March 2008
12 posts
Windsor cohousing meeting Sunday, March 30
In February while touring the East Bay cohousing, Lorene Romero and I met Bruce Shimizu, a developer who is starting a cohousing project in Windsor. Lorene says Bruce is holding an informational meeting this Sunday; she will attend and report back. But perhaps others would like to attend to…All, Would you like to see the site and meet some of the folks on the “interest list” for...
“Cohousing Slideshow by Kathryn McCamant
Sun Mar 30 14:00 – Sun Mar...”
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Building Autonomy one Co-Op at a Time
Tom Meyskins discovered this article in the Winter 2008 issue of Yes Magazine. It’s definitely related to our attempts here to create intentional communities. Building Autonomy, One Co-op at a Time by Michael Fox It’s a social movement and a housing cooperative. A massive self-help program for the poor and a new way of life for thousands. With 20,000 member-families living in...
Common needs spur growth in cohousing developments... →
Hotbeds for cohousing communities include Denver, Washington state, California, and New England, according to the Cohousing Association of the United States, based in Boulder, Colo. Zev Paiss, founding executive director of the Cohousing Association, said that over the past 18 months he’s been getting more calls from developers and landowners “who are up against the wall with either...
A Treasure Trove: the ICWiki →
Wow, here’s a treasure trove of information. Cohousing is one type of “intentional community”. The Foundation for Intentional Communities has put together a tremendous user-generated encyclopedia, the ICWiki. A wiki, for the less nerdy out there, is a user-created compendium of information. The most famous is Wikipedia . Anyone can edit or add information to a wiki. This is a...
Voices of Cohousing. Building Small Villages in... →
Here’s a documentary DVD about cohousing. The DVD has supposedly won awards. Perhaps some kind soul might buy it (only $17.99) and add it to our library. Or perhaps someone could get the Sonoma County Library to buy it. Or maybe both things could happen.
“First cohousing development in Grass Valley begins to sprout
12:01 a.m. PT Mar...”
– Nevada County Local News: First cohousing development in Grass Valley begins to sprout - TheUnion.com
Summary of May 12 meeting →
We had a great meeting last night, with nearly a dozen new faces. We had a lively discussion, apportioned some tasks and agreed to meet in two weeks. The members said they wanted to visit nearby cohousing projects. New member Judy Wismer volunteered to set up a tour at Two-Acre Wood in Sebastopol (she lives there). Judi Marley will coordinate with Eloise Tweeten to vist Yulupa Cohousing. Helen...
Using WorldCat to find books about housing for... →
Now here’s a little hack I sort of stumbled across. WorldCat is essentially the library catalog of ALL the public library catalogs in the U.S. It tells you which libraries have which books. And Sonoma County library can request all these books via Inter-Library Loan. In this case I used its “subject” search and found that WorldCat shows 4,000+ books on “older persons...
Reminder: cohousing meeting, 6 p.m., Wednesday,... →
Here’s a reminder: our next meeting concerning aging and cohousing will be held at 6 p.m., Wedensday, March 12 at Subud Hall, 234 Hutchins Ave., Sebastopol. We’ll brainstorm what we want to achieve with a cohousing project. Also some new books available and some suggestions for activities. Note: it’s a potluck, so bring something to share. The regular Love Choir Sing-Thing...
Podcast Episode: GreenTalk Radio: Cohousing... →
More audio-visual stuff about cohousing. Here’s a 20-minute audio interview with Kathryn McCamant, who has probably designed more cohousing communities than anyone else, including several in Sonoma County. In this podcast she explains several tricky points re cohousing.
Multimedia: Cohousing, the 21st Century Village |... →
Here’s a short 3-part video on cohousing, focused on FrogSong Cohousing in Cotati. Eris Weaver, featured in the videos and a resident there, is a highly knowledgeable consultant available to help other cohousing groups. Someone in our group should interview her and invite her to come visit us.
February 2008
5 posts
8 paths to community & cohousing
In her book “Creating a Life Together” Diana Leafe Christian lists 6 different variations of cohousing. I’ve added a couple of my own. So here goes, roughly in the order from from formal to informal, from those requiring lots of planning to less-organized ad hoc solutions. All are valid for different situations: different strokes for different folks. Buy virgin country land...
Raines Cohen's booklist: "Aging In Community -... →
My friend Raines Cohen, a member of the Berkeley Cohousing community and organizer of the East Bay Cohousing Meetup group, has compiled this list of six titles, the two by Durrett and Christian and four others. Check ‘em out. I’ve read the original “Cohousing” by McCamant and the ScottHanson “Cohousing Handbook.” Both are fine.
Buy this book: "Creating a Life Together" by Diana...
IHere’s another book we need to read. Durrett’s book tends to concentrate on “what” to do — the concrete steps in the process. Christian’s book “Creating a Life together”is more about process and how to move forward. The books are complementary. Again, we need several copies, so please buy one. When it comes write your name it and call or email Judi...
“Aging at Home: For a Lucky Few, a Wish Come True
By JANE GROSS
Published:...”
– Aging at Home: For a Lucky Few, a Wish Come True - New York Times
Buy this book: "Senior Cohousing" by Charles...
In the past few weeks I’ve read several books about cohousing. “Senior Cohousing: A community approach to independent living” by Charles Durrett, published in 2005, is the most relevant. We need several copies — a half-dozen at least — in constant circulation. So please, order a copy today. When it comes write your name it and call or email Judi Marley (Santa Rosa) or...