Cohousing-L Mailing List: We're not coho?

[Shava Nerad (shava]

OK, so let me confirm what I think I am hearing:

I want to found an intentional community (thereby, defined by an 
self-chosen but like-minded -- ergo not totally open -- population)
which instead of creating a commune wants to use the cohousing model
of village-like architecture, common house, pedestrian ways, and so
on.

There are some people on this list who believe I should *not* be 
calling my group cohousing(c) because I am involved in an intentional
community?

I don't think that's in the definition in the cohousing(c) book, and
frankly, I find it pretty discouraging.  My idea of this is that it
is a way of building a village, whether in an urban or rural setting.
(as in, "it takes a whole village to raise a child" -- african proverb)

I hope that my community is going to be open in terms of race, religion,
etc, and so on.  We're not saying that people who are not of our specific
philosophy cannot live there, only that people who don't feel comfortable
with us shouldn't bother.  This seems to me no different from a lot of
coho groups who essentially haze new folks to make sure they are able
to deal with the cultural peculiarities before they consider buying.

/* Shava goes into troublemaking mode: */
It seems to me that most coho projects are narrowed in terms of one
very important criterion -- class.  How many coho projects include
low income housing?  I've heard of some.  Can you truly say that your
community is the reflection of an open community when you don't include
people of all social and economic classes?  As a note, our coho plans
include (but may not eventually, due to economics) rental and barter
quarters (i.e. some rental for money, and some rented for work done on
behalf of the community).

So, I want to know, is this an architectural model, or a social model?
If it's an architectural model, it's much less exclusive -- it means that
any kind of group can adopt it.  If it's a social model where people who
can afford to buy into houses in an architectural enclave, creating
a nice community, how is it different (except by detail of architecture)
from a suburban enclave?

I don't *think* that's what cohousing is.  But I think it's a question
we need to address.  How does the cohousing community react when people
say, this is just another form of yuppy enclave, that makes one feel 
better about social consciousness than .8 acre lots?

Shava Nerad
shava [at] ns.uoregon.edu