Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: housing enmasse

[areinert (areinert]

On Thu, 2 Feb 1995, Kevin Wolf wrote:

> 
> Why can't the community be 6-8 co-housing communities all linked in some 
> manner.  Each co-housing group could have its own common house etc, but 
> the community overall might have a office building, childcare facility, 
> food buying club office etc.  Think of co-housing as building blocks and 
> basic units of a community.
> 
> Kevin Wolf 
> N Street Co-housing
> 
> On Thu, 2 Feb 1995 areinert [at] linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us wrote:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > On W
> 
> 
> 
> d, 1 Feb 1995, Blake F. Cullimore wrote:
> > > 
> > > I am a College student that has been studying the concepts that cohousing 

> > > ... have been given the requirements of developing a community that is a 
> > > 170 units on a 25 acres.  The site is a dune scrub community within a 
> > > small town with single family homes around the site.  The site also has a 
> > > major runoff system and perrenial flood zone running through it. I am of 
> > > the opinion that the design of such a community would do injustice to the 
> > > values that create a well founded and functioning community.  
> > > 
> > > Can a housing development have 170 units even if clustered?  Is this a 
> > > mass subdivision in a politically correct disguise? Can a sense of 
> > > community be developed in such circumstances?
> > > 
> > > blake cullimore
> > > 
> > Hmm.  I don't think that something that large could be "cohousing" 
> > community in the sense of a small group of households defining and 
> > operating it cooperatively.  It could be a real nice small town to live 
> > in though, the sort of natural neighborly small town (bigger than a 
> > village) that we hope cohousing is a deliberate recreation of.  But it 
> > couldn't be cohousing in the details of, oh, 100's to dinner and forums 
> > and meetings.  And the grounds meeting over trying deal with and 
> > ameliorate the terrible site would probably tear it up anyway.
> > 
> > Gee.  I guess that means No.
> > 
> > 
> 
> ---
> Kevin Wolf
> 724 N St
> Davis, CA 95616
> phone and fax: 916-758-4211


Thank you; that sounds much more optimistic.  It reminds me of when I 
took Matthes (then 5) to Bitter Lake Park (N. Seattle) for the 
afternoon.  Bitter Lake Park is a small pond, a few acres, around which 
are lots of field, ball fields, playground, tennis court, etc.  On that 
saturday afternoon, overcast but not raining, there was so much community 
activity; softball, kids playing, parents with toddlers at the swings, 
people fishing; it felt like a larger, cosmopolitan version of what we 
thought vaguely cohousing might be like, or what descriptions of the 
street/community life of some urban neighborhoods.  Obviously I had my 
possibility blinders on.  

Arne