Daily Archives: April 12, 2017

As San Franciscos housing crunch continues, some residents are choosing to forgo traditional apartments and live in intentional, communal living under one roof echoing the type of housing that emerged during the hippie movement.

This year, on the fiftieth anniversary of The Summer of Love, many think that tech has changed the city for the worse, but the movement isnt dead.

The narrative is very much around how San Francisco is over and tech has ruined the city, but actually there is this strong counterculture all over the place, where people are providing mutual aid and shared learnings and doing all sorts of interesting things, and this isnt really seen, said Zarinah Agnew, a proponent of communal living and a resident and founder at The Embassy.

In this 360-degree, immersive video piece, take a tour of the Red Victorian, learn about the communities that have sprung up in the Haight-Ashburyand experience what its like to live communally in the 21st century.

A commune is an intentional community of people that live together, share common interests, collaborate on ideas, and often have common values and beliefs, as well as shared resources and responsibilities. A big part of it is the interpersonal dimension communes offer an escape from the cult of individualism, by connecting you with people to hang out with and grow close and intimate with, in a society where a lot of people lack social connection. Furthermore, there are also a lot of economic benefits.

I cook once a month and am cooked for the other 29 days of the month, explained Eric Rogers, a resident at The Red Victorian. I have this huge building at my disposal. I basically have the biggest house out of anyone I know. And thats a really nice thing to have in a city that has extremely expensive real estate

Built in 1904, the Red Victorian has been a cornerstone of the Upper Haight and a gathering place for revolutionaries, artists and travelers. Before it became a commune, the building was a historic peace and love hotel from the 1970s, and a meeting place through housing political protests, radical new ideas, artwork, creativity and conversations around creating world peace.

About 20 residents live and work together to build a rich community in The Red Victorian. It welcomes its residents to host and attend events from talks, classes and skill shares to music nights, book discussions and family dinners. It is also run as a small hotel, by renting out unoccupied rooms and making selected visitors staying in The Red Victorian feel like coming home to friends and family.

It is part of a greater international commune network, along with the flagship house The Embassy. Both communities work closely together and have great vision in bringing forth change they want to see in the world.

I would describe our community as a very creative and diverse group of people that are very interested in improving the world and also changing some of the systemic ways in which the world operates and perpetuates culture, Rogers said.

They are also part of the 11 houses that comprise the Haight Street Commons network, a group of communities united by geography. Every community operates differently. They make their own house rules and standards for housemate selection. Some are larger and house up to 30 residents; others are smaller and bring together a dozen people. When a new community starts, there is a lot of intention setting and meetings around what values the house should uphold and live by. As a result, you end up with a broad range of lifestyles and vibes in these houses whether it is creating a space to focus on art, or a place to experiment with consensus-based decision-making, or more inwards-focusing goals and creating meaningful bonds with housemates.

Our communitiesare about creating tiny pockets of experiments, Agnew said. I think its a great thing that we operate differently, it would be sad if we all do the exact same thing.

The members of these variouscommunities connect and attend each others events. As a result you see a lot of crossover and friendships, creating a greatercommunity of like-minded people, all diverse in origin, age and walks of life, but united by their choice to live their life with intention. And you really see them come together to support each other and learn from one another.

Until now, weve largely had a society that has evolved and weve never really had one that was designed. And weve certainly not had a chance to vote or experiment on the kind of society that we might like to have that actually represents all of us, and Id like to see the communes being these places where we get to experiment with how we might like to operate and sharing these learnings between us, Agnew explained.

People have been living communally for thousands of years, whether it is with tribes of hunter-gatherers or extended families. It is only recently that atomized livingbecame such a prevalent notion in Western society. Surges in popularity of communal living, such as the ones weve seen in the 1870s and the 1960s have been associatedto slums in our economy, so there are a lot of dimensionsat play political, cultural and economic among others.

For communal living to thrive in the future, there are a lot of systemic and legislative challenges that will need to be addressed. Financially, it is very difficult to start a commune or to find suitable buildings. Communal dwellings are frequently inspected, according to their organizers. City officials may notunderstand what communal living is, since itdoesnt always fit intopredefined boxes and categories. As a result, this movement has challenged the meaning of the word family.

There are two major ways that communes can compete with our notion of family. First, there is the dimension of company and emotional support, and second, from an economic perspective, shared domestic labor.Some states in the U.S. to this day, dictate that you cannot have more than four unrelated adults living in one household.

Generally speaking, American society has been told that you do that within a family. But weve realized that it can be a lot more effective if you do it on a larger scale, Rogers explained. In fact, The Embassy commune has seenfamilies with kids among its residents in the past.

Im in this in the long run, Rogers said. Im not doing this as a youthful thing that I look back gleefully on when Im an old person or a person with a family. For me Im really interested in redefining what family means.

Rogers will be pursuing his Ph.D. at Cambridge this fall, writing his thesis on Communes in the 21st Century.

EDITORS NOTE: ReporterAnna Yelizarova is a serial communal-living dweller and a current resident at Chateau Ubuntu, an intentional community in San Francisco.

Excerpt from:

Communes in San Francisco: Returning to the roots of communal ... - Peninsula Press

Its no secret that the destruction of the socials has had a big impact on the social scene at Amherst. If a group of students want to have a party, then they have to reserve a dorms public common room, or a venue like the Powerhouse, unless they live in one of the five suites in Jenkins. That has made it a lot harder to organize parties, according to Beau Santero 18, a member of the football team. On the flip side, residents of the Triangle dorms of Mayo-Smith, Hitchcock and Seelye have qualms of their own, with one Mayo resident speaking for many of his neighbors when he complained of sticky floors and trashed bathrooms after parties organized by non-residents.

