Diana shares her immense experience of community living and the communities movement in this interview. Here's some highlights:
I feel like I'm in a network of a lot of brothers and sisters and cousins. I feel like I'm living inside of a family of likeminded people going towards the goals of learning how to live more ecologically and economically and socially sustainably, and also we're learning, we're teaching what we learn to others through classes and workshops.
I got interested in intentional communities because I, like thousands and thousands of people across the country, this is in the early 90's, I began to feel like something was missing and I finally could feel my way to identify that what it was, was community.
Diana goes on to describe "13 kinds of Intentional Communities" including ecovillages, cohousing, communes, christian communities, other spiritual communities, retreat centers, student co-ops, and more.
She even explains how to find the community oyu are looking for:
Well, when you're checking communities out on the internet, and the website you need to know about is directory.ic.org, where you can look up any community by its name alphabetically or you can go to any state or province or country and look up the community. It's North America based, so you'll find most communities in the US and Canada, and then you can read the listing about the community and you can read their website if they've got one. Here's some things to look for: does the community have a lot of people? Do they have land and have they been there for a number of years? That tells me that they actually exist as a community. Read their mission and purpose. Is it in alignment with yours? Could you make a living there? Is it in the part of the country that you're interested in? Is there internal community finances, one that you like, income sharing, independent income? How would you make a living? What are the annuals dues and fees? What's the joining fee? How can you, can you afford it?
Diana gives a vision of the future where community is much more common:
Meredith asks: If you look ahead thirty years from today, what kind of transition and awakenings and new emergings do you think are going to be happening in the co-housing and intentional communities based?
Diana Leafe Christian: Well I think that many, many more people will be living in various kinds of intentional communities, including ecologically oriented ones like Eco Villages in cities and towns out in the country, I think that income sharing communities and independent income communities will be everywhere, and food co-ops and worker owned co-ops will be everywhere. People will be getting around I would say by bicycle and donkey cart and not using petroleum and using all kinds of transportation methods from olden times, people will be growing their own foods in urban areas, on their rooftops, on their balconies and in public parks in the median strips just like in Havana today, and people will be growing most of their food in towns and in rural areas because of the industrial shifts without petroleum.
This podcast is a great overview of intentional communities and a great listen. There are also a ton of community resources in Diana's bio on the site.
A lot of news about communities comes my way and its hard to pick and choose what to highlight on Community Buzz. Today, nothing stood out so I figured I'd do a round up of some news thats been languishing on my list but didn't seem quite enough for its own story.
Ithaca has a new community in the works, Farm Pond Circle, and they are already getting press in the Ithaca Journal for planting trees on their new community land. Obviously folks in Ithaca know about community and must be interested in whats new in their area.
Champlain Valley Cohousing was in the Burlington Free Press in an article about the farm they have on site. The 22 unit cohousing community has a 25 acre farm on its land that works as a CSA and sells to wholesalers.
The Portland Oregonian had an article about Columbia Ecovillage, a community developing in Portland that started as a farm and sustainability education center and just bought the adjacent apartment complex with plans to convert them to green living cohousing. See photos on the Oregonian blog.
Then there's all the reviews of the movie Mister Lonely that is about impersonators (look-a-likes of Michael Jackson , Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, etc.) who come together in a commune in Scotland. The kicker is that according to some reviews filmmaker Harmony Korine spent some time as a child "on a commune near Nashville, TN". Most likely The Farm but there are many communes in the Nashville area.
Those living in cohousing consume nearly 60 per cent less energy in the home, and operate car-sharing and recycling schemes that greatly reduce the pollution from travel and landfill. Having facilities such as office space, workshops and gym within the community also reduces travel and associated emissions. Residents' direct involvement in the management and maintenance of these communities has also led to the adoption of more energy-efficient systems and renewable sources of energy.
The paper highlights new development models for cohousing which could help it reach a much wider market and increase its impact.
