The ties that bind are the ties that heal: living in a strong community can prolong your life

Vegetarian Times, August, 1997 by Mark Harris

The desire to live in tight-knit, interactive neighborhoods can be seen in the growing popularity of cohousing communities. Here, clustered homes surround a common house, where residents share meals a couple of times a week and gather for afternoon tea, birthday celebrations and impromptu socializing. Since 1991, 21 cohousing communities have been raised in the United States with another 15 projects currently under construction. More than 150 additional groups are actively exploring the concept, according to the Cohousing Company, a San Francisco-based group of architects that assist groups in their quest to build a community.

FINDING COMMUNITY WHERE YOU LIVE

Not all of us are lucky enough to live in a communal enclave like Celebration or the Roseto of old, where everyone knows our name and neighbors turn out to celebrate our child's birthday. We're more likely to live in city apartments, where no one knows anyone, or maybe out in the suburbs, a car ride away from any social life. In our experience, the best of communities may be little more than a place where we at least know a neighbor or two well enough to ask them to take in our mail and newspapers when we're away on vacation.

However, neighborhoods can be transformed, and community can be built where none -- or little -- exist. And one person can begin the process. How? "You don't have to begin with a giant step," says Carolyn Shaffer, author with Kristin Anundsen of Creating Community Anywhere (Jeremy Tarcher, 1993), a practical guide to community building. Shaffer recommends simply calling over a friendly neighbor for a cup of coffee or for an evening walk. Connecting with one person gives you a "buddy" with whom you can work to reach further into the community. Buddying-up also takes some of the pressure off you, says Shaffer, "so it's not just one person putting her neck out."

Slowly, a core group may form as you continue to reach out this way. Entire communities have formed around events as simple as backyard potlucks or annual yard sales -- and the community that arises from these low-stakes interactions can grow into surprisingly powerful entities. A weekly dinner club that formed in a Lawrence. Kan., neighborhood became the catalyst for a grass-roots campaign to save a beloved co-op grocery store, whose existence was jeopardized by the planned siting of a national health food chain in the area. The community rallied to preserved the co-op, which was strengthened by the struggle and ended up serving as a gathering spot for locals.

You also can call neighbors together more formally to discuss an issue of common concern -- child rearing, quality of the local environment and crime. "This is a time for socializing," says Shaffer, "but it's also an opportunity for people to talk about the kind of neighborhood they want and don't want." Out of these discussions parent support groups have formed. Vacant lots have been tilled into community gardens, and neighborhoodwatch groups have sprouted.

Discussion groups at the civic level have improved entire towns. In Orford, N.H., 75 citizens -- 10 percent of its registered voters -- turned out for a series of four study circles that considered whether to close a local high school. Residents decided that they not only wanted the school kept open, but they also agreed to study the underlying reasons why the school's closure was a perennial issue. Elected officials bowed to the wishes of the suddenly galvanized electorate, voting to keep the school open. With an eye on keeping the school open long-term, teachers pitched in by voluntarily reducing their recent raises, while the school board trimmed its budget.