Cohousing-L Mailing List: Community Responsibility & Self-Governance [ was Pet policy]

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

For my early adult life I was living in a university dominated community where 
the university was the authority and ruler of all things. Then I was moving 
around and not a local citizen. I never got involved in neighborhood affairs, 
or even local city issues. In politics and life, it was all national and 
global. Or immediate — the baby needs a diaper. The school is calling.

For the first time in my life I have lived in one place for 12 years and have 
gained a much fuller understanding of how communities work. Just like cohousing 
there are groups of neighbors who organize proposals and get them into policy. 
They worry about their neighbors and organize emergency response teams when 
there are personal or weather emergencies. Fire victims are inundated with 
clothing and furniture within 24 hours. City agencies are on notice to fix 
things because the neighbors tell them to. They do report drug trafficking and 
speeding drivers and organize reporting systems when there is a crime wave.

That doesn't mean that the study of traffic patterns done 10 years ago has been 
implemented or that we aren't still complaining about loiterers in the 
neighborhood park, but it does mean that there is a much more involved 
underground of neighborhood governance than I was ever aware. Even when people 
didn't own property jointly — or rather less obviously "jointly" — they did 
rebuild this neighborhood, develop amenities, and protect it from urban blight 
for decades. 

Many neighbors attend just as many meetings as cohousers on all sorts of topics 
like redeveloping Walter Reed Army Hospital which is as large as many 
university campuses to approving a dispensary for medical marijuana or a new 
driveway cut on a busy street. What we have, we have because some one did look 
around and think about making a safe, sustainable community. That involved 
dealing with the behavior of their neighbors and standing firm on it.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org