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| LAEV - reinventing how we live in cities |
The Los Angeles Eco-Village
Intentional Community (LAEV-IC), in the built-out Wilshire Center/Koreatown area is "working toward becoming a demonstration of healthy urban community. Our whole-systems approach to community development tries to integrate the social, economic and physical aspects of neighborhood life to be sustainable over the long term. Eco-villagers intend to achieve and demonstrate high-fulfillment, low-impact living patterns, to reduce the burden of government, and to increase neighborhood self-reliance in a variety of areas such as livelihood, food production, energy and water use, affordable housing, transit, recreation, waste reduction and education.
"We also plan to convert the housing in the neighborhood from rental to permanently affordable cooperative ownership. Our two block multi-ethnic working class neighborhood is home to about 500 persons. Located three miles west of downtown L.A., the area is close to public transit, the Metro Redline, schools, churches, stores, commercial services and light industry. A rich neighborhood history and architecturally significant buildings provide a sense of place to build on."
To live there, you need to become a member, which involves committing participate in the community.
Cooperative Resources & Services Project (CRSP) is an education, training and resource center for small ecological cooperative communities, located in L.A.Eco-Village, CRSP and its emerging Institute for Urban Ecovillages collaborates with the LAEV-IC and other organizations to present workshops and special events to expand public awareness for living more cooperatively and more ecologically.
More info and history here.
I like the idea of intentional community... but the idea of consensus-based governance gives me the willies. I lived in a student co-op once upon a time, governed (in certain key respects) by consensus. With 13 people, and small stakes, it was work to live there at times, but was fairly manageable, and we had established ground rules to work by. The LAEV is a 40+ stakeholder collective, representing a significant investment of effort and fortune for each person, and the comminity is a work in progress, trying to make up the rules from scratch. Such an arrangement could quickly evolve into endless meta-discussions... for each hour of planting my garden, 100 hours of meetings building consensus on what the ecologically best way to garden is.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine living there as anything other than excruciating. Living with ideals is one thing. Living with idealists is another. Governance like that at LAEV could make SODO attractive and livable to a very narrow range of people indeed.
Its an interesting dilemma isn't it. "Good fences make good neighbors" is an isolationist model. Consensus is so involved as to risk stalemate and if the stakes are high, that's a big risk. Condo associations make some shared governance demands, but typically with a democratic decision making model.
ReplyDeleteI find many of the goals quoted above to be great ones, but I agree I'm unsure about the decision-making model they have chosen.