Cohousing-L Mailing List: types of diversity

[Karen Frayne (Karen.Frayne]

        Reply to:   types of diversity
I'm chewing away at the question of diversity.  Seems like I need freshness,
newness, perspective.  Can we achieve diversity in coho?  I mean, it's pretty
expensive.  The people who are planning it are planning it with their *money*
and their *education* and their *resources* and their *time*.  Seems to be
like "natural selection" for a certain socioeconomic group.  I went to a
meeting of coho folks and it wasn't what I'd call diverse:  we all seemed to
agree a lot, politically and personally.  We all were college educated. 
Someone on the list recently indicated that coho is not a yuppie commune. 
But I'm worried it could be.  I really, really want to do it, too:  it is my
heart's desire!  I'm ready to save for years and years so I can do it.  But I
want to do it right.  Maybe it can't be done with people who don't have many
resources.  And if it is totally planned and engineered by one type of
people, even if renting or low-cost housing is available at the end, can we
really expect unlike people to join?  Also, is it true that people from
extremely diverse backgrounds *can* live successfully together?  Can a strong
Christian comfortably raise her children next door to a gay couple, or an
unmarried male/female couple?  Can a person who feels strongly about
vegetarianism stand watching others eat meat in his common house?  Shoot,
I've been living in group houses since I turned eighteen, and I've had all
kinds of roomies:  many religions, many incomes, many colors, many ages.  But
over the long haul, if I put all 35 or so people I've lived with in one
community, I wonder if we could get along.  If I just had to live with the
ones most like me, it'd be easier, but I might get bored.  It's making me ask
the question.  kf