Utopia in the City
Someday, Brooklyn will be “a place where neighbors sit down to share meals several times a week, where children roam freely from home to home, and where grown-ups can hang out in a communal living room.” Okay, maybe not all of it, but at least the swath in Fort Greene selected to become Brooklyn Cohousing,…
Someday, Brooklyn will be “a place where neighbors sit down to share meals several times a week, where children roam freely from home to home, and where grown-ups can hang out in a communal living room.” Okay, maybe not all of it, but at least the swath in Fort Greene selected to become Brooklyn Cohousing, reports the NY Times. As we reported at the end of October, the group of 14 member households, who’ve bought in at $20,000 to $40,000, and 25 associate households, who paid $500 and attend regular meetings, decided to build their paradise at the former St. Michael’s church property, an unfinished 40-condo project that had been known as Carlton Mews. “The group hasn’t settled on a project name yet, but it plans to build more modest apartments than the original developers intended and to fill them with families whose lives revolve around the courtyard and 6,000 square feet of common space where residents can cook together, play together, do woodworking or take an art class together,” they write. Folks will have to get along here, with 40 families making decisions that affect everyone (size of group dining room or common guest rooms, finishes in private kitchens) by consensus. The economy’s downward spiral may have given the project a boost, even though the units, from studios to four-bedrooms (smaller than average, since there’s shared common space), will sell for “market rate.” “A developer who can sell an entire project to a single entity runs a lower risk than one who has to sell individual units. Banks may also appreciate that while a developer may have trouble selling unbuilt condos, the cohousing group expects to sell almost all of the project before construction begins.” But the project is admittedly a financial risk. You’re not buying an apartment, said one of the founding members, Alex Marshall. You’re becoming a legal member of a community and sharing in the costs and risks of building it.
A Village Down the Block [NY Times]
putman:
what can I say?
We’re not all macho communists like yourself.
Sam, if a shaggy tomato plant will ruin your life, then you have some real problems!
“Why are so many people fearful of something different or beyond their immediate experience?”
Right on Putnimdenizen and Wasder. The amount of judgment being passed by commenters is sad.
Because it’s different, because it isn’t necessarily how you or I would prefer to live, it’s somehow OK to insult and ridicule them.
Come on people – your voices represent a slice of NYC. Stop sounding like the right-wing bigots who ran this country to the ground the last decade.
And those mentioning Communism really need to re-read some history. Please stop using loaded words you don’t understand.
I thought people understood that even in our mythical “rugged” and “individualistic” society, we’re all to some degree communally raised. This is not different in any fundamental way.
I’m curious how this collection of individuals is going to get a construction loan. Banks like to look at credit and guarantees. Who’s going to be the deep pocket the bank looks to when things don’t go well?
I hate communal gardens. Most people don’t know how to garden and it annoys me to see what they do to plants and dirt. Especially if it somehow partially belongs to me. I almost bought a little house in Sunnyside once, they have shared gardens in the back. One look back there at the shaggy tomato bushes and ugly flowers and the two middle-aged Italian ladies who ran the show, made me think “this will ruin my life”. It was a close escape!
What a hideous notion!
“Nothing more annoying, than mild mannered parents who let their kids run amok without discipling.”
As opposed to adults who (day-after-day) run amok with their posts on Brownstoner.
I grew up in a neighborhood full of these in the seventies, in a household where consensus decision-making was like, part of our religion and… I wouldn’t go near this with a ten-foot pole.
But that is just me. More power to people that can make this work — I am just not that into committees, or discussions about housework, or dealing with people whose feelings are hurt and need to be placated for weeks on end without any decisions actually being made.
Honestly, it’s just that little word “consensus” that scares me here. If they had some kind of voting system, I think it would work out a lot better.
I’ll be the bleeding heart liberal here and say that I think it sounds like a pretty cool way to live. Would I want to go through what they will have to go through to make it happen? No, but I don’t think that the experience of living in that community would be a bad thing. Provided the community was one that you felt at home in, I think it would be amazing to live with all that communal space. This is coming from somebody who has had numerous friends on different kinds of communes.