[LCCH] Community Building

[Marganne Meyer]

Hey Naomi,

I know of one kind of like what you describe, but don't know how it
turned out. One thing I do know -- race cannot be used as a deciding
factor for sale of homes or for membership.

There was a group in Portland, OR that bought an older building on
the edge of a downtrodden section of town. It was all they really
could afford. I believe it was an apartment building and they did a
lot of renovation, plus began a community garden on the second half
of the parcel.

This was a cohousing group, so you probably can find this project on
the list of communities at the national cohousing association's web
site.

There might be some intentional communities formed like this too.

Forming community can be as simple as people coming together in a
neighborhood at a community center, then making plans for mutual
support from there. It doesn't have to include the purchase of
housing. There are many degrees of community between a loosely knit
neighborhood to an official cohousing project.

Some of the people from the cohousing list have done a lot of work
exploring how to create community regardless of the structure. It's
called sociology. There is at least one list member who is active
with sociology. Here are a few sites I've bookmarked about it:

http://www.sociocracy.info/
http://buildingcommunity.info/

I've also thought about the possibility of taking advantage of so
many empty homes to provide work and housing for those of us who want
to live in community or are unemployed or have retired sans pensions.

Can't remember what it's called, but there is a movement afoot to
change towns or areas within larger towns. The idea is to make them
more self-sufficient and sustainable, trying to use resources located
nearby instead of shipping products across the country. Redesign
roads to create more walkable towns and encourage people to grow food
locally. It's not quite as simple as I describe -- but was another
interesting concept for creating community where people could afford
to live.

This all would involve a lot of very big changes in the way people live.

Thanks for starting up this topic, Naomi.

Cheers!
Marganne

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