Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Coho relationships to car deliveries and parking

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

   I would imagine some of this would depend on the
site.  Having all the cars confined to one area is
traditional and is yet another of those places where
you "run into" your neighbors and chat and catch up. 
This design also makes the rest of the site safer for
the small children and pets who live there.  I love
seeing that the kids have the freedom to run around
and really own their community, like we always used to
do ages ago when I was a girl.  In an urban
enviornment these days that's uncommon and precious.
Having communal shopping carts or wagon's of some sort
to transport whatever from your car to your home space
is certainly important.  It would be nice to have
access to mostly indoor or covered paths from the car
spot to the home spot if this is feasible.  Going
through the common house facilitates those impromptu
neighborly interactions and alows us to help each
other with burden moving.  Secrets of any kind are
virtually impossible in Cohousing anyway so forget
about designing for that.  One of the many small
conveniences that I enjoy since living in cohousing is
that the regular UPS or FedEX guys know who in the
community is likely to be home and will sign for
anyone's packages so I never miss any deliveries or
have to go someplace inconvenient or out of the way to
retrieve a package that arrived while I was away.  I
know that's not part of what you asked but felt
compelled to throw that out there.
                Bonnie Fergusson
                Swan's Market Cohousing
                Oakland, CA

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