The Overhead Wire Daily | January 31st, 2024 | Communal Living
Many times in my daily search on items related to housing I come across pieces that share stories about communes or ecovillages, co-housing and co-living. Many of these ideas born out of high housing costs and a disconnect from modern life also lead to higher level health discussions, like the idea of blue zones or health care design such as the French neighborhood created for people with Alzheimer’s. Most of these items are optimistic and share a way of living that creates a sense of community for those that choose it as well as a basic level of care that’s expected as long as we’re living.
To a certain extent I think I personally connect all these dots because I feel many in society are looking for community, or more specifically, the group they can relate to. Not only that, they want to feel like someone has their back. We’ve designed cities for a lot of individualism with cars and single family homes, but the inertia of that decision has taken us away from some of the natural connections that can be made in a more compact community. Not sure how we fix it, but the connected city brings all these issues together and sometimes gets us to think more seriously about it.
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If you’re in the Bay Area this Thursday, we’re hosting a happy hour with Urban Environmentalists Bay Area, Streets for People, and Seamless Bay Area at Elixir on Thursday February 1st at 6pm. It’s easy access to BART at 16th/Mission and I hope folks can join us!
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