Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing and Intentional Community

[Guy Koehler, Rivendell Ranch (rivendell_ranch]

I have been struggling with how to reply to Mr. Sandelin's post. As précis,
it appears that Mr. Sandelin attempts to draw a corollary between income,
ability to obtain a mortgage, dysfunction, and thus the probable success
rate of the community in question. I look forward to hearing that this was
an incorrect observation on my part; for, my personal experience has been
that success is premised on the integrity of personal and inter-personal
cooperation, not on income or resources.

The vision at Rivendell is to use Natural Building Materials to build
private residences and common buildings at a fraction of the cost I am
seeing reported by cohousing communities. I would be so bold as to point out
that the American economy already practices income sharing, in the form of
taxes which redistribute wealth to the needy and common endeavors. Rivendell
is seeking ways to level the playing field such that the community's needs
(health, shelter, education, retirement, vacation, etc) are placed before
the individual's wants (luxuries). May I further elaborate that Rivendell is
deliberately avoiding community endorsement of any religion, philosophy,
etc, as we believe that non-discrimination practiced with kindness and
gentleness are the best means by which to enact our Guiding Principles.
Please refer to the url following my signature for the current version of
those Guiding Principles under discussion.

Following are the excerpts from Mr. Sandelin's post which concern me:

number of people in community
bank financing
private vs shared income
median unit price
member participation requirement
community life span
community success rate
stability and high income = mortgage
dysfunctional people = no job = no mortgage = not in co-housing
dysfunctional people plague non-cohousing communities
cohousing members surprisingly better at building community
private ownership at market rate = economic barrier = blessing


Guy Koehler
Rivendell Ranch
Hoquiam, WA 98550

http://www.geocities.com/rivendell_ranch

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L