I was a Staten Island communard
For a month last fall, I lived in an intentional community on New York’s Staten Island called Ganas. I found them online, and thought this group of roughly 100 people living together in 10 houses sounded fascinating. I’ve always wanted to learn more about living communally, since I’ve spent most of my life in group houses that were more or less communal.
This week, New York magazine ran an article I wrote about Ganas. It’s a slice of life piece that focuses on a few people in the group. What you won’t find in the article is a sense of what everyday life is like among people who have chosen to devote themselves to a social experiment in group living. For me, the everyday stuff was a terrific experience — the Ganasians proved to me that it’s possible to set up a tiny, stable economy in which resources are shared and many people are supported materially and to a certain extent emotionally too. I made lots of friends at Ganas, and am going out to New York this weekend to stay at Ganas for a few days.
It’s too bad more people can’t see how well group living works firsthand, because I think a lot of us would try it if it didn’t seem like such a scary unknown. Living with friends and sharing household responsibilities is a great alternative to the standard nuclear family meltdown.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Sounds cool. I guess you could call it a ‘temporary autonomous zone’.
I wonder, you know, if it ever got big enough and began to be a threat, would the government ever try to shut it down? Do you think there’s just a maximum size to these things? I know Quaker meetings usually don’t grow beyond a certain size…
May 25th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Did you ever hang out in the alternative to Ganas commune. I enjoyed it description in the New Yorker mag. I’m so glad these organizations exist and that Ganas is on SI. Thank goodness for choices!
May 31st, 2006 at 1:40 pm
I lived at Ganas for about a year and a half. Just this past week, I don’t know if you heard, but someone was shot there (a key group member was ambushed by an old girlfriend, see here http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/422337p-356494c.html.) I spoke with a friend once about the idea of starting an intentional community and her response was “Yeah, but then you have to deal with all the crazies.” Where humans are concerned, there’s always more to the story than is seen on the surface. You’d love brocolli after a steady diet of rice. But after a month of nothing but brocolli, a bowl of rice would taste pretty good.
May 31st, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I’m not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that one violent incident in the 25 years of the Ganas community, which has housed hundreds of people during that time, means nobody will succeed at building community? That’s like saying nobody should ever go outside because there’s a chance they’ll be hit by a car.
May 31st, 2006 at 10:01 pm
No, annalee, that wasn’t what I was saying. I was saying that there’s more to the story than what’s seen on the surface and the stuff about the rice and brocolli was just my way of saying that human beings sometimes see something as good and better just because they’re different. If you’ve been eating the same sort of food for several days, perhaps something different is better for now. And, for the most part, what I’m saying “community building” is independent of this one particular violent incident. I’m not sure what you know about Ganas in particular. If something looks cool to you, then do it. If there’s something wrong with it, how would you find out if you were to never got involved? If you’re going to build communities, you must experience the problems that they have, and they do seem to have some interesting problems. In my post, I was simply saying that sometimes something feels good because it’s different. After a while, however, the new thing can feel as old as the old thing that you had. I suggest, therefore, that the answer is really not in any sort of outer form or structure. But then, humans are obsessed with the belief that happiness is either found or lost by changing the out structure. And a community, in the conventional sense, is just an out structure.
May 31st, 2006 at 11:23 pm
annalee, I didn’t realize (until just now) that you wrote the “Big Love” story for New York Metro (I’m sorry, I rarely look at author’s names.) I was about to forward it to someone after looking at your “About Annalee” page (sorry, I hadn’t even looked at that page either) when, this time, the byline caught my eye. I mistook you for a random person from cyberspace making a comment on my comment. I lived at Ganas from April of 2000 to somewhere after 9-11. I’m not exactly sure when I fully departed. At the time, I was involved with Katie who’s now involved with Steve (sounds like a soap opera!) At any rate, you don’t have to post this or feel free to just edit this part out. At an office Christmas party, my bosses wife (who happened to be a published author) told me that I should definitely write a book about my experiences with Ganas. Her attitude seemed to be that it doesn’t matter who gets hurt. Personally, however, I really don’t feel that way. I still talk with Katie and Steve (Steve’s a good guy.) My last email from Katie was about 6 days ago. In February, however, I was essentially told that, even if a room was available, I wouldn’t be welcome to live there. I lived there a year and a half and have learned some things from the news that’s come out as a result of Monday’s shooting. Ganas is like an experiment with a different shape of airplane. Not every shape of airplane, however, flies as smoothly as every other. As I sort of suggested in my other post, however, without experimentation, no workable shapes would be found. I applaud the core group people, therefore, for stepping out of the norm. The problem, however, is that organizations tend to end up defending the choices they’ve made instead of admitting that some of the choices wrong. This is more a statement about organizations than it is about any particular group of people. One final point (and you can edit this out and some or all of this whole post), I think anyone who’s lived at Ganas woud know that the “Ian” character from your story was Jeff. Until I read your story, however, I didn’t know that he’d put such serious thought towards leaving. bfn
April 16th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I can’t believe you were blocks from my house at Ganas and I didn’t know! We could have had coffee!
AB
July 31st, 2007 at 2:13 am
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title I was a Staten Island communard. Thanks for informative article
August 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding I was a Staten Island communard, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong