Getting it Built

The 2009 National Cohousing Conference is now in full swing, and even though I’m not attending any of the main events, I have plenty to think about from the Getting it Built workshop I attended on Wednesday with Jason. Kathryn McCamant was the presenter, and it was interesting to hear about her extensive experience in cohousing development.

I’m still processing some of the info-overload from the workshop, but there were definitely a few things that stuck out to me initially.

1. Cohousing is a beautiful idea, and it definitely has the transformative capacity to significantly reshape the way we live. Those who are leading this emerging movement are inspired by an alternative vision of neighborhoods, community, and sustainability that deconstructs the status quo of sprawl, isolation, and consumerism in most of the housing options currently available to us.
2. With that said, it is also a very long, costly, and difficult process that could go terribly wrong. For much to be gained, much is risked. Seeing the whole process unpacked is pretty intimidating.
3. It struck me that there is a great deal of privilege in cohousing; merely having the conversation about alternative/sustainable models of housing assumes a certain level of socioeconomic privilege. Being the only person of color in the room made me wonder: are people of color not interested in cohousing, or is it my privilege that makes me interested, or both?
4. Regardless of where any of this goes (if anywhere at all), I’m always encouraged when people sit around a table and share ideas about how to make “community” and “sustainability” (and the broad categories those concepts represent) more of a reality in our lives. Life is too short and too misdirected by competing agendas to not ask these difficult questions.

More to follow later.