Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Elitist lifestyle or public good?

[Dahako (Dahako]

Hi all - 

I love this discussion.  I hope someone can do the research you're looking
for, Don.  Working at HUD, I hear a LOT of chatter about New Urbanism. We
don't think much of the Disney neighborhoods of the world, but incorporating
the principles of New Urbanism is required for several of our grant
competitions, most notably HOPE VI - grants to transform public housing
projects - and Homeownership Zones - a program to revitalize urban
neighborhoods. I don't know whether anyone has studied (yet) the effects of
these transformations on the social life and organization of the affected
neighborhoods.  (Though, in the case of troubled public housing, there is no
question that the change has been for the better in the immediate area.) Just
so you know that the principles are being applied in some very unsexy places
by people who want to transform the human society living in the built
environment.  

In my experience wandering around North Carolina for HUD, several community
development directors and senior planners and nonprofit affordable housing
directors have been quite interested in helping to develop mixed-income
cohousing communities - they just don't know how to get started and are so
busy they haven't slowed down to search out the info. Maybe getting on the
agenda of the National Community Development Association's annual conference,
or on regional or statewide ones, and training these folks could be part of a
strategy to get the word out about cohousing?  Many of these folks do housing
development and rehabilitation all the time - often married with various
human services - , and they love to hear about new models that seem
especially supportive of their biggest clientele group: working class single
parents.  A large number of them also have active homeownership programs.

The folks who really care about community life, besides residents, are
community organizers.  This country has a tradition of community organizers
working around a hot issue or a single, identifiable external stress. Less
common is a community formally organizing because life is simply better when
neighbors pull together.  I have read some community organizing and sociology
literature studying neighborhoods. Anyone out there have experience in this
area?

Jessie Handforth Kome
Eno Commons
Durham, NC
Where we are preparing for our EnoWeen trick-or-treating.  Handing out
old-fashioned Halloween treats like taffy apples and cider from the imaginary
porches of our future homes.  All the scary stuff is just pretend!