Cohousing-L Mailing List: City Cohousing [was Bay Area Cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Aug 31, 2014, at 4:35 PM, William New <wnew [at] stillcreek.net> wrote:

> One advantage of urban living is proximity to public transportation, 
> services, shops, schools, medical care and a variety of corporate employment, 
> which create the predominant cost drivers that make urban land expensive for 
> co-housing.

Thank you for the extensive analysis of the trade-offs and opportunities. One 
thing I wanted to add here is that there is more access to free programs and 
interesting things to do at no cost. In New York there has been things like an 
archeological dig in Central Park, free and close to free concert series, free 
days at the best museums on the world, inexpensive restaurants, gourmet food 
carts, etc.

A study a few years ago studied teenagers and the deprivations of teenagers in 
cities. To their surprise the city teens didn't feel deprived at all and 
pointed out all the things they could do that suburban kids couldn't do.

The suburbs and countryside have a romantic veneer that can quickly fade. I had 
a similar attachment to living on the beach -- until I moved to Florida and 
lived near the beach. I quickly learned about sand fleas, seaweed and jelly 
fish washing up on piles of noxious, stinging things, and the odors. It smells. 
You can't smell that in the movies! Floridians swim in pools.

And a story I've told before about a friend who was living in a rent controlled 
building that the owner decided to demolish. The tenants gathered together and 
decided to buy the building. They started researching all the federal and state 
programs for low income people and re-claimation of city buildings in 
borderline neighborhoods, etc. It was a big prewar building that had no 
business being torn down. It took as long to do as all cooperative ventures do 
when people can't just hire a team of lawyers, but they did it. 

Many of the residents were poor actors living in 200 square foot apartments 
with sleeping lofts. The building was within several blocks to the theater 
district so they had no transportation costs and lots of restaurants to wait 
tables, which paid them more than the stage. BUT they were also the same 
several blocks from the half-price theater booth where they could go at 7:45 
when all tickets are released for half-price sales. Not hard to just walk over 
and see if anything interesting was available. 

Don't discount the cities. Though it helps when you already live in the 
building.

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