Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Planning cities for Women

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

We're lucky here in Washington DC as well:  Harriet Tregoning is shaking things 
up in our fair city by reducing the number of parking spaces required under 
proposed new zoning laws for new development.   The Dept. of Planning under 
Tregoning is recommending emphasizing alternative transit especially when 
transit oriented development is possible.  The developers love the new proposed 
rules because less parking reduces costs and saves resources while some city 
residents are yowling because parking in some neighborhoods is so dear a 
commodity.  

What does this mean for housing and cohousing?  Less expensive to build housing 
in our densely development city therefore more "affordable."  Also, nicer more 
walkable neighborhoods as pedestrians and bicyclists will compete with fewer 
cars.

Still, neither Tom's example of Montgomery County nor mine with Washington, DC 
probably doesn't mitigate Sharon's point that maybe the majority of heads of 
city planning are still men. I tried a short google search uncovering many 
women head city planners in major metropolitan cities but not the overall 
percentage.  The car still reigns as a close family member for whom we build 
its own special private bedroom while allocating a good hunk of our personal 
and governmental resources to its maintenance.

The purposeful separation of the car in cohousing is one of the clearest 
attributes distinguishing cohousing from other forms of housing development.  
We are unique overall in housing in the US.  After 25+ years ... nice to see 
the rest of planning/housing, etc. catching up w/ us.  :-)   Thank you, Katie 
and Chuck for bringing cohousing to our shores years ago.

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646

On Sep 21, 2013, at 5:02 PM, Thomas Lofft wrote:

> 
> Sharon wrote:
> "Public transportation is still is underfunded compared to car culture. And, 
> I couldn't find figures on it, but how many women do you know who are city 
> planners? "
> Sharon:
> Start looking close to home. The Director of the Montgomery County (MD) 
> Planning Department is a woman as are about 50% of her staff of 140.
>                                         
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