No. I don't currently live in an apartment, thank [generic deity]. But I see the way the Peninsula is trying to deal with the inexorable increase in living density. I'm more than a little disgusted. Any new patch of land (usually a closed school or the last vestige of cherry orchard) gets tiled in with these huge paper houses (at $1/2M a pop) on tiny lots. Eaves to eaves, they're packed so tight. Apartments would be better, but the illusion of having a single-family house (even if you couldn't drive a car between the walls) is somehow precious.
We live in a smallish three-and-one in the 'Vale. Juust barely enough privacy to keep out baby noises inside, so long as our and our neighbors' windows stay closed.
I'd HATE living in a kibbutz. I've met a few kibbutz-raised folk, and they seem selected for personal qualities which are antithetic to my own. I value quiet. Speak softly, walk gently, use only the first half-inch of your gas pedal. In a kibbutz, this is a recipe for extinction. Loud&obnoxious behavior is a survival skill in any group bigger than a nuclear (ooh there's that word again!) family. My deduction is that kibbutzim (more correctly, the subset of kib. whose members I've encountered) either didn't have or didn't want an effective way to punish disturbers of the peace.
I lived next to a kibbutz-raised family in grad school. Shudder. The father was boisterous at all hours of day&night. At first he just didn't understand that with our paper-thin walls his, uhm, exuberance wasn't merely his own. Then he did understand, but he didn't care.
Furthermore I'd hate a communal kitchen. I'm fastidious with my utensils, and I'm mighty picky about what I eat.
All in all, a co-house might be really neat. But I'd require some design parameters. First off, the individual apartments would have to be utterly dsoundtight against, say, a p.o'd five-year-old. Secondly, ample compartmented parking need be provided. (Compartmented: if your neighbor is a fellow with a Suburban and early Parkinson's, you're in no jeopardy of doordings!) Finally, the homeowners' association needs to have reather sweeping authority to expel troublesome tenants. The best way to encourage a sense of community is to remove the security of tenancy if you're not meshing with that community! While my neighbor has a right to play Wu Tang Clan, I should be able to exercise (with extreme prejudice...great movie line) the right to not hear it from my porch!!!
Anybody wanna warm soapbox? |
