Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing's Diversity Problem - CityLab

[Liz Ryan Cole (lizryancole]

One hope I have had is that once cohousing neighborhoods are built and 
occupied, that the uncertainly will be less, and people moving in may be more 
diverse than the original founders.  Has anyone looked at that - if in fact we 
even have enough established cohousing development to generate meaningful data.

liz

Liz Ryan Cole
lizryancole [at] me.com
Pinnacle Cohousing at Loch Lyme Lodge
Lyme, NH



On Aug 11, 2017, at 10:00 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

I don’t want to bog down in a Stats War, but it’s worth keeping in mind that 
homeowners and homebuyers are not a particularly well-diversified group to 
begin with.  For owners/buyers generally, household income and wealth, 
educational attainment and whiteness are all well above the national averages.  
Cohousing looks to run a little higher than the averages for owner/buyers, but 
its not fair to conclude that cohousing is a recidivist bastion of elitism 
within a nation that has otherwise solved its diversity problem.

As for the Democrat thing …

I’m going to stick my neck out, and speculate that the average Democrat trends 
toward greater comfort with a socialized socioeconomic model, and the average 
Republican trends toward greater comfort with a privatized socioeconomic model. 
 If I’m right about this, then we should not be surprised to learn that 
Democrats are more likely to find their way to a cohousing community.  Viewed 
through this lens, then perhaps we should be surprised that the Democratic 
percentage is so low.

So I think article’s title, “Cohousing’s Diversity Problem”, is misleading.  
Nor would I conclude that cheapening construction will ever successfully 
compensate for the problems created by an economy that sustains and promotes 
extreme inequality.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Aug 11, 2017, at 8:49 AM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> For your Friday morning breakfast reading:
> 
> https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/08/cohousings-diversity-problem/536337/
> 
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington DC
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> All typos ... curtesy of Siri  :-)
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> 





Liz Ryan Cole
lizryancole [at] me.com
Pinnacle Cohousing at Loch Lyme Lodge
Lyme, NH
Home 802.785.4124
Work 802.831.1240
Lodge 603-795-2141