Meet Our Newest Members

​The new members featured this month all have ties to California and were drawn to Washington Commons' urban Cohousing setting. Friends, family, education, work, and play are the forces that attracted, kept or are returning them to Northern California and the Sacramento Valley. We are excited to be building community with you and look forward to working and playing together in what we create. 
 
Welcome, Barbara, Leonard, & Pat!  We are so happy you have joined our Cohousing family!

Meet Barbara

Trained as a violinist, I played in orchestras in Georgia and Italy. Forced to hang up my fiddle because of injury, I retrained and became a programmer. In 2001, I entered the world of teaching elementary students, loving their energy and curiosity. I retired in 2019 because of Covid. I am adjusting to retirement, a wonderful stage of life! I am in two book clubs, and enjoy attending theater, museums, and concerts with friends. I also play online games. Riding a trike has become a joyful habit, along with walking, meditation, and yoga.
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I have been investigating cohousing for several years. To me, cohousing offers the perfect balance of privacy and community. This year I considered joining cohousing communities in Skagit and in Puyallup (WA), but neither felt just right. I decided I wanted to be closer to family and friends in the SF Bay Area. Discovering Washington Commons was very timely for me. The urban location is very appealing, so close to both indoors and outdoors activities. Being an Explorer allowed me to meet several community members including my fabulous buddy, who will be my nextdoor neighbor! I was also able to observe the cohesiveness and the solid organization of the community itself. To me, this time is a perfect one to join Washington Commons, as it allows me to become part of the community-building process, now when construction is about to begin, going forward to when we all move in, and then beyond.

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Meet Leonard and Pat

Leonard was born in Seattle after sharing 9 months in a womb with his fraternal twin brother (his first experience with cohousing). When they were 12 years old the family moved near Redondo Beach, California, close enough to the beach for frequent bike rides there.
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Leonard went to UC Berkeley in the 60's, and lived in a student housing co-op there, where he participated in the required weekly maintenance to keep the community functional. He was intrigued by intentional communities and participated in their discussion groups, an interest that continues to this day.

At Cal Leonard studied mathematics, physics, and statistics, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in statistics. He began working on transportation planning for Caltrans as a Statistical Methods Analyst and while his job classification has changed, his interest in how and why people travel, and the effects of that on the environment, has not. Decades ago he developed a model of air pollutant emissions from motor vehicles based on California Air Resources Board emission rates and detailed travel modeling estimates. He uses SAS analytical software in much of his work.

Leonard also serves as a job steward and member of the Board of Directors for SEIU Local 1000.

As to outdoor recreation, sailing is a favorite. Leonard has crewed in some organized racing on the San Francisco Bay and has done board sailing around the world.  

​Pat grew up mostly on the east coast, and lived for two years in New Delhi, India. She also spent a year as an American Field Service exchange student in Brazil. Pat has a B.A. and an M.A. in anthropology, and was for many years an itinerant archaeologist, going from one project to another (mostly digs) at various locations. This included the excavation of a lowland Maya site in Guatemala. Later, she worked on a cubicle farm, doing environmental analyses for state and federal wildlife agencies. 
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Pat is now retired and enjoys outdoor activities above all else: hiking, biking, gardening, camping, and whitewater recreation. She has rafted the wild and scenic stretches of the Rogue and Deschutes Rivers, and the calmer waters of the John Day River and the San Juan River (in Utah) many times. 

She and Leonard have a kind, progressive, hardworking son, who also enjoys outdoor recreation, and now does all the heavy lifting on rafting/camping trips. 

Leonard and Pat are drawn to co-housing because it is an environmentally friendly way to live in urban spaces, and out of a desire to be part of a community of caring neighbors. 
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