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[co-op] Ant Hill in the news
The Rochester Business Journal did a piece on Ant Hill Co-op.
the text:
Time out: Potluck and WiFi: a Net Generation co-op
By JACKIE PERRIN
An old futon frame doubles nicely as a garden trellis, cast-off burners make a terrific base for a fork and spoon mobile sculpture, and tofu stir fry seasoned with honey tastes nice, even when you forget to cook the rice.
These are just a few things learned during a recent Thursgiving, a weekly dinner open to the public at Ant Hill Cooperative on South Plymouth Avenue.
Located less than a mile from the footbridge over the Genesee River from the University of Rochester's main campus, and a few blocks away from Eco-House, a similar residence, the 1-year-old community housing cooperative occupies two houses in Rochester's Southwest neighborhood.
Modeled after similar cooperatives in Berkeley, Calif., and other progressive college towns, Ant Hill is the first incorporated housing cooperative in the Rochester area.
Besides affordable housing, cooperative living communities offer a ready-made social network. Members share meals, chores and skills, and participate as a group in community activities.
Ben Sanders, a 30-year-old physician from North Carolina, says Ant Hill is convenient to work and conducive to meeting people in a new town.
"I didn't have time to establish a social life-I still don't," says Sanders, who recently began a pediatric residency at the UR Medical Center. "I was surfing the net trying to find a co-op grocery store, and this page came up."
The Web page he found was established by co-founder Tobin Fricke, a UR graduate student who was involved in the creation of another popular Rochester Web site, rocwiki.org, a guide to the area. Many of the group's first residents-there are currently 15, ranging in age from 20 to 30-found Ant Hill through the Web site.
New residents are voted in, sign a seasonal lease and pay a monthly fee of $433, which covers rent, utilities, meals and a private modestly furnished bedroom in one of two neighboring cooperative-managed houses. All members complete a weekly chore rotation and participate in regular meetings, where issues are voted on democratically.
The main residence at 960 S. Plymouth Ave. has four bedrooms, two baths and an industrial kitchen as well as a basement bike shop and an attic workspace with a makeshift movie theater and a music corner.
There's not a TV to be found, but there is WiFi and, in a second-floor office, a communal computer. This is co-op living for the Net Generation, after all.
A hot tub and a 10-by-10-foot backyard garden are shared with residents of the second house, a dignified 1890 brick located two doors down at 972 S. Plymouth Ave.
Landlords David Skinner and David Knoll are proponents of cooperatives and have allowed the group to remodel for community living.
Skinner, a chemist, says that renting to an incorporated cooperative-as opposed to 10 individual leaseholders-saves him time and effort. "If the co-op is healthy and running smoothly, then this is a very good thing for a landlord."
Low rent is a major draw for prospective members, but some-about a third of the current mix-prefer to live "off house," in their own apartments. As "general members," they enjoy some benefits of cooperative living, such as shared dinners and activities.
Kastan Molstad, 24, a student at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, moved to Rochester, and Ant Hill, last August. Even with prior experience, she says, co-op living took some getting used to.
"I was involved in a co-op in Madison, Wisc., and I moved here because the deaf population is so large," she says. "Learning how to get along with so many people-eating all of your meals with them and sleeping next to them-is a learning situation."
As in any large household, conflict is inevitable. At Ant Hill, day-to-day issues-"Who ate the big hunk of salami in the fridge?" or "Who's slacking off on their chores?"-seem to be resolved peacefully.
Sometimes, though, a yen for privacy trumps the lure of group living.
Both Sanders and Molstad moved out recently into their own apartments, not far from Ant Hill.
Though she is enjoying her own space, Molstad says she will continue to reap the benefits of her time as a co-op resident. Through Ant Hill, she made many new acquaintances and became involved with community groups, such as Genesee Valley Community Supported Agriculture and Critical Mass, a Rochester cycling group.
"It's good networking," she says. "I was thinking about going to France and staying with some people who were here."
Jon "Far" McKamey, 26, the group's director of membership and a software engineer at Imaginant Inc., says that Ant Hill's cooperative spirit extends to the community. In recent months, the group has welcomed neighboring families to a potluck dinner and taken part in advocacy programs such as Flower City Habitat for Humanity and the city's Clean Sweep initiative.
"To make what we do happen, it really takes a whole group of people really working together," he says. "One person doing a Clean Sweep would be good-but it's when you show up with seven people that you really have an impact."
(-Jackie Perrin)
06/30/06 (C) Rochester Business Journal
the text:
Time out: Potluck and WiFi: a Net Generation co-op
By JACKIE PERRIN
An old futon frame doubles nicely as a garden trellis, cast-off burners make a terrific base for a fork and spoon mobile sculpture, and tofu stir fry seasoned with honey tastes nice, even when you forget to cook the rice.
