Cohousing-L Mailing List: Coh "supposed to be"

[Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUB]

From: Judy Baxter ---   baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu

RE:  From: BARANSKI [at] VEAMF1.NL.NUWC.NAVY.MIL
<<Subject: RE: pet policy (was: Gun policy ...)
Co-housing is supposed to be different then many intentional communities in
that there not supposed to be any one special purpose or value, other then
valuing community which you use as a filter to weed people out.  Co-housing is
supposed to be inclusive of different kinds of people.>>
>>

The way I see it - CoHousing is a model, a concept, about housing 
developments/Communities. We are inspired by the idea and the info in 'The
Book',  but I don't think that keeps people from using it in different
situations.  If you have private dwellings, shared common facilities and
dinners, use a participatory process (probably consensus), those seem the
essence to me.  And if you want a women's Cohousing group (one idea that came
up a while ago), a gay one, a (gasp!) Republican one, why not?  For many of us,
there is value in a non-ideological community , but any specific community will
filter out people by location, by price, by its values (a woodshop? a shared
garden or farm? energy efficiency? move in soon?  Move in 5 years from now? 
I think of it as intentional neighborhood - somehow that implies more
flexibility to me. 
Judy
Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, (MoCoCo)
Twin Cities Area, Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota
e-mail: baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu