Archive for January, 2008
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
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There is a great article in the real estate section of the Seattle Times on intentional communities in the Seattle area.
The article focuses mostly on the 15 cohousing communities in the Seatttle area featuring Jackson Place Cohousing and Songaia Cohousing.
But at Jackson Place, the layout of the development encourages community interaction. All units have kitchens that face a common courtyard. Each member is expected to contribute at least three hours per month on a "team" that helps manage the property.
Seattle communities are very active in the Northwest Intentional Communities Association (NICA) which helps communities in the pacific Northwest connect and collaborate.
Craig Ragland, of Songaia, says that the number of people attending the local informational meetings of the Northwest Intentional Community Association (NICA), held twice a year, tripled from about 40 to 120 in the past year. NICA's winter meeting is March 8. There also is an informational event Feb. 20 at Jackson Place.
Read the Article.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, Jackson Place, NICA, Seattle, Songaia
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Thursday, January 24th, 2008
The city of Ithaca was second on the list of Greenest Cities in part due to the work of the Ecovillage at Ithaca an intentional community with two 30-home cohousing clusters. The Ecovillage was recently featured in Time magazine and is a great example of a community moving towards sustainability.
Move.com profiled Ithaca and highlighted the Ecovillage as a major part of the cities green ranking:
The village is already at work on phase two: future developments are being considered and will likely include more accessible and affordable housing, a charter school, an education center, village-scale wind power, organic orchards, a roadside farm stand, graywater recycling, on-site biological wastewater treatment center, biomass energy crops, shuttle van, carshare, a natural cemetery, onsite biodiesel/vegetable-oil fuel production, and educational programs.
Not surprisingly most of the top green cities on the list are home to ecovillages, cohousing, and other forms of intentional community. Are communities attracted to green cities or are cities made green by community? I'm sure the answer is both.
Read the Article.
See the list of Greenest Cities.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, ecovillage, Ecovillage at Ithaca, Green Cities, Ithaca, New York
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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
While not a commune in the traditional sense, the residents of 475 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, NY describe their home as a kibbutz or commune. Unfortunately they were all evicted a few days ago due to the building being a fire hazard. Evidently the building was not even supposed to have residential spaces. Some claim the motivation was to move out the artists so the building could be turned into condos.
"We're trying to figure out how to organize ourselves as tenants to get to the bottom of what’s going on here," said tenant Lai Ling Jew. "We love our homes. This is a vibrant community we created."
Read about the community in the New York Times.
More info at the browsnstoner.com
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Related Posts Tags: Artists Commune, Brooklyn, New York, New York Times
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Monday, January 21st, 2008
With over 100 completed cohousing communities in the US, and the idea getting more and more interest and attention, its not surprising that we would see it cropping up in smaller towns across the country.
In just the past few days we've found the following articles:
Activists are working on getting a cohousing community started in the Mother Lode near Yosemite National Park in Califnornia.
In Montrose, Colorado a group is trying get a cohousing community started near Grand Junction.
In Noblesville, IN the daily paper is running articles on how to organize your block into cohousing, including a description of N Street Cohousing in Davis, CA.
In Hollister, CA a group is seeking a zoning variance to put in a senior cohousing community with mixed-use, live-work units.
The FIC's Communities Directory lists over 350 cohousing style communities in the US in various states from forming to completed. CohoUS lists a smaller subset on their cohousing directory as they have a narrower definition of the term.
In either case Cohousing is growing fast and touching the hearts of people in cities big and small who are looking for more community in their lives.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, Grand Junction, Hollister, Mother Lode, Noblesville, small towns
Posted in News Articles | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
A recent article on RenewableEnergyAccess.com does a great profile on Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, a cohousing community in New Hampshire. The article focuses on the communities Green Buildings (which will receive a LEED Platinum rating) and on their wood pellet boilers which provide heat and hot water for the community. The wood boilers use local, renewable fuel to heat the cohousing community for half the price of what most in New Hampshire would pay.
In addition to sharing a central house and a farm, neighbors share certain values, explains Hulbert. They all believe in community and in decreasing their footprint on the earth. She also thinks that many are attracted to the idea of participating on a farm; or at least living where farming is taking place and they can get a fresh supply of locally grown food.
