workers in the businesses, and perhaps some from 
the outer, renter-only circle, all participated in these daily long meetings of 
critical feedback, led by Mildred (the fiercest feedback-giver of all and whom 
you didn't want to mess with). What stood out for me when I visited Ganas in 
the past was the tough skin people had developed in order to handle the "New 
Yorker"-style feedback — direct, no-nonsense, sometimes brutal; how they didn't 
appear to focus on the environment or ecological living; and how their shared 
meals were the regular American diet, nothing organic or gluten-free  like 
you'd expect in an intentional community, at least in the years when I visited. 
Lastly, I noticed how unusually secular everyone seemed to be, with no 
(apparent) spiritual orientations or spiritual practices. 

So I forgot Ganas when I made my list, probably because they're so unique and 
not like most cohousing communities! or ecovillages either. But you're so 
right, Melanie, in terms of urban create-community-where-you-are projects, 
Ganas should definitely be on the list!

Diana

> On Jul 11, 2023, at 5:00 PM, Melanie G <gomelaniego [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Wasn't Ganas one of these?  I was on their info session last week, and I
> think they said they were started by a few families that lived next door.
> Not co housing maybe?
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