At the end of the day, some of these conflicts are inevitable when students have such different ideas of a good time. Some people look forward to Friday, because it means a board game night in a friends dorm room. For others, it means getting a good nights rest before waking up early for a hiking trip with the Outing Club. Still others pine away, lighting candles to the memories of Pond, Stone, Coolidge and Crossett.

However, after talking to a few of our fellow students, we have come to the conclusion that a lot of the tensions, which arise when students with different interests compete for a limited number of viable social spaces, are due to the dynamics of party registration and dorm governance unique to Amherst. This is good news, because it means we can try and fix things.

The key problem of partying at Amherst after the socials demolition is that the interests of partygoers and dorm residents are less aligned than at any point in the colleges history. Before 1984, residential fraternities hosted most parties. After 1984, a mixed regime of parties within on-campus suites, parties in common areas of dorms and parties in off-campus houses prevailed. Under both systems, a large share of parties were held by residents in a suite or house. Obviously, this helped reduce the negative effects of noise and mess on students less interested in partying. Now, with all options other than parties in common rooms and public venues like the Powerhouse eliminated by architectural fiat, living and partying have become spatially scattered with negative effects for all. Moreover, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for people to form intentional communities with their peers that are grounded in a fusion of social and residential space a formula that has been essential to the success of theme housing at Amherst.

In exploring these issues, we spoke to four students: a football player, a Mayo-Smith resident, a theme house residential counselor (RC) and a three-year RC who has supervised both first-year and returning-student dorms. We know our research is far from exhaustive. The sample size is tiny, and our respondents were drawn from our extended social circle. Thats why we intend for this to be a starting point. We hope others will raise new ideas and call us out where they think we are mistaken.

Our conversations with a resident and partygoers on the Triangle help illustrate why the current situation is a crummy deal for partiers and non-partiers alike. One Mayo-Smith resident said he wouldnt choose to live in Mayo-Smith or a similar dorm again. Indeed, according to statistics provided by Director of Student Activities Paul Gallegos, 29 percent of all registered parties in the 2016-2017 academic year to date have occurred in the three Triangle dorms (Mayo-Smith, Seelye and Hitchcock).

That burden is perhaps a contributor to the divide between partiers and residents perceived by the same Mayo resident. On weekends, the bathrooms are frequently trashed, with spilled alcohol, cups, and garbage on the ground, he said. Our first-floor common room is disgusting, smelly, sticky and unusable.

This lack of accountability is a natural result of a system in which residents and partygoers have distinct interests. Conversely, Santero described a parallel group of problems faced by people trying to organize parties: demolishing the socials, he says, was a shock to the system. Now, its a scramble to get a giant group of guys who are really excited to go out on a Saturday all together in a social space while also trying to be respectful to students who, quite simply, never wanted to live next to the football team in the first place.

One RC, who asked to remain anonymous, painted a picture of exceptionally toxic relations between his residents and students using the dorms common space for registered parties. I know that there have been dorm damage incidents in the past in all dorms, but this year damage has skyrocketed, he said. Damage has gone beyond just simple accidents to outright destruction of property and disrespect. The basement has had eight holes [made by students] these are holes the size of a chair or a human body.

The tenor of relations described by the people to whom we spoke belies the effectiveness of a technical or administration-driven solution. We are not at all anti-party. In fact, were the opposite. And new rules, or a new formal party registration system, seem like half-measures at best. What has happened is the complete dissection and rearrangement of student life in space. Strong communities are based on the richness of overlapping social, residential and academic experiences. When these different functions are scattered across campus, its a no-win situation.

Our interview with Bryan Doniger 18 was a refreshing counterpoint to the horror stories we heard from our other respondents. Bryan is the RC of Marsh, the arts theme house. Marsh is an intentional community. Members have to apply and interview. They contribute to the life of the house with Marsh-sponsored art projects. The dorm has an e-board and a president alongside the RC.

Doniger says that when his residents have objected to a planned party, weve been able to work out all objections without cancelling any parties the goal is to host events while still keeping everyone relatively happy. As a result, Doniger has had to do much less to resolve conflicts between residents and partygoers than RCs of other dorms, noting that even when he had to shut down parties, things went smoothly.

Donigers experience with Marsh may be idiosyncratic. However, we think there is a more compelling explanation. Marsh as a whole has more social resources than other dorms. By that, we mean it is a real entity in a way that Garman, Seelye and Lipton just arent. Because it functions as a hybrid of a student organization and a residence hall, residents know what theyre getting into. We believe this web of social ties creates a sense of collective belonging and responsibility that is missing in other dorms (aside from the other theme houses). It is weakly institutionalized where it does exist, making it hard to perpetuate. Thus, Marsh is able to host regular open parties and biweekly Coffee Haus events with little fuss, even as other dorms have seen a huge increase in party-related conflict.

The question is not what to take away from other dorms, but how to make Marsh-like systems a bigger part of residential life. Marsh works because it is built on organic ties between students, not the artifice of administration-proposed follies like last years Neighborhoods scheme. Designating distinct loud and quiet dorms is a step in the right direction, but it is only a first step. Moving forward, we should explore ways to build Marsh-like institutional structures into the fabric of upperclassman dorm life at Amherst, learning from relevant models at other institutions, like the social houses at Bowdoin and Middlebury or the eating clubs at Princeton that have abandoned the selective bicker process.

This article is not a research note or a policy proposal, and it is not our place to make specific policy recommendations that our little bit of investigation doesnt justify. But it is safe to say this: In 1986, the Beastie Boys called on their fans to fight for the right to party. Now more than ever, we need to make sure that this is a fight we have with the administration, not with each other.

More:

The Scattering of Campus Social Life | The Amherst Student - Amherststudent