Cohousing-L Mailing List: 4 P's, accessibility (was Sample Rules, Regs)

[Debbie Behrens (dlbehrens893]

Dave - 

Your group has forgotten 2 very important P's
PARKING and PARTICIPATION
At Highline Crossing, we had the original 3 Ps: Pets, Parking and 
Participation. I’m sure they’ve added Pistols in recent years. (Progeny wasn’t 
a ‘P’ for us cuz we loved having kids in the co-hood - even us grouchy singles 
did IMO) They probably still have their Ps, but I can’t speak for them any more 
as I moved out 4 years ago after 22 years.

And other topics …

Unfortunately accessibility (can’t think of a ‘P’ word for it) wasn’t a core 
value in the building designs for all of most of the units there (including 
mine).  I think we had maybe 2 of the 40 units which were actually ‘relatively' 
accessible to wheelchairs.  Even our common house had issues. (Yeah, it was a 
$$ and slow sales problem at the time, 1995)  I’m not in a wheelchair, but I do 
now prefer elevators to stairs, whenever possible. My knees are not young any 
more.

I know accessibility’s not an absolute core value in most Cohousing 
communities. (Too $$$$) I see way too many communities with lots of stairs and 
multi level units.  Course they have lots of stairs in the Danish communities 
too. DK99!!   It’s cheaper in the short run, but hurts in the long run, for 
those people who don’t really want to move out.  BUT, people moving out does 
bring new blood in, with new enthusiasm, which I’ve always been in favor of.  
;-)

I really do like Cohousing's community values tho, still follow Cohousing, and 
visit new and old communities when I can. (BTW, I gave Karin Hoskin all my old 
photos, in case any of you old timers want to see any old pix: communities, 
conferences, etc) 

I’m also learning about the Green House Project, which seems to be very small 
cohousy-ish nursing homes (thegreenhouseproject.org 
<http://thegreenhouseproject.org/>). But they’re as rare at this time as 
Cohousing was 25 years ago.
Maybe some Cohousing builders would like to branch out into this area (tho the 
codes are different)

Best wishes to all, for a return to PHYSICAL NON-distancing.  ;-)))
Debbie Behrens, Aurora CO
Ex-cohouser, feeling very chatty and missing visiting Cohousing.

PS: Fred - I did cut out all the other emails in the thread - just for YOU    
;-)
PPS: Ann Z - I’m making up words just for YOU    ;-)


> On Mar 1, 2021, at 8:16 AM, Fred-List manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> 
> wrote:
> David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> is the author of the message below. 
>  
> --------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
> 
> Hello Everyone,
> 
>       As against havint (or not having) discussions and decisions on
> specific policies beforehand, a good approach is to agree on a set of
> core values or vision, and use those to develop the policies (ours at a
> https://sites.google.com/site/jpcohousinginternet/our-vision-statement).
> 
>       Of course, it can help making the values statement appropriate
> and useful to use them to develop a number of policies during
> development and see what general discussion issues seem to come up.
> I've heard that a useful set of policy discussions about the ones about
> the "four P's" -- progeny, pistols, pets, and pennies!
> 
> Regards,
> David Heimann
> Jamaica Plain Cohousing