Cohousing on NPR

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Set your timer!


Thursday, July 28, 1:00 p.m. EDST National Public Radio’s Kojo Nnamdi will interview Kathryn McCamant, co-author of Creating Cohousing, on WAMU 88.5 FM in Washington, DC. Please join the conversation! Live outside the Washington, DC area? No problem! The Kojo Nnamdi Show streams live at:
http://www.wamu.org/


Choose PROGRAMS
Choose “K” for Kojo or just put Kojo in the search box
You can call in, email, use Face Book or Tweet.
1 800 433 8850
kojo@wamu.org
http://www.facebook.com/kojoshow
http://twitter.com/#!/kojoshow

Jack Wilbern and Ann Zabaldo will be in the studio providing “local color commentary” on cohousing in the Mid-Atlantic area.


Please join the conversation! This is a valuable opportunity to educate and inform the public about the many benefits of living in cohousing. Let’s have fun doing it!

Submitted by:
Ann Zabaldo, Partner, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC

What's in a book?

Reading these cohousing books helps new groups and new residents/renters to understand the full implications and responsibilities of living in cohousing.

Creating Cohousing. Building Sustainable Communities. by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett (2011).

Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living. The Handbook. by Charles Durrett (2009).

A note from authors/architects Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant:

What's in a book?

Last week, in Washington D.C., I was told about two cohousing neighborhoods that were successfully organized and built in the D.C. area. I was then told that the same organizer (Ann Zabaldo) and developer (Don Tucker) recently tried to organize another cohousing development but couldn't get traction. After six months of hard work the cohousing community, that had everything going for it, (affordable, team with a good track record, etc.) could not get off the ground and was abandoned. I asked Ann what happened?

I would think the third should be easier since there were two great local, and both prize-winning model projects to look to. Ann said that the main difference was that in both of the early projects, everybody who came to the table had read the book. What book? The cohousing book, now called Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities by Katie McCamant and Charles Durrett. In the third project, no one who came to the table had read the book. There was incessant explaining, backtracking, clarifying, and discussing. People were always in different places on the understanding scale. They couldn't coalesce, and when it became clear to some people, others were just starting and bogged the rest down. People became frustrated and disappeared, until finally the project could not afford the dialogue necessary to get enough people moving forward at the same time with a predictable pace. Predictable enough so that people didn't think that they were wasting their time.

Cohousing is more than a sound bite. Nowhere on the internet is the story of why and how a cohousing community won neighborhood of the year in the USA in 2004, or a hundred other stories and distinctions of how these projects hold a vision and move forward in a deliberate fashion. The internet is great for some things, but telling a story and having that story sit on the coffee table available to discuss with friends and visitors at a moment’s notice because when they say "what’s this," only a response with sentences, paragraphs, and complete thoughts will be fully understood. It is sometimes beneficial to hold in your hands the whole story, or at least enough of the story for there to be a foundation to build from. Web pages come and go in a matter of seconds in some people's hands. Those first two projects were developed before the switch to internet-based communication, yet they were highly successful. The internet has firmly established its place in our daily lives, but it’s not a panacea, and an email or a web page, will never replace a good face-to-face with a friend, or a book.

Empirically, it has been clear that the cohousing book makes projects happen. When we started the Nevada City project, the first thing that we did was to go to the local library. All three copies of the book were almost continuously checked out, in a town of only 3,000 people. Of the 25 families who started that project, virtually all of them had read our book. That made it possible for the Nevada City cohousing to happen.

Set future residents of your cohousing up for success; give them a copy of Creating Cohousing to read. Set your group, and your future community, up for success by getting on the same “page” – read the book.

Charles Durrett and Katie McCamant Authors & Architects

DNR Controlled Burn of Liberty Village Meadow & Grassland today

Today the Department of Natural Resources visited our property to do a controlled burn of the meadow & grassland areas they planted a couple of years ago. To learn more read the article about the reasoning and benefits of a controlled burn by the DNR.

Response to Connie's Inquiry

Connie, first of all thanks for posting on our blog. I think it’s a great way to share about living in Liberty Village Cohousing Neighborhood.


I want to share about what it was like where we lived before moving here, why we moved here and why we stay.

