Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: San Diego/Southern California CoHousing

[Kay Argyle (argyle]

> Don't be too fast to say "[Coho] can't happen here" ...
> ...; in such places, people who want to live in community
> may be more driven than elsewhere.  > Raines

So true.

A major frustration for people moving to the Intermountain area is the
closed nature of local society in towns settled by the Mormon pioneers
(which is to say, most of them).

Neighborhood life for LDS adults and children alike centers so much around
ward activities, meetings, and church callings (jobs), that they often have
neither time nor interest for friendships outside the people they attend
church with.  They've nothing against non-Mormons; they're just -- busy.

Occasionally it's something more.  Since (according to Church leaders) the
point of dating is to choose your partner in eternal marriage, a non-Mormon
guy can expect more than his share of refused dates.  Any non-Mormon who
grew up here has a story about some neighbor kid who was told by parents not
to play with her/him.  Last week at the polling place* I overheard a
complaint that "those cohousing people" don't attend church.

If you can overlook such incidents -- the bigots being a small minority --
it can be a nice place to live.  Nonetheless, it was a motivator for some of
our members.

Kay
(Disclaimer -- I'm an umptieth-generation Utah Mormon myself.)
*[A small brag:  Of the first ten voters that morning, five were from our
community!]

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