Cohousing-L Mailing List: Flattery By Imitation

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

The details on the AARP Fact Sheet can be found at this link:
http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/ppi/liv-com/fs175-cohousing.pdf
 
It strikes me as very well written and a downloadable .PDF that could well be 
utilized in every community's marketing portfolio.
 
I am uncertain how dated it might be. Are there still only three Senior 
Cohousing Communities?
 
Parhaps, if you are identifying your community as a Senior Cohousing Community, 
this would be good time to contact AARP with contemporary information and spur 
their interest in editorial updating.
 
Related Query: Has any community developed an elevator building Senior 
Cohousing community yet?
I wonder because I recall thousands of two story condo structures in FL that 
were built as walk up two story buildings with age 55+ retrictions and became 
only 50% marketable over the years as aging seniors strictly avoided taking a 
2nd floor walk up unit and the age restrictions of the community prohibited 
them being sold, leased or rented to younger households..

Thanks for writing,
TOM LOFFT
Liberty Village, MD
Truly Intergenerational and aging in place nonetheless.

Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 17:25:23 -0400
From: Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Flattery by imitation
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID: <4A4B35DF-625D-4373-ACFE-EEC4BD86E7A3 [at] earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
 
Hello David and Kim --
 
Actually, David, the more recent "pocket neighborhoods" do, in fact, have small 
Common Houses. If you get the book you will see many of them w/ gardens, a 
small indoor community building and other common amenities.
 
At Cohousing Collaborative we are urging people to use the pocket neighborhood 
model which really is a smaller version of cohousing lacking the somewhat 
significant input of future residents -- but WE put that piece in! Here in the 
DC area commercial property for real estate development is so dear I fear the 
communities of 30 or more households close into the city are a thing of the 
past. To make the deal affordable we get into numbers around 40 or more units. 
We can find sites for 20 units but it's very, very expensive. Sometimes, it's 
important to ride the horse in the direction it's going. To wit, smaller 
communities that pack a lot of WOW into them. 
 
Frankly, sometimes I think a smaller CH is not the worst of disasters. Our CH 
is about 3, 500 s/f here at TVC. I love our CH. It has lots of meeting spaces. 
It's expensive to maintain and time consuming to clean and time consuming to 
manage. 
 
What's important is having common space that allows EASY social interaction. 
BTW -- AARP did an entire FACT SHEET on cohousing which I reviewed for them. I 
have the copied I edited but I don't know how to get it to folks as we cannot 
do attachments on this list. I think if you just go the AARP website and search 
for 
 
FACT SHEET Cohousing for Older Adults
 
or just
 
Cohousing for Older Adults
 
it should pop right up.
 
Best --
 
Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646
 
On May 8, 2012, at 4:27 PM, Grace Kim wrote:
 
> 
> David -
> While the article makes no mention of cohousing, the article is about pocket 
> neighborhoods - a type of residential community that architect Ross Chapin 
> (noted in the article) has helped developers to create. He is very cognizant 
> of the role of cohousing in defining community oriented neighborhoods. Which 
> is why in many of his pocket neighborhoods, Ross includes a common building 
> in the central green. In his book, Pocket Neighborhoods, Ross devotes a 
> chapter to cohousing - I know this because I spoke to him at length about 
> cohousing and provided him with photos from my various visits. 
> 
 
> 
> 
> From: "David L. Mandel" <dlmandel [at] pacbell.net>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Flattery by imitation?
> 
> See http://pubs.aarp.org/aarpbulletin/201205_DC?folio=16#article_id=163858.
> 
> I guess you could say that. But funny there's no mention of 20 years of 
> cohousing proliferation, and too bad the residents of these places don't seem 
> to be given the opportunity to have even a minimal common house.
> 
> David