Pete and I lived in a townhouse in Elkridge, Maryland very close to Baltimore and convenient to BWI airport. Pete works near 32 and the BW Parkway, so he had a very short commute. We knew our neighbors in the standard suburban way – we said ‘hi’ as we came and went from our home, but no in depth conversations for the most part. Our development had assigned parking spaces, which I guess can be considered a perk in town home communities. So our next door (right next door) neighbor had a parking spot next to Pete’s spot. Everyday when the neighbor parked he backed into his spot and when he got out of his truck he let his truck door hit the side of Pete’s car. Pete had a series marks that were identical all the way down the side of his car. Even as NEXT door neighbors we didn’t feel like we could say anything!


Here at Liberty Village I’ve been known to ask Martie, “Hey, Martie, is there any reason you are parked all crazy half on the grass?”. She replied something about wanting to leave more room for cars to drive by. I let her know I thought it was fine to park on the pavement and still leave room for people to drive by and that she was actually making mud along the side. She said something about not having thought about that. There is more of an openness to speak to neighbors about their daily lives as well as their actions in cohousing that we didn’t find in a “regular” community. That is one of the gifts I see to living here.

I don’t know what you know about my family being in Liberty Village, so if you’ve heard this sorry for the duplication. My dad, step-mother and 2 half-sisters built the house that is now Emily and John’s and my grandmother built the house that is now Ruth & Elanna’s. They were in the first group of houses built here.


In his last job Pete had to travel for work sometimes being away for 3 weeks at a time. I felt so alone in our old town house. After spending some time at Liberty Village activities and visiting my family I was clear I wanted to live here and be near them. I let Pete know and asked him if he wanted to live here with the big question of his commute being so much longer. After we both decided that we wanted to live here we built our home in 2002. Our house was the next to last house built so far here, Ann’s being the most recent.

My dad, Merlin, was VERY passionate about cohousing and Liberty Village. He was one of my everyday friends here in the neighborhood and a good friend to my husband as well. There are lots of stories about his part in Liberty Village being built as well as his “meticulous” ways (to put it gently – he was known at one point as the Hose Nazi – ask Beth to tell you some time, it’s something I think we can all laugh about now).

Even after he and my step-mother split and sold the house to Emily & John, he was going stay in Liberty Village to live in the apartment he built on the 2nd floor of his mom’s house next door. Unfortunately in the Fall of 2004 he passed very suddenly and unexpectedly and 3 ½ weeks after he died my grandmother (Nana to me or to everyone else she was Nellie) died in the grief of losing her son. He was 64 years old about to be 65 and Nana was 98. It was a devastating time for our family as well as Liberty Village. Dad had a wealth of knowledge of the construction of the infrastructure of Liberty Village and all of our homes. He was mostly retired and was able and willing to contribute so much work to the neighborhood.

So now in 2010 why are Pete and I still here...part of why we moved here was to be near family and they are all gone from Liberty Village. I didn’t know if I could stay after losing Dad and Nana, but was clear that I didn’t want to make a decision in the first year. So we waited to see how things would play out and now even 5 ½ years later I am still crying at the loss as I write this, but we are obviously still here. For me I realized that I didn’t want to live in a “regular” neighborhood again. I didn’t want to have those kind of neighbors. I may not be best friends with everyone here, but I know if I can’t talk to them there are facilitators available to help us work out any differences. There are varying degrees of closeness to everyone here, but the connection of being fellow cohousers is absolutely priceless.

So that’s my story about living here and why I think cohousing is fantastic. Thanks for the opportunity to share.

Chelsea

Talking Turkey

Yeah, I know, it's a silly title. I guess it came up because I want to invite folks to speak plainly and from the heart. I want to use this blog to get input from Liberty Villagers about questions and thoughts I'm having about living and aging in an intentional community. I got an old copy of Communities magazine that was devoted to just that topic, and it had some good food for thought.

Some of the things that were said were that older folks like intentional community because they value security and supportive relationships, as well as what traditional nuclear families provided: love, nurture, mutual support, compassion, a daily support system of trusted friends, dignity and respect.

This all sounds good to me; one of the reasons I've been looking for an intentional community is to have a place to grow old in.

