Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing development slowing down?

[pattymara [at] juno.com (pattymara]

-- Joani Blank <joani [at] swansway.com> wrote:
"Given this tremendous opportunity for growth, I 
hardly think that slightly slowing growth in the nation as a whole for a 
few years means a whole lot."


Dear List,
Patty Mara here, from Tierra Nueva, central CA coast.  I have a theory about 
the slightly slowing growth of new cohousing:  the folks who 
dream/develop/organize intentional neighborhoods (cohousing) are the same folks 
who have been very busy with grassroots politics & peacework, locally and 
nationally, durng the past election cycle.  For the past two years (plus) we've 
been campaigning, organizing, protesting and building coalitions to end the 
travesty of the Bush administration and its illegal war/occupation.  We're 
busy, exhausted, broken-hearted and yet still (go figure) actively engaged to 
bring progressive change,  and a radical awakening to take our country back.  
For those of us lucky enough to live in a circle of supportive community 
members, the road is less grim. 

For the rest of those who have yet to build their intentional community, or at 
least find one in the process of getting built, they may have other more 
pressing concerns in their face.   

I remember being active in our local earth day/environmental action group 
before finding the fledgling ragtag group that eventually morphed into Tierra 
Nueva.  I inquired what other activism they were involved in, and they looked 
at me with amusement. The efforts involved in getting built were so consuming, 
there was very little time for anything else in their lives.  And that soon 
became true for my family as we joined.  

Now, (after nearly 7 years of living here) most of us have returned to our 
political, environmental and peace activism, leaning into the arms of our 
extended community family when the rage, disappointment, disillusionment and 
despair seem too much to bear alone.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that the movement to build cohousing has slowed 
somewhat.  Or that the states Joani mentioned which have the most cohousing 
communities are mostly blue.  I predict that the intentional 
neighborhood/cohousing movement will start building up momentum again, as we 
turn away from the national embarrassment and refocus on "acting locally" to 
try to find an alternative to the madness. 

coheartedly,
Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva, cen. CA coast, where four Tierra Nueva women stood along Highway 
1 yesterday in the driving rain, holding up our CodePink banners, peace signs 
and smiling faces to the cars and trucks streaming by.  In our very 
conservative agricultural area, we got SO many honks, waves and signs of 
support...it surprised me into imagining that the tide is turning against this 
insane war.  One must always hope.

"If there is no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one 
another."  Mother Theresa