Newsletter June 2024
Building a community that brings a more equitable society, better quality of life, and a harmonious life with nature.
Children are wrapping up the school year, summer plans are being made, and our community is busy as ever! While there aren’t as many large group events happening, a small group of people are meeting regularly to work on building our community.
Upcoming Events
June 7 8-9pm - Online Info Session (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84929400383). A short presentation followed by time to ask questions and get to know each other. Open to everyone.
June 9th 3-5pm - Nature Hike at Woodlake Nature Center. Open to everyone, accessible trails, very family friendly. We’ll meet outside the Nature Center Building at 3:00 and decide which trail to take. End at the Nature Play Area. Feel free to bring food if you want to stay for a picnic after the hike. 6710 Lake Shore Drive (street map) Richfield, MN 55423
June 15 10-11am - Online Social Time (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84929400383). Time to socialize and get to know each other. Open to everyone.
Saturday, June 29th 3:30-6:30pm - Potluck at the Herzog House (email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com for address). Open to everyone, very family friendly. Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions.
We’re Considering 2 Properties
We looked at and considered LOTS of options over the last year(s). What we’re looking for has to fit a variety of family sizes, which is hard to find. We are reluctant to displace tenants in buildings that are fully occupied, especially those with longtime, low income tenants. Having decent yard space for play and gathering is important to us, as is having garage parking for electric vehicles to charge in. Apartment buildings large enough (6-plex or larger) generally do not have a yard or garages. Out of all the properties we looked at, 2 look like real possibilities.
212 Ridgewood Ave, Minneapolis
This would be a temporary location. It would allow up to 7 households to start living together, while continuing to plan for and move toward a building that can hold around 12 households. It has 3 kitchens: 2 in self-contained apartments and one for sharing by more than one family. It also has lots of large rooms for common space. The 6 big rooms and 2 bathrooms on the second floor can be divided up according to the needs of those moving in. It has four garage spaces tucked under a huge yard. This property has lots of flexibility but it will need some retrofitting. It’s close to I94, the Wedge, Eat Street, Loring Park, Walker and more.
325 Dayton Ave, St. Paul
This is a very unique and beautiful property! It includes a 4 bedroom home, a Bed & Breakfast, a Montessori preschool, and a Caretaker’s House. It has numerous options for adapting to our needs, so would likely be our permanent location. Those buying in at the start will help to determine how we will proceed. It has flexible options to run the B&B, or turn the four bedroom/bath suites into four studio apartments. The Montessori school can have apartments built on top of it. We could rent out the large commercial kitchen. Perhaps the B&B could be rented for events to earn additional income from the property.
What next?
We’ve made an offer on one property and are working on the feasibility of an offer on the other if we don’t get the first one or aren’t happy with it after inspections. Once an offer is accepted, we will have thorough inspections before deciding to move forward. If all goes well, we hope to move the first households into our new community home in August!
Learning Together
Q: What happens when you get a group of six adults together who all want to live in community?
A: Lots of conversations on Zoom!
Over the past month a group of us have been meeting regularly to grow our intentional community together. Each week we watch video modules from the Foundation for Intentional Community website and do the homework assigned to us. Recently, we were able to sit at the virtual table and take inventory of our visions for our community. Many things were brought up including finances, technology, and resource sharing. Some topics we found ourselves very in sync already, such as with meal sharing, while others will need to be dug deeper into, such as people's comfort levels around religion and spiritual practices. We look forward to further investigations, and growth through our rectangles of smiling faces.
Our Vision
We are an intergenerational community, raising families together: committed to connection with each other, environmental sustainability, and living in harmonious relationship with the land. We share governance and work by consensus decision-making. We are queer-affirming, gender-inclusive, multicultural, and multigenerational individuals, couples, and families. We value the spectrums of the human experience and each individual’s diverse abilities. We strive to live out of a place of abundance, working to dismantle the systems of racism and oppression in our society.
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