At Swan’s Market Cohousing in downtown Oakland, CA, we were rehabilitating an old public market building, in a heart-of-downtown neighborhood (Old Oakland) that had been cut off by development and a freeway and had nobody living in it at night and so had high crime rates. The affordable-housing nonprofit developer of the project specified lots of very bright lights, to create a feeling of safety, as well as two layers of gates, to close off both the public-access commons and our own community interior walkway. Our garage also had way more light on than necessary, on 24 hours, drawing significant power despite being fluorescents.

In our first year living onsite, we substituted lower-wattage bulbs for our porch lights on the walk (even rewiring where necessary), fiddled with the timer to cut down the hours of lighting, removed half the lights in the garage, added a motion sensor so they would only go on when someone was there. We eventually found a solar-electric installer that would finance a system based on the electricity it generated, so our upfront cost was zero. We also found that crime dropped significantly because we (and eventually others in the extended neighborhood) were living there, keeping an eye on things, attracting businesses open at night and more foot traffic that deterred criminals better than any lighting ever could.

A secret of cooperative community living is this: if you know your neighbors and design for community, you are much less dependent on things like gates and lights to provide the illusion of security.

Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach
eager to visit and see your (lack of) lights when I’m in the area at the end of the month