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Co-Neighborhoods

Apr 17, 1999
Steve Habib Rose
Co-Neighborhoods

Hello.

The Northwest Intentional Communities Association (NICA) will be having a table next week at the American Planning Association conference at the Seattle Convention Center. I prepared the following writeup on "co-neighborhoods" for sharing at that conference and other places. I would appreciate a few quick comments on the writeup - I only have one day to finalize it. Thanks!

Habib

Co-Neighborhoods See also http://www.thegarden.net/coneighborhoods

A co-neighborhood is a new name for an intentional community of people who live in the same general neighborhood who choose to form closer bonds with one another. The form and organizational structure (if any) of co-neighborhoods may vary widely. But, they are all based on sharing:

• Ridesharing
• Sharing time with one another
• Community dinners
• Picnics
• Hiking, drumming, and other group activities
• Sharing resources
• Buying "wholesale" food together
• Tools
• Carsharing/owning vehicles together
• Commonhouse/community meeting space
• Sharing labor
• Childcare
• Care for the elderly
• Cooking of selected meals
• Shopping
• Sharing service
• Community cleanup
• Homeless assistance
• Charity fundraising events
• Sharing preparation for possible emergencies
• Earthquakes
• Flooding
• Y2K

Most of these types of sharing are not new. In fact, they used to be a part of what neighborhoods were all about. For good or bad, times have changed.

Co-neighborhoods provide the benefits of community based sharing for today's urban and suburban lifestyles. Furthermore, co-neighborhoods are intentional communities -- and share in the base of experience of residential intentional communities such as cohousing, cooperatives etc. This experience includes important techniques applicable to any type of community, such as consensus based decision making.

Co-neighborhoods are not a substitute for other types of intentional communities. They involve less commitment, and thus also may imply less rewards. Co-neighborhoods are a part of a continuum of intentional communities that allow people to "plug in" wherever is appropriate for them.

However, co-neighborhoods do have several unique advantages that make them very accessible to many people:

• Available to anyone who lives in an urban or suburban setting
• No requirement to physically live together
• Little to no extra money requirements
• Can start by sharing in just one or two ways and add new ways over time as appropriate
• Potentially greater ethnic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle diversity

For more information, and links to co-neighborhoods and related communities, please see the Co-neighborhoods Website at http://www.thegarden.net/coneighborhoods or email habib@thegarden.net