I see I'm running out of space, so I'll save the rest for my next post. In the meantime, do you identify with these reasons/benefits for community? Have you found them here? BTW, I suspect all ages will identify with many, if not all of the values mentioned above.

I want to clarify my ideas about community, and whether LV is the place for me. Please be forthright! Thanks, Connie

Take or Trade Weekend

Dear Neighbors -

I will be putting free stuff outside for taking this weekend. Please stop by and see what there might be for you. There will be a lot of women's clothing and a variety of other goodies.

If you are so inspired to do the same - go ahead!

chelsea

From Thursday's New Market/Urbana Gazette

Liberty Village moves to finish ‘cohousing' community

by Christian Brown, Staff Writer

Residents of Liberty Village gathered Sunday to welcome visitors in the hopes that some might want to buy a house.
The 18-house community near Libertytown immediately stands out as different.
Driveways do not lead up to the houses, which are clustered around benches with a fountain in the center.
Asphalt paths weave through the center of the homes, and children play on bicycles or run about without fear of competing with automobile traffic. All vehicles are parked in a communal, paved lot overlooking the homes.Kyra Raphaelidis was sitting on the benches Sunday, visiting her brother, Janus Raphaelidis, who lives in Liberty Village. She said the friendly, open nature of the community feels like "being on vacation every day."
"I don't know how you would get much done," Raphaelidis said.
But that's how Liberty Village residents want to live.
The Liberty Village Community Association began building what was supposed to be a 28-home "cohousing" community in 1999. The idea of cohousing is that residents want to work together, share community meals and events, and be more involved in each other's lives.
While they each own their own houses, they work together to maintain the community, raise chickens, garden, and come together once or twice a week for a community meal.
When Martie Weatherly moved into her home in 2001, she was instantly struck by the charm of the community. "I felt like I was at camp," she said.
But with only 18 houses built, the community is not finished. Ten more homes and a common building for community meals and events need to be built for the Liberty Village Community Association to fulfill its original vision.
The county imposed a building moratorium in 2002 because the sewer connected to Liberty Village and nearby Libertytown could not handle the amount of wastewater flowing into it.
The Frederick Board of County Commissioners lifted the moratorium was on Sept. 26, 2009, after the county expanded the wastewater treatment plant and related systems.
The moratorium's end caught the community off-guard, and now Liberty Village Community Association is looking for 10 people or families who would like to build a home, and held an open house on Sunday.
"We're trying to figure out how to let people know we're out here," said Igor Cerny, who moved in last summer.
The homes start at $278,000, and are usually between 1,000 and 2,200 square feet, according to Weatherly.
Weatherly said the philosophy of cohousing is one in which neighbors involve themselves in each other's lives.
For instance, it's not unusual for the walk from car to home to take 45 minutes as residents catch up with each other along the way.
The Liberty Village Community Association, which is made up of all the residents in the neighborhood, controls who can buy the lots upon which the 10 houses would be built.
Weatherly said prospective buyers are encouraged to get to know the community before they move in to ensure they fit in.
Weatherly said that four new homes have to be sold before the community can build a common building, which is essential to the cohousing lifestyle.
But it is not a commune, as Cerny often has to point out to friends and relatives.
"I own my own house," he said, refuting the idea that everything is communally-owned.
Cerny lived in Takoma Park for 23 years, until he and his family moved to Liberty Village in July 2009.
He said rather it is more like the neighborhoods of the 1950s, where neighbors cared for each other and regularly interact more than with just a friendly wave, but with a "greener" bent.
For instance, the homes use geothermal energy for heating, saving money on heating bills. They also raise their own chickens for their eggs, tying into a broader movement for locally grown food.
Neighbors also look out for each other, Cerny said.
During the three major snowstorms this winter, neighbors dug themselves out, and helped out others who were physically unable to do so. Cerny said he remembered reading a story about a neighborhood in Baltimore where residents banded together to dig out after their local government failed to do so.
Cerny found himself wondering why neighbors banding together to work on a common problem was big news now that he lives in a community that dedicates itself to exactly that.
However, he did say that it was not the norm for other communities.
"That didn't happen in my old neighborhood," he said.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.