Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Don't be quiet out there.

[Ellen Orleans (ellen]

Sharon Villines from Takoma Village encouraged us to talk about our
communities, so here's a little about mine. Wild Sage in Boulder
Colorado plans to break ground in April 2003 and move in in early 2004.
We are a mix of 34 market-rate, affordable and Habitat for Humanity
townhomes. We are near the Rocky Mountain foothills, hiking and biking
trails, good public schools, and two bus lines. We are a mix of singles
and couples, two-parent and one- parent families, from our 30's into our
60's.(Kids range from 8 months to 18 years.) 

We have an large Common House planned, community vegetable gardens
across the street, a workshop, and small common green. Boulder is the
home of the University of Colorado, Naropa University, a wonderful
Chautauqua, Farmer's Market, and skating rink, lots of good bookstores,
as well as the consumer-oriented Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall. Like
several other small cities, Boulder suffers from too many chain stores,
white-priviledge, and distracted drivers on cell phones but we are
working on it. Boulder is about about an hour's drive from Denver.

Wild Sage is 90% pre-sold but still has on permanently affordable and
three market rate end-unit homes available (3 bedrooms and an office,
plus unfinished lower level.) These end units start around $420,000
which is a bit pricey for around here where the average home--whatever
that means--is $250,000.  But obviously, they are much better built and
bigger (2712 sq ft.) than the average home. Plus you'll have all us cool
people as your neighbors.

I'm buying one of the affordable homes (640 sq.feet, almost double what
I live in now!) I am exited to be able to buy into cohousing, especially
since it is in a part of Boulder I really like.

Thanks for the opportunity to ramble on,

Ellen Orleans
Wild Sage Cohousing, Boulder
========================================================================
======


Takoma Village Cohousing, 

Don't be quiet out there. Talk about your community and post here
regularly. Every two or three months post a description of what you are
planning. And please, please, please, tell people where the h*** you
are. Location, location, location. People on the waiting list for other
communities need homes and may decide yours fits them.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org



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Message: 8
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 11:32:46 -0400
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Re: Relevance of "isms" to Cohousing discussion list
From: Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

on 10/11/2002 7:17 AM, Hans Tilstra at tilstra [at] smartchat.net.au wrote:

> One of the key qualities of this list vs. other discussion lists I 
> have unsubsribed to, is it's collective discipline to stick to topics 
> that are related to cohousing. The arguments about racism really seem 
> more than peripheral to this. Please note that I am not suggesting 
> that the issue itself is peripheral, just the context in which it 
> takes place.

I apologize for starting this by introducing the word "racist." It was
not the best word to use. Better to have just explained my point that
affordability will not automatically produce diversity of skin color in
cohousing. Or that skin color automatically produces cultural diversity.

Affordability only produces diversity in terms of demonstrated "below
the average" income. In fact, affordability allows people with assets
but with low income on their 1040 to buy a house at a discount. Thus
affordability does not necessarily ensure socio-economic diversity.

It's rainy and cold in DC so I wish someone would tell a good joke. I'm
wishing for Florida sun and we still have at least two more days of
rain.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org





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Message: 9
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 09:06:01 -0700
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Re: Relevance of "isms" to Cohousing discussion list
From: Elizabeth Stevenson <tamgoddess [at] attbi.com>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

 
> Affordability only produces diversity in terms of demonstrated "below 
> the average" income. In fact, affordability allows people with assets 
> but with low income on their 1040 to buy a house at a discount. Thus 
> affordability does not necessarily ensure socio-economic diversity.
> 
Not necessarily. Our affordability guidelines took assets into
consideration. But I see your point.

> It's rainy and cold in DC so I wish someone would tell a good joke. 
> I'm wishing for Florida sun and we still have at least two more days 
> of rain.

> 
> Sharon

A priest, a rabbi and a dog walk into a bar...


-- 
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California
tamgoddess [at] attbi.com


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Message: 10
From: "Peg Blum" <pegb [at] cambridgecohousing.org>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Cc: "BostonCoHousing" <BostonCoHousing [at] yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Marketing Survey
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:21:07 -0400
Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

Hi Catya (and all),

1.  As I recall, Cambridge Cohousing (MA) also sent Mosaic Commons
(MetroWest Boston,MA) flyers to our Friends of Cambridge Cohousing list.
(Mosaic Commons covered the mailing costs.)  We'd be happy to post
flyers on our bulletin board (that'll keep our own folks updated also!).

2.  We also have a link on our website to Mosaic Commons, Jamaica Plain
(Boston, MA) and Cornerstone (Cambridge, MA) in addition to TCN.

3.  Any inquiries that come in to us via email also get referred to TCN,
as well as our local cohousing groups.

4.  Whenever we do tours of our place, we mention the status of the
other local cohousing communities.

It would be of interest to us also to discover if any of these referrals
or referral mechanisms actually work.  Do some work better than others?
You might ask everyone who contacts you how they heard of Mosaic
Commons.  Most of us here try to spread the word about cohousing any way
we can.  And since we usually have no available units, it's great to be
able to refer people elsewhere.

Peg Blum
Cambridge Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

www.cambridgecohousing.org


----- Original Message -----
From: "Catya Belfer-Shevett" <catya [at] homeport.org>

>
> Hey, maybe we could post flyers for JP and Mosaic in the commonhouses 
> of
the
> MA built communities?  That way folks who have friends visiting or 
> interested in cohousing would know where to go?
>
> And how about waiting lists?  Can we get info on the new groups out to

> the existing groups' waiting lists?  (Mosaic sent to New View's list 
> once, but it was a while ago.)
>
> Anyone know if this sort of tactic is successful?
>



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Message: 11
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 09:35:35 -0700
From: "Racheli Gai" <jnpalme [at] attglobal.net>
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Re: Relevance of "isms" to Cohousing discussion list
Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

Hi Hans,
I'm guessing that your objection is aimed at the article I posted. While
I agree that the major issue the article aimed to address (How
(mis)information regarding Asians is used to discredit African Americans
etc.), the way the writer went about exposing realities behind numbers
seemed to me *entirely relevant* to the discussion which was taking
place on the list at that time (because it showed that the reality of
"affordability" is a lot more complex than simply comparing  average or
median income of different ethnic/other groups).

R. 

>One of the key qualities of this list vs. other discussion lists I have

>unsubsribed to, is it's collective discipline to stick to topics that 
>are related to cohousing. The arguments about racism really seem more 
>than peripheral to this. Please note that I am not suggesting that the 
>issue itself is peripheral, just the context in which it takes place.

>regards,
>Hans
>http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cohouse

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-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------
jnpalme [at] attglobal.net (Racheli Gai)
-----------------------------------------------------------



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