Cohousing-L Mailing List: Sunset Magazine's Best Places to Live

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Joani Blank <joani [at] swansway.com>
is the author of the message below. 
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> 
because the message included HTML ;      PLEASE do not post HTML, see
   http://csf.colorado.edu/cohousing/2001/msg01672.html  and
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Sunset Magazine has a short article this month inviting their readers to 
submit descriptions of the cities, towns or neighborhoods that they think 
belong in "The West's Best Places To Live," The article says they are 
especially interested in new communities, friendly neighborhoods and places 
that are great for kids.  Cohousing fits the bill so well, that I decided 
to write in a general way about cohousing, rather than just about Swan's 
Market Cohousing.  One of my neighbors here posted this article from 
Sunset, and I do hope someone responds just for our community, but in the 
meantime I decided to send this along.

Joani

To: Sunset Magazine

I'm privileged to live in one of 60 cohousing communities built in the 
United States since 1991 when the first North American community, Muir 
Commons, was completed in Davis, California.  Some of these communities are 
rural, some are suburban and some are urban. They range in size from 11 to 
44 households. More than half of all the built cohousing communities in the 
US are on the West Coast or in the Rockies with clusters in the Front Range 
area of Colorado, Northern California and Seattle.

Cohousing communities share the following characteristics, all of which 
help to create for the residents of these "intentional neighborhoods," a 
sense community that is sorely lacking in most our our cities and towns, 
without sacrificing their privacy or autonomy.

[From the website of the Cohousing Association of the United 
States--formerly The Cohousing Network-- a national non-profit organization 
committed to the development and support of cohousing...]

"PARTICIPATORY PROCESS. Future residents actively participate in the design 
of the community so that it meets their needs.....
NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGN. The physical layout and orientation of the buildings 
(the site plan) encourages a sense of community. For example, the private 
residences are clustered on the site leaving more shared open space, the 
dwellings typically face each other across a pedestrian street or 
courtyard, and/or cars are parked on the periphery...
COMMON FACILITIES. Common facilities are designed for daily use, are an 
integral part of the community, and are always supplemental to the private 
residences. The "common house" typically includes a common kitchen, dining 
area, sitting area, children's playroom and laundry and may also have a 
workshop, library, exercise room, crafts room and/or one or two guest rooms...
RESIDENT MANAGEMENT. Cohousing communities are managed by their residents. 
Residents also do most of the work required to maintain the property, 
participate in the preparation of common meals (usually 2-3 per week) and 
meet regularly to develop policies and do problem-solving for the community...
NON-HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE AND DECISION-MAKING. In cohousing communities 
there are leadership roles, but no one person or persons who has authority 
over others. Most cohousing groups make all of their decisions by consensus....
NO SHARED COMMUNITY ECONOMY. The community is not a source of income for 
its members..."

In addition, cohousing communities are intergenerational, and they share no 
ideology other than the desire and commitment to know our neighbors well, 
while respecting the individuality of each community member. All of the 
other benefits of cohousing derive from adherences to these basic principles.

I've lived in cohousing for more than 11 years now, and have had the 
opportunity to visit over three dozen of the built cohousing communities in 
the U.S.--several dozen more are in various stages of development--and 
although they have the qualities outlined here in common, each is unique, 
which makes it difficult to fit my response to the thoughtful questions you 
have posed. If I were forced to leave my current home in Swan's Market 
Cohousing in the heart of Oakland, I'd be hard pressed to choose which 
community to move to; however, I'm absolutely confident that any one of 
them would be "a great place" for me to live

I urge you to visit http://www.cohousing.org. Browse over to the
communities list there, and then on to the websites of any of the
communities that are listed to get a sense of just how wonderful it can be
to live in one of them. 

Joani Blank
Swan's Market Cohousing
510-834-7399
cell: 510-387-1315
joani [at] swansway.com




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