Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: cars

[Racheli Gai (racheli]

Hi Tim,
Thank you for reminding me (and perhaps others) that perhaps this issue 
is
not as one sided as I'd like to think it is...  For what it's worth, 
below are
my responses to some of the issues you brought up.

On Aug 15, 2006, at 10:27 AM, Tim Clark wrote:
> Do you really want to see your brand new Prius out in the sun getting 
> baked
> and cracked or how about a little acid rain for the car's finish?
At Sonora Cohousing, most parking spots have a roof, so the outdoors 
isn't
as damaging as what you're describing.
> How about the extra water needed to keep an outdoor car clean?
Well, I don't personally ever clean my car, so I guess this problem 
isn't an
issue for me.  But I suspect that if one cleans it with a bucket etc. - 
it would
take a long time before you'd use the amount of water embedded in the 
building
of a garage.
> Do you enjoy lugging wagons full of stuff from the parking lot to your 
> unit?
Can't say that I enjoy it, but the fact is that most Americans don't 
get nearly enough
exercise, so it seems to me that if our way of life forces us to 
move/carry some, it
isn't necessarily a bad thing.
> For those aging in place or in a wheel chair is it easy to get to your 
> unit,
> in the rain?
I'm sure that for some people this could cause a hardship.  Some of our 
units are
quite close to the parking, so in such cases the distance isn't large.  
Come to think
of it, I have suffered for many years from acute back pains.  Bringing 
in the groceries
wasn't always easy, but instead of carrying them all at once, I went 
back and forth.
Or, if it was too hard for me to do, I got someone to help me.  The 
advantage of
cohousing is that one can make arrangements with neighbors, so the 
social
aspect can help resolve such issues.

Regarding attached garages: If you build these, you might want to look 
for ways
to keep pollution from the garage from entering your house.

> Is perimeter parking another form of forced intimacy?

Not more (actually, probably less) than having to go to the mailbox, or 
to the common
laundry room, etc.  For better or worse, cohousing design intentionally 
creates opportunities
to run into other people.  This is usually considered an advantage, but 
if a group of people
wishes to lessen such opportunities, there are ways to arrange the 
buildings
to give people more choice on that matter.
As part of the site design workshop that we did with Katie, we talked a 
lot about what
level of intimacy we wish to create by means of the design.  The idea 
was to create
an environment which would allow the right amount.
I acknowledge that there are times where running into other people 
isn't what one
wants (I, for one, don't like to see others when I come back from a 
movie where
I cried a lot...), but most of the time this isn't an issue.
Also, most people develop sensitivity, and if they see that I'm just 
trying to get
to my house more or less unnoticed, many of them will oblige and will 
not start
conversations at such times.
On the other hand, once you get to know your neighbors really well, you 
might
not care if they see you before you washed your face or combed your 
hair, or after
you cried...

> How about the other functions of a garage other than storing a car, 
> like
> extra storage, messy work space, play space on a rainy day when you 
> want the
> kids to stay close to the house.
There are certainly advantages to having a garage.  In my community, 
where 20 out of
36 comunities have basements,  some people use their basements for 
similar purposes.
> I personally wanted a studio (garage). I want to be able to get up at
> anytime and go to my studio, without driving cross town to get to it. 
> If I
> have an idea in the middle of the night I want to be able to go to 
> work. I
> want to work in my underwear if that is what is happening (door closed 
> of
> course).
Can one of the rooms in your house be used that way?
> And if you say, "what about the common house craft space", ask any 
> artist
> how they feel about working with other people or having to clean up 
> after
> themselves when they are done.
I'm an artist.  I agree that working in the common crafts room has some 
limitations,
but for me it has some advantages too.  I like the companionship of 
others.
and I can also do some artwork in my house if I'm so inclined, so  it's 
not completely an
either/or situation.  I realize that, depending on the medium you're 
using, working at home
might not be a feasible choice.  (We also have a workshop, where people 
do wood or
metalwork and the like).
> Has cohousing developed a knee jerk reaction to cars and how not to
> accommodate them?
I don't know about the knee jerk part.  I think we thought about it a 
lot, and our conclusion
was that having cars on the perimeter offers lots of advantages.  IMO 
it *completely* changes
the feel of the interior of the community - making it safer, and way 
more beautiful, too.
I also think that if one looks seriously at the issue of cutting down 
on resource use, garages are harder
to justify, even though I agree that it's a generalization which 
doesn't hold true each and every
time.
>

Best,
Racheli.