In a paper published in Futures Journal, Dr Jo Williams of the UCL Bartlett School of Planning says that until recently, cohousing has occupied a niche market in the US, largely because the development model adopted has been resident-led. The time, money and effort required to invest in such a project, along with the associated risks, has very much restricted market interest. It takes a minimum of five years to develop a cohousing project, the drop-out rate is high and projects can be expensive.
However, new development models have emerged in the US that reduce resident involvement, risk and cost - namely, partnership, speculative and retrofit models. Developers are beginning to finance and build cohousing both in partnership with prospective residents and speculatively. Residents are also forming their own cohousing communities in existing neighbourhoods, by taking down fences, creating communal facilities and taking on the responsibility for general management and maintenance.
Besides reducing carbon footprint Cohousing could help meet other social goals.
"With concerns about carbon emissions and energy savings, there has never been greater impetus for housing that offers low-carbon lifestyles. If the development models emerging in the US were adopted in the UK, the market for cohousing could be substantially expanded here. This could add to our options for shrinking our carbon footprint as well as meeting social needs, such as safe homes for an ageing population and local childcare facilities for parents who work."
It's still only in the rumor phase but the Evening Sun from Hanover, PA is reporting that the Barack Obama campaign may be planning a stop at Hundredfold Farm a rural cohousing community in south-central Pennsylvania.
However, one reason for his optimism about a potential Obama appearance is the campaign's interest in the Hundredfold Farm, a co-housing community west of Cashtown that places an emphasis on environmental friendliness.
"All of the information about that farm has been requested by the Obama campaign," said Roger Lund (Chairman of the Adams County Democratic Committee). "They're looking at that very carefully as a place."
This probably isn't the first time a presidential hopeful has stopped at an intentional community but its exciting to think of having a president who knows first hand about cohousing and community. Not to mention the publicity for the movement.
Manzanita Village Cohousing Community received a grant from the Arizona State Land Department to help expand its permaculture urban forest on its site in Prescott Arizona.
The community will be holding a workshop in April to install water catchment systems for their common house which will irrigate the urban forest.
The community's 12.5 acre site has Alligator Juniper, Utah Juniper, Pinion Pine and Scrub Live Oak on its steep slopes and the water catchment system will benefit these and and other species to be interplanted.
Interest in these types of neighborhoods is growing as more people look to build stronger communities, cope with increasing economic pressures, and live with others who share their concerns about the environment.
"Many cohousing communities with land come to see themselves as actively preserving natural spaces and become stewards," said Craig Ragland, executive director of the Cohousing Association.
That sharing component is where the financial savings comes into play. Instead of buying 15 snow blowers or lawnmowers, they only need one or two. The same goes for building a fitness room, guest rooms, and play spaces. Some families, like two in Jamaica Plain Cohousing, have gone as far as sharing a second car.
ABC News in DC did a short video spot on Catoctin Creek Village out in Loudon County, VA and compared the rural cohousing community to both a 60s commune and a golf community. Not the most flattering or accurate description of community but I guess there is no such thing as bad publicity.
The commune is a flash from the past where people lived together and shared almost everything. "We don't share incomes. We don't share partners. It's just like any other subdivision but with a slight twist," said Oliveau.
The twist is much like a golf community, but without the golf. The concept is known as co-housing.
The concept of co-housing did evolve from the communes of the 70's, but people at Catoctin Creek say they are less like flower children and more like farm family.
Ragland gives the basics of cohousing touching on its appeal to the mainstream and its ecological possibilities:
Part of what makes cohousing attractive is that it specifically attempts to create a model that is close enough to the mainstream. It can be financed by conventional bank financing, and frequently uses production housing to help control costs. It's a part of the broader, intentional communities movement, or can be seen as part of that. But it's close enough to the mainstream that it can actually happen more readily, and that appeals to a large number of Americans.
