I’m ready to buy into one of these, but only if they come in a crunchy con flavor:
Cohousing also creates a more self-reliant community that doesn’t require numerous car trips. With onsite child care, shared common meals and a close-knit community, people have less need to drive their cars. In addition, they are more likely to carpool, to compost, to reuse and to recycle.
By supporting lifestyle and behavior changes that are good for the environment, cohousing integrates social sustainability with environmental sustainability. It has often been said that “community is the secret ingredient of sustainability.”
Our friend RC2
calls it the BoBo commune.
Which leads me to the great sociological question of our time: are crunchy cons BoBos? And if they are, what do we call them? Crunchy BoBo cons? BoBocons?
Platpops?
I'm holding out to be known as a "cranky-con." Think there's a book in it? (Yes--it has already been written by Albert Jay Nock: Memoirs of a Superfluous Man--Ed.)
In addition, they are more likely to carpool, to compost, to reuse and to recycle. And, I think, kill each other. There is a time and a place for communal living: college and retirement.
For more information on cohousing see https://www.cohousing.org.
I believe there are at least forming groups that are not left wing. There might be one that is christian focused.
This sounds like a "create your own extended family" scheme. My grown children who live nearby get free childcare (me), we carpool (usually I drive), and have frequent communal meals (I cook). I have never dared suggest communal living and suspect I would find it more of a drain than they might. However, one of our little branches lives with an aunt and another is moving in with grandma this week, to her delight. Given the loneliness of the aging suburbanite, it might be just the thing in social terms.
In Tony's link, this doesn't LOOK much different from condominiums I have visited, except for the social aspect. Remembering immigrant ghetto literature of the last century, cohousing might be quite pleasant and entertaining. It is an "intentional" neighborhood - choose you own neighbors. But do you get voted out if your are sloppy in your recycling or become otherwise offensive?
We are firmly convinced that cohousing could be a global strategy for a sustainable developement and for a better future.
This lifestyle is quite new for our country and for our people, but it is fastly growing and developing, so we hope we can build new communities and groups.