Read the article.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, energy costs, New Hampshire, Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, renewable energy
Posted in News Articles | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
The LA Times ran a great article on cohousing just before Christmas. It profiles Wolf Creek Lodge and focuses on senior cohousing as an up and coming trend.
Along with the architects who imported the idea of cohousing from Denmark 20 years ago, they have designed their 30-unit complex from the ground up, complete with an elaborate common house where they plan to dine together several nights each week.
They've attended scores of meetings, made thousands of decisions -- all by consensus -- buried one beloved member and welcomed others. They have pledged to "support each other through rough times, whether physical, emotional and/or spiritual." They have learned how to listen and how to disagree.
The article seems to do a good job describing cohousing, getting at the social and ecological dynamics as well as the sense of community. They even seem to get consensus.
Read the article.
This article has also been picked up on blogs and other websites including:
planetizen.com - Will Retiring Baby Boomers Revive The Cohousing Movement?
treehugger.com - Cohousing for Aging Boomers
and more
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, elder cohousing, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times, senior cohousing, Wolf Creek Lodge
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Thursday, January 17th, 2008
An article in The Walton Sun from Santa Rosa Beach, Florida describes how a local church is thriving after recasting itself as an intentional community:
"We haven't set any growth records but certainly haven't set out to do so. We have between 60 and 100 each week in worship. From a spiritual perspective, the church is doing quite well as we try to re-imagine church as an intentional community that seeks only to worship God, follow Christ and serve the world," he said.
Its not clear exactly what this means in practice but it is interesting to see the concept taken on. I see many a reference online to the growing number of Christians seeking to create intentional community but mostly in blogs and not in the news.
Read the Article.
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Related Posts Tags: christian, church, Florida
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Thursday, January 17th, 2008
An article posted on the Huffington Post, a progressive news and blog aggregator, suggests communes and cohousing as an option for the current generation's economic and social woes. Looking closer it seems this article comes from Good Magazine.
If it sounds as if I'm calling for a return of the commune, that's because I am--or at least for some alternative to the arid emotional deserts that are our oversized, empty homes. Imagine friends and families living around a courtyard, occasionally sharing meals and keeping an eye on the kids. Cohousing--a movement that's taken off among boomer retirees--aims to do just that. It should go without saying that this way of life has massive environmental benefits. But the case is strong enough if we stick to the question of our cultural and emotional environment.
There are good comments on the article at both sites so its worth checking them both out.
Read the article at Good Magazine.
Read the article at Huffington Post.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, communes, Good Magazine, Huffington Post
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Co-op America published an article on eating co-ops in its Real Money newsletter. The article profiles a variety of groups around the country who have gotten together to share cooking and/or meals together.
From college campuses to apartment buildings, and from suburban neighborhoods to cohousing communities, many busy people have found that cooking cooperatively, especially for the after-work dinners on weeknights, can save time and money, and deepen connections with family and community—all while supporting healthy, green food choices. Though cooking co-op arrangements vary, they all take advantage of the fact that cooking one meal for a crowd, once a week, requires less money, less planning, and less time than cooking five to seven different meals for one’s own family.
Among others, they mention Oberlin's Student Co-ops and eating co-ops, Eastern Village Cohousing as well as the organic vegan co-op, Bobolink at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage.
Read the Article.
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Related Posts Tags: bobolink, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Eastern Village cohousing, eating co-ops, food co-ops, Oberlin Student Co-ops, OSCA
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
Environtal magazine E has an article on the ecovillage movement.
For some reason they lead off with six paragraphs on Arocsanti before the get into the general ecovillage trend, mentioning LA Ecovillage, Cleveland Ecovillage, the Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm.
According to the study, the 379 "eco-villages" registered with the Global Eco-Village Network (110 of them in North America) are proof of changing attitudes. Eco-villages are defined by Worldwatch as "human scale, full-featured settlements in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and can be successfully con-tinued into the indefinite future." The commun-ities can be urban, suburban or rural, and incorporate green buildings, local food production, solar energy, carpooling, and community building efforts. "More and more people are engaged in the idea of local sustainability," says Erik Assadourian, author of the study and a Worldwatch research associate.
Read the Article.
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Related Posts Tags: Arcosanti, Cleveland Ecovillage, E Magazine, ecovillage, LA Ecovillage, The Farm
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