Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: virtual cohousing/community building?

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, Miles R. Fidelman wrote:

> I've been left wondering if there are other ways to build community
> short of a full cohousing development.

Miles, 
  There are certainly ways of developing community that are easier than
organizing community without building a new construction cohousing
community.  The books _Rebuilding Community in America_ and
_Creating Community Anywhere_  are good places to consult.

You specifically refer to 'within walking distance'  which appeals to me.
That is residential based community.  Some of us are trying to 
move toward what I refer to as "retrofit cohousing"  - that is
retrofitting a neighborhood (not necessarily the residences) to be more
cohousing like.  There are some examples and attempts listed
on a rudimentary web page I started:
http://freenet.msp.mn.us/housing/cohousing/retrofit/

There is also a seperate fledgling Internet discussion of 
'UrbanICs' where to discuss this and related ideas.  
Instructions for joining will be posted on the web page above
when its up and running.

Experience with how to do new construction cohousing development has come 
a long way.  How to do retrofit cohousing is much less clear.  On the
other hand it has a lot of potential - we cant all live in newly built
communitites and older housing is often substantially cheaper.

Fred

"embrionic" retrofit Homewood Cohousing in Minneapolis.  Where we've
started a monthly neighborhood supper and have a nice, moderate priced
house on the block available later in '98 (another (renovated) house
available later (?)

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