Somebody has to take the blame for all this. Alan O’Hashi is a general do-gooder. He lives in a cohousing community and is interested in how cohousing “secret sauce” can help solve the affordable housing crisis.

Because cohousing communities are self-managed, members have agreed upon a set of values, they have the potential to bridge cultural and social divides by redefining the American Way.

Cohousers cram a transformational “square peg” into the American Way “round hole” characterized by:

• Rugged Individualism, cohousing is more about the good of the whole
• Power and Control, cohousing is more about sharing leadership and consensus
• Assimilation, cohousing is more about accepting people who they are

When he’s not out saving the world, Alan is a member of the Boulder International Film Festival Board of directors. In that light, he volunteers through Boulder Community Media to produce mostly documentary movies telling stories of marginalized communities. He’s working on the fourth in his “Aging Gratefully” series about living in intentional and accidental senior communities.

Also in production are two documentaries about the Northern Arapaho tribal efforts to reclaim land near Boulder, Colorado; and another that retells a 1923 silent movie, “The Covered Wagon” from a tribal perspective.