Cohousing-L Mailing List: Risk Management <was: Re: Marketing question ...>

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

At Cornerstone, we have one or more households that want to buy electric cars, 
and will need charging stations for these vehicles.  They are willing to pay a 
few thousand to retrofit car chargers to exterior walls adjacent to existing 
parking.  Other households, however, believe there are serious risks of 
electric cars bursting into flame due to battery failures; they believe this 
even though (a) it’s easy to find examples of condos providing charging 
stations in their underground garages, and (b) there’s little or no evidence 
that exploding electric cars are more of a problem than exploding 
refrigerators.  Nonetheless, a fear that something might go wrong has stalled 
out our decision for quite a while now.  How can our community possibly chose 
something that makes others feel unsafe?

Clearly, nobody wants to create significant risk, or unnecessary risk.  But I 
keep dreaming of cohousing, not as maximal risk mitigation, but as a social 
contract in which, as much as possible, we all help each other get what we want.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Jul 11, 2017, at 6:04 PM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> Early on we had a woman who wanted to put her glass blowing kiln in the 
> workshop but was shut down by people being afraid of an accident.   And since 
> we all bow to the possibility, however remote, of something tragic happening 
> … we don’t do anything or rather we restrict others from doing something.
> 
> I wonder how the communities that have LIVESTOCK on the premises manage to 
> deal w/ the risks and hazards of four-footed LARGE mammals?
> 
> 
> Best --
> 
> Ann Zabaldo