Your Health Connection has created a series of three videos on cohousing and how it can help enhance people's health. The site generaly focuses on health care and and medical issues but did a special report on cohousing as a healthier lifestyle.
Videos include interviews with folks from Frog Song Cohousing in Cotati, CA and Glacier Circle Cohousing a senior cohousing community in Davis, CA. The first video is an overview of cohousing including a look at senior cohousing. The second is a moving piece looking at the experiences of a woman diagnosed with cancer and how her cohousing community supported her during treatment.
In an article titled "Green in Portland," Sunset profiles three couples, one of them living in a co-housing development. Portland is famous for its natural beauty, it's commitment to environmental values and its sheer liveabilty.
"Clearly,this town is doing something right. And it all boils down to one simple idea: In Portland, people work together to get stuff done."
Two of those people are Laura Ford and Josh Devine, who live in an infill co-housing community called Sabin Green
". . . four homes on a 75- by 100-foot lot that once housed only a single two-bedroom bungalow and garage. Created by Eli Spevak, a developer specializing in affordable housing, and designed by Mark Lakeman, the homes have porches and trellises and face a central courtyard that includes built-in benches, gardens, a bike shed, and a teahouse with a living green roof. The thriving Alberta Arts District is three blocks away.
Josh and Laura's house, which they bought last year for $143,000, is a mere 530 square feet. "The greenest thing about our home is its size," says Josh, a math and social studies teacher at a school for special-needs kids. "It's the perfect way for young or low-income people to get into the housing market." The arrangement is also a handy mixture of principle and practicality. Says Laura, an assistant for the Food & Farms program at a nonprofit called Ecotrust, "Living in a tiny home really helps with our footprint, but at the same time, it's what we could afford."
The big media splash in cohousing these days is about Senior or Elder Cohousing, and some might say cohousing's core constituency is among the boomer generation. But recent posts on Trendcentral and Treehugger are noting that cohousing also has appeal for Gen X and Gen Y.
A lifestyle trend that first started back in 1960s Denmark, co-housing may be making a comeback among progressive Gen Xers and Ys....While co-housing used to be a fringe movement, it is now resonating with Xers and Ys who are starting families, searching for community and looking to pool resources.
While I don't understand how cohousing's continually fast and steady growth can be described as a "comeback", its not surprising that Gen Xand Gen Y want in on the action. It seems the appeal of cohousing cuts across generations and its only a matter of when people get into the home buying market that they will start taking a look at cohousing.
The 18 minute audio program focuses on the ecological features of the community including energy efficiency and design to minimize driving. The cohousing units received a LEED Platinum rating, the highest rating awarded by LEED.
The Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm is a new 29-unit co-housing development being built in Peterborough, NH. The community features state-of-the-art, energy-efficient homes; a working organic farm; seven wood pellet boilers for electricity and hot water; and "roughed in" plans for photovoltaics and solar hot water systems. Stephen Lacey visited the site and brought back this story.
Greenway Park is one of the first cohousing projects created exclusively for low-income residents (most such projects are for middle- to upper-middle-class residents, and a few are mixed income) and is structurally a rental project (most cohousing raise construction funds by preselling units). Also, the building is the first affordable housing project in Chicago to have no professional manager. Greenway Park is self-managed by its residents, and future tenants are selected by current tenants.
The developers did great work to get grants and state funding to support energy efficient design for heating, cooling, and electricity. They knew that affordability doesn't just mean low purchase price or rent, but also low cost for utilities.
Greenway Park's green efforts focused on an integrated approach that incorporated a package of energy-efficient building practices, the deliberate substitution of a variety of green building materials for their more conventional counterparts, and a 2.4 kW rooftop photovoltaic system.
Meredith Medland of Living Green interviews Diana Leafe Christian on the subject of Ecovillages and Intentional Communities in this 24-minute podcast.
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Cohousing can help residents reduce their carbon footprint and help prevent global warming according to 
