[Ny-tech-coop] Let's get this co-op started!

[Gloria W]

Jimmy, this really rocks. Thanks for the effort to study the problem, 
find solutions, and get this going.

I think we can learn quite a bit from our European co-op friends, some 
of whom have squatted the right to own their building, others who have 
done group rentals/purchases. Each cooperative living environment comes 
with a good story of how it was founded, the living arrangements, etc.

It would be wonderful to publish a book of these experiences. But I 
digress. I often have friends from co-ops passing through our city, 
staying in my tiny apartment. I dream of a day when we can open our 
doors to fellow geeks and hackers of all kinds, from all around the 
world, and participate in the secret co-op exchange. If they get to stay 
here for free anytime, we get to go there for free anytime, and we meet 
a wide variety of diverse, intelligent, generous, amazing people.

I've stayed in co-ops in Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin, simply due to 
connections through friends. The co-op connection is even greater, and 
the need for cheap/free project/creative/crash space in NYC is really 
dire. NYCResistor often has visitors from other countries, and lets them 
sleep in their loft, in that tiny crunched-up space. I would love to do 
better, and offer real space to create, talk, solder, weld, hangout, 
open to co-op geeks from around the world, do communal cooking, host 
classes of all kinds, possibly even get equipment like a clay kiln 
and/or a glass kiln, a drum scanner, a laser etching machine,  a 
programmable loom, a potters wheel, a fully functional classroom, a 
soundproof recording/rehearsal chamber, a photo developing lab, and 
offer all of these things for rent/barter with groups around NYC. This 
would be fun, possibly even lucrative enough to pay a good chunk of the 
rent/mortgage.

Whew. It felt good to let that all out :) I realize some of this 
equipment comes with high electric bills and insurance requirements, not 
to mention equipment maintenance. But other groups are doing it 
piecemeal. If we get enough people to share this vision, with proper 
planning we could make this a reality one piece at a time. That's my 
grand dream. I hope at least a small bit of this dream speaks to you as 
well. I look at other co-ops which have run for thirty, even forty 
years, and I know that just about anything is possible.

Gloria

> Hi all,
>
> I'm at the NASCO Institute this weekend in Ann Arbor to get ideas about
> starting a real housing cooperative intentional community in NYC. As I've told
> you, this would be oriented toward hackers in the broadest and most worthwhile
> sense of the word: people who are curious and motivated to learn about,
> understand, tinker, change, and improve the world.
>
> This is a complicated but rewarding process taking a year or three, and we need
> to get started. Let's meet and start talking. Meeting location (within NYC) and
> exact time will be discussed via this mailing list over the next few days, but
> to get a general sense of availability, please fill out this poll:
>
> http://doodle.com/dbqc4apsicxn567u
>
> You can see everyone else's availability too. I'm excited to finally get this
> process started and to develop and implement a group vision with you all!
>
> - Jimmy Kaplowitz
> jimmy at kaplowitz.org
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>