These are just a few things learned during a recent Thursgiving, a weekly dinner open to the public at Ant Hill Cooperative on South Plymouth Avenue.
Located less than a mile from the footbridge over the Genesee River from the University of Rochester's main campus, and a few blocks away from Eco-House, a similar residence, the 1-year-old community housing cooperative occupies two houses in Rochester's Southwest neighborhood.
Modeled after similar cooperatives in Berkeley, Calif., and other progressive college towns, Ant Hill is the first incorporated housing cooperative in the Rochester area.
Besides affordable housing, cooperative living communities offer a ready-made social network. Members share meals, chores and skills, and participate as a group in community activities.
Ben Sanders, a 30-year-old physician from North Carolina, says Ant Hill is convenient to work and conducive to meeting people in a new town.
"I didn't have time to establish a social life-I still don't," says Sanders, who recently began a pediatric residency at the UR Medical Center. "I was surfing the net trying to find a co-op grocery store, and this page came up."
The Web page he found was established by co-founder Tobin Fricke, a UR graduate student who was involved in the creation of another popular Rochester Web site, rocwiki.org, a guide to the area. Many of the group's first residents-there are currently 15, ranging in age from 20 to 30-found Ant Hill through the Web site.
New residents are voted in, sign a seasonal lease and pay a monthly fee of $433, which covers rent, utilities, meals and a private modestly furnished bedroom in one of two neighboring cooperative-managed houses. All members complete a weekly chore rotation and participate in regular meetings, where issues are voted on democratically.
The main residence at 960 S. Plymouth Ave. has four bedrooms, two baths and an industrial kitchen as well as a basement bike shop and an attic workspace with a makeshift movie theater and a music corner.
There's not a TV to be found, but there is WiFi and, in a second-floor office, a communal computer. This is co-op living for the Net Generation, after all.
A hot tub and a 10-by-10-foot backyard garden are shared with residents of the second house, a dignified 1890 brick located two doors down at 972 S. Plymouth Ave.
Landlords David Skinner and David Knoll are proponents of cooperatives and have allowed the group to remodel for community living.
Skinner, a chemist, says that renting to an incorporated cooperative-as opposed to 10 individual leaseholders-saves him time and effort. "If the co-op is healthy and running smoothly, then this is a very good thing for a landlord."
Low rent is a major draw for prospective members, but some-about a third of the current mix-prefer to live "off house," in their own apartments. As "general members," they enjoy some benefits of cooperative living, such as shared dinners and activities.
Kastan Molstad, 24, a student at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, moved to Rochester, and Ant Hill, last August. Even with prior experience, she says, co-op living took some getting used to.
"I was involved in a co-op in Madison, Wisc., and I moved here because the deaf population is so large," she says. "Learning how to get along with so many people-eating all of your meals with them and sleeping next to them-is a learning situation."
As in any large household, conflict is inevitable. At Ant Hill, day-to-day issues-"Who ate the big hunk of salami in the fridge?" or "Who's slacking off on their chores?"-seem to be resolved peacefully.
Sometimes, though, a yen for privacy trumps the lure of group living.
Both Sanders and Molstad moved out recently into their own apartments, not far from Ant Hill.
Though she is enjoying her own space, Molstad says she will continue to reap the benefits of her time as a co-op resident. Through Ant Hill, she made many new acquaintances and became involved with community groups, such as Genesee Valley Community Supported Agriculture and Critical Mass, a Rochester cycling group.
"It's good networking," she says. "I was thinking about going to France and staying with some people who were here."
Jon "Far" McKamey, 26, the group's director of membership and a software engineer at Imaginant Inc., says that Ant Hill's cooperative spirit extends to the community. In recent months, the group has welcomed neighboring families to a potluck dinner and taken part in advocacy programs such as Flower City Habitat for Humanity and the city's Clean Sweep initiative.
"To make what we do happen, it really takes a whole group of people really working together," he says. "One person doing a Clean Sweep would be good-but it's when you show up with seven people that you really have an impact."
(-Jackie Perrin)
06/30/06 (C) Rochester Business Journal
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errata
* New residents aren't voted in competitively; our admissions policy is more "first-come first-served."
* 972 South Plymouth Avenue has six bedrooms (not four), but, sadly, no industrial kitchen. It had seven bedrooms but we converted one into a pantry.
* There is a TV in 972, though it gets no broadcast reception and is used soley for watching DVD's. Now that it's summertime, it doesn't seem to get much use, however.
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Viva Ant Hill