Hi Susie, and Paul, and all new folks

I was a formative part of this effort something like five? years ago. We
had a group that was meeting for a long time, something over a year. It was
an good and learning experience i'm sure for the folks that went thru it,
though it didn't end up in an eco-village.

The time may be better to make something like this happen now, than back
then. The changes politically, economically, etc may start to make it more
appealing to people.

In my perception, the biggest barrier back then was all of the various
attachments, or fears, or very real concerns that comes about when people
start putting their real money down on something like this. And back then,
in the midst of the real estate boom, there were a lot of "tensions" (by
this i don't mean direct conflict, but more like differences in paradigms
perhaps) around how people would make the big investment necessary to get
something like this off the ground.

These challenges are inherent in all efforts like this one, and up here is
a cohousing effort (legacy farm) that has been trying for years to get off
the ground, and even bougfht land, but still hasn't been able to start
building because of money (credit crunch now) and committmnet issues. I
think it is because the prices were (are) just too high.

For myself, and a few others in the group, part of the fundamental values
that we were coming into the project with (i was an initiator of it) was
that we saw an ecovillage as an alternative to the destructive isolation,
commodification, and basic inequality that are fundamental to the current
speculative property model.

In practice this meant that we wanted to create opportunities for people of
various incomes to have access to a home or homesite at the ecovillage. And
we wanted to change the paradigm of commodification of land, such that
people could no longer speculate on it, and would enter into a healthier
relationship with it. And of course do this all in relationship with like
minded people.

Anyway, out of all of that effort came some good things. One is this
Community Land Trust - The Sustainable Land Stewardship Alliance
www.sustainableland.org that embodies the values that i described above. And
i think that many people involved in the previous effort are also doing
things in their communities, and are still even connected to this list.

I and my partner Sarah are still working towards building community every
day, one way is through this CLT, and the other is through our CSA. If any
of this resonates with others here, we'd love to talk more. Come up for a
visit sometime. www.regenerationcsa.org

peas,
kevin




>
> Posted by: "Susanne" susiecara@... susies_mail
> Date: Mon Apr 6, 2009 5:28 am ((PDT))
>
> Hi, i just joined too, i read an article about cohousing in a magazine so
> did a search and this was the closest group I could find, disappointed it's
> not a "real" ongoing effort. I would love to be involved if a group could
> reenergize.
>
> Susie
>
> --- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, "pauleknapp" <pauleknapp@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I just joined this group and to my dismay it looks like it's defunct. Is
> their anyone still out there interested in starting something in the Hudson
> Valley?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Paul
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, "kskvorak" <k.skvorak@> wrote:
> > >
> > > from: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HVEcovillage/
> > >
> > > This is the former Mailing list for the Hudson Valley Ecovillage
> planning group.
> > >
> > > The group is not currently having regular meetings, but that can change
> if people want to
> > > reenergize it.
> > > Please feel free to use this list to connect with like minded people
> in the Hudson valley
> > > and beyond.
> > >
> > > Excerpt of our former Vision Statement:
> > > Our Vision is to design a culture and practice of a nurturing,
> collaborative, sustainable
> > > model of living that chooses social and environmental responsibility,
> diversity and
> > > creativity.
> > >
> > > It is within the ecovillage model that we see the greatest
> opportunities for serving the
> > > widest range of peoples needs. To house ourselves we will work together
> to build
> > > affordable, low impact, high efficiency shared and individual cohousing
> units, set within a
> > > permaculture designed community with such practical 'innovations' as
> constructed
> > > wetlands for treating and recycling greywater, shared greenhouses,
> passive and active
> > > solar heating, and edible landscaping.
> > >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Messages in this topic (4)
> ________________________________________________________________________
> 1b. Re: New group description
> Posted by: "Sean Maley" semaley@... semaley
> Date: Mon Apr 6, 2009 6:51 am ((PDT))
>
> As a past participant in the dialog here, I'm still watching. It might be
> a good idea for any new core group that emerges, or re-emerges, to have read
> Diane Leafe Christrian's "Creating a Community Together". Diane will be
> returning to the region in May, if you wanted to initiate any events or
> seminars in your area.
>
> I'd like to see several projects form. I'm still hopeful that the
> organization which emerged from the dialog several years ago will one day be
> able to provide services and assistance to such projects. Please consider
> helping Green Phoenix Permaculture help you. Check out our growing examples
> over at Camp Epworth in High Falls. Consider a tax deductible donation (we
> are 501c3).
>
>
> -Sean.
> --- On Mon, 4/6/09, Susanne <susiecara@...> wrote:
> From: Susanne <susiecara@...>
> Subject: [HVEcovillage] Re: New group description
> To: HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, April 6, 2009, 8:26 AM
>
> Hi, i just joined too, i read an article about cohousing in a magazine so
> did a
> search and this was the closest group I could find, disappointed it's not a
> "real" ongoing effort. I would love to be involved if a group could
> reenergize.
>
> Susie
>
> --- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, "pauleknapp"
> <pauleknapp@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I just joined this group and to my dismay it looks like it's defunct.
> Is their anyone still out there interested in starting something in the
> Hudson
> Valley?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Paul
>
>


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