I was distressed to see someone in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area asking about reaching cohousing neighborhoods in the "Live Wire" (answers/citizen advocate) column in the Fay Observer today. The illustrates the importance of making sure that websites and communities/cohousing directory entries are kept up to date and that we all work together to make sure that our community contacts are responsive.

A frustrated reader wrote:

We're seniors who are interested in cohousing. In August, we wrote three cohousing communities but didn't hear back from any of them. Can you tell us why? - T.R., Fayetteville

According to story in today's Union Leader, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch yesterday toured Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm, the state's first completed cohousing neighborhood.

He wasn't the first New Hampshire Governor to walk the Peterborough property, though: the community was built in 2008 on the historic homestead of Gov. John Steele (1789-1865), and the basement of his renovated now super-insulated home (now offices) houses the ultra-efficient renewably-fueled wood-pellet-burning boilers that circulate heat and supply hot water to the 29 homes clustered onto just five of the 113 acres, preserving extensive woods and farmland, the story notes.

As the old saw goes, the aspiring musician, lost on the streets of New York, asks a passerby "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" And is told "Practice, Practice, Practice!"

If you were to ask how we got the wonderful, colorful extensive in-depth Cohousing Tours coverage in the New York Times last month, I'd say: "Connections, Community, Cooperation." Read on to learn more about the history.

And as for how you can leverage this opportunity to benefit your group and further build The Cohousing Movement, another 3 C's are the keys: Correspondence, Comments, Conference. We'll explore these in part two.

Join me below the fold for a short journey to explore how the article came about and what you can do about it, with some perspective on the power of working together as a movement.

As a cohousing professional who sometimes plays matchmaker between cohousing groups and community-seekers, I like to keep my ear to the ground. I subscribe to lots of groups' announcement or "friends" email lists, so that I can make relevant introductions and connections.

Over the past week I've picked up from these lists some exciting news that gives me new hope for the cohousing movement as a force to help lead the country out of the current economic downturn. There's big steps happening in Brooklyn, Chicago and Southeastern Pennsylvania, sites or development partners secured for at least three communities, with hints that others are following in their footsteps, including in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read on for more about the announcements, with a little Cohousing Coaching interwoven, some Monday-morning quarterbacking about how they broke the news to some of their best prospects on their lists.