Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: cohousing communities with security gates

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Liz Stevenson, Southside Park Coho., 
Sacramento, CA    NEW ADDRESS: tamgoddess [at] home.com
is the author of the message below but due to a new address (fixed now)
it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] cohousing.org

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I'm replying to the list. I think people like it better that way.

We have no security gates, and live in an urban area such as you described.
We had quite a difficult time with the issue of putting up fences around the
property, and finally settled on discreet fences *between* the houses on the
street, so that people could only walk through the sidewalk areas. We also
have signs in the alley saying "Welcome to Southside Park Cohousing. Please
walk your bike. Children at Play." This had the effect of stopping
neighborhood teenagers from running through the property when we first lived
here, and was a real improvement. There are still people who walk through,
and the occasional rowdy teenager in the summer, but mostly the visual clues
that this is private property are respected. With time, we have been more
accepted in the community, and the children who live in the neighborhood are
less hostile than the ones who were here when we moved in, because they have
grown up with us. A few are playmates.

We have had some property crime, mostly car break-ins, and some attempts at
breaking into our bike sheds. Even that has lessened over the years. I think
because those who were doing it have grown up. Not to say there isn't real
possibility of crime here, but I don't think gates would help at all. And we
never seriously considered actual security gates, mostly because they cost a
fortune, but also because we are self selected people who are mostly
comfortable living in the city, and are willing to make the trade-offs
involved.

I would think that the security gate types wouldn't be willing to live in an
urban cohousing.


--
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California

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>From: "Mary E. Faccioli" <LIBMEF [at] langate.gsu.edu>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
>Subject: cohousing communities with security gates
>Date: Mon, Jan 8, 2001, 6:59 AM
>

> Hello kind people,
>
> As I understand it, many cohousing communities have been developed in
> transitional urban or suburban neighborhoods, or in urban or suburban
> neighborhoods that are charictarized by factors such as higher crime, lower
> income, racially/ethnically diverse populations, etc.  I am interested in
> collecting data on the number of cohousing communities in this kind of
> neighborhood (as opposed to an affluent neighborhood or rural area), and am
> specifically interested to know how many in this situation have chosen to
> put up a security gate around their community.   If folks wouldn't mind
> sending me (off-list, and I can summarize if there's interest) information
> about their communities in this regard, or any other relevant stories about
> discussions, issues, etc. you've had in your communities related to this
> topic, I would be grateful.  Also if anyone knows where information like
> this has been collected, this info would also be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Mary Beth Faccioli
> East Lake Commons
> Atlanta, GA
>
>