Cohousing-L Mailing List: Base model cohousing

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

> But I
>have not received any dissent or opposing points of view.  I suspect =
there is
>plenty of it out there.  Let's hear it!  Through open and rigorous =
discussion of
>these issues we might actually learn something from one another.

I am not sure there is any such thing as base-model cohousing so I am =
also not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.  Are you =
trying to say that base model is better, or somehow that cohousing can't =
work if it is something else?  Or are you saying that people just want =
real estate developments, and this community stuff if extraneous?

Analogy is a very slippery form of logic, and the car anology is pretty =
slippery my friend.  Cars are built with lots of options because that is =
what makes the most money for the builders of the cars.  Houses in my =
area are built huge, with lots of ornaments for the same reason. The =
average new home size in my real estate region is 2600 sq. feet and =
costs $220K.  So to carry your analogy, rather than buy off the shelf =
cars, we are creating our own cars, better ones at that.  Some of the =
cars we are building run on solar power instead of gas, others are only =
one seaters and very small.

My own experience is that people who are interested in cohousing choose =
it because they want the bonds of community, and will accept a great =
deal of other bullshit in order to have those bonds.  I have yet to find =
many cohouser other than resident professionals who go through the epic =
development process because they want to be developers.  They seem to do =
it because they want community in their lives.=20

 Why limit the creativity of cohousing by prescribing it in narrow =
terms?  Cohousing can come in lots and lots of different flavors, each =
appealing to its own interests.  I beleive that creating the most =
diversity will give us, as a movement, the greatest potential for =
appealing to the greatest number of people.  So bring on the Republican, =
Conservative, Christian Cohousing group and the Eco-Freak, radical left, =
granola and sprouts Cohousing Group, and the White-middle class male =
dominate cohousing group and the black womans low income cohousing group =
and on and on and on.  The common ground we would all share as cohousing =
communities is pretty easy to find.  I for one would be interested to =
see how a republican conservative christian group would make decisions.  =
I would love to learn how low income black woman would use a commonhouse =
and what sorts of sharing they did. The diversity within these groups =
can teach many things.

Right now if you want to live in the Puget Sound area you can chose from =
6 pretty different flavors of cohousing.  Maybe someday, we will have =
50.  Thats ok with me. Screw the vanilla base model, I want 50 flavors =
to try out, even if I only buy into one.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
A place some people would say aint cohousing