Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Front Porches & Community Building

[Harry Pasternak (Harry_Pasternak]

Rob
In response to your comments:

 "One thing which I will add to this is that front porches and such 
 things in of themselves have little value as social places if you
 have  nothing in common to talk about and have no social
 inclination."

" So now the question is  raised, what makes people
 anti-social?  Is it simply the lack of  designed socializing
 spaces?  I doubt it."

There used to be a mythology in Denmark that the Danes were "cold",
individualistic and anti-social and not really interested in socializing with
neighbors.

Then in the early seventies, an open competition was held for building an
entire community. A panel of citizens chose the winner from hundreds of
entries. The chosen design had been designed by a group of students studying
landscaping! The student's design was built (as designed). This community
contained  clusters of neighborhoods. Each neighborhood:
- Had a common parking area away from the homes.
- Had pedestrian walkways about eight foot wide going to and through the
neighborhood.
- The walkways were covered by "trellises" as the walkways threaded there way
through the homes. The trellis extended from the walkways to the front of the
homes.
- The homes were single storey with a front garden less than 10 foot deep.
- A "Dutch" door was the front door. The door had glass in it.
- The kitchen windows faced the walkway.
- Each home had a fenced back yard.
- At the "end" of the walkway was a open space.
- A "common" house was located in the open space.
- Money was set aside for each neighborhood to build additional shared
facilities. Each neighborhood would decide after they moved in, the facility
to be built.


The people moving in, were selected randomly; there were just on a waiting
list for a home to be built nowhere in particular. Consequently, their
incomes varied, had differing values, varied in age etc. etc. ---truly a
random selection.

Within a year, Danes in that region, looking for housing went on a waiting
list just for the above community refusing housing in communities built next
to the student designed community. In addition, Danes living in adjacent
communities wanted to move out and also went on the waiting list. 

Why? Despite the commonly mythology held by the Danes themselves, that they
were anti-social, cold, aloof and individualistic---the Danes living in the
student designed neighborhoods were socializing on a level that would make
the inhabitants of any recent cohousing neighborhood, proud of themselves.
 Extensive studies were carried out comparing the Danes living in these
neighborhoods with other neighborhoods in the region--- the results were
overwhelming---the design of the homes and neighborhoods was the only
variable that differed between the two types of neighborhoods. Yet one
neighborhood had a lot socializing, cooperative projects, abundant
gardens---while the comparative neighborhoods were traditionally "Danish"
when it came to social interaction. 

Rob, with respect to your feelings that:
" I am free wheeling a thesis here that  the American consumer society is 
 geared to anti-social behavior and its success is dependent upon 
 anti-social behavior. "

I believe that the reverse is true---that we are all born in a Golden Glow of
Goodness, and continue to maintain that Golden Glow of Goodness. That despite
the efforts of the Ruling Class and sometimes our dysfunctional families, we
still have this Golden Glow of Goodness--although from time to time we may
become inundated by the Ruling Class's efforts and some some of the crap from
our dysfunctional families--we generally survive and continue, looking for
peoples and communites that nuture this Golden Glow rather than trying to
destroy it. 

I believe that if you read any of your history books, visit voluntary
organizations ( the real ones--not the money grubbing fakes), visit any
corporation that is surviving in the 90's (unless they have a monopoly) such
as Harley bike factory, visit any good school and you will find groups of
people successfully working cooperatively.

Harry

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