The Neighborhood is a collective of builders, researchers, founders, artists and more living within a single square mile in the heart of San Francisco, mostly in coliving houses seeded by Califlorence retreats (read about our first one here, and about our next four here). Our goal is to create an multigenerational campus full of radical agency, inspiring people, and unplanned encounters with friends.
Most of our efforts through 2024 are hosting Califlorences, creating coliving houses, and finding a large coworking space with a cafeteria. Once we’ve got the Califlorence playbook polished and have a profitable coworking space, we’ll turn more of our attention to making the Neighborhood multigenerational.
Here are our current plans.
Coliving is great for a certain phase of life. For most people, that phase ends when you start a family.
A “compound” is when friends live in private homes near each other, ideally next door. Next-door neighbors could knock down their fences so that their kids could scamper around safely in the large shared backyard and grow up together. Any of the parents could watch any of the kids with a minimum of coordination.
We’re inspired by Noasis, which pioneered this model in San Francisco with 5 houses, and Solaris, which innovated on the model (in the Neighborhood!) by standing up a compound of 4 houses in record time by first scouring the market for clusters of leases that were likely to turn over quickly.
Specifically, Solaris looked for non-owner occupied units with tenants that are in their early 20s. Landlords are generally willing to share this information, including lease end dates.
Coordinating a compound means building community among cohorts of parents planning to have kids at around the same time. Once a tight-knit group emerges, then we’ll help that group follow the Solaris strategy by centralizing knowledge of lease terms and landlord contact information, which we’ll gather by canvassing.
Grandparents want to spend time with their grandchildren and are a godsend for young parents, but few people can afford an entire home in San Francisco.
Splitting the cost of a home with 3-11 other families, however, is doable. A grandparent timeshare is a natural fit for compounds, too. I’d predict that most compounds of 4+ homes would want to add a grandparent timeshare.
It’s quite bonding to befriend your friends’ parents, and grandparents would both enjoy and add immensely to the Neighborhood. I’d love to see my parents and others visit The Commons for talks, join Sunday morning dance parties at the Church of 8 Wheels, give guest lectures at the coworking space, meet their grandkids’ friends and their parents, and more.
There’s clearly a market for this idea: every family I’ve shared this plan with has wanted to buy in.
Coordinating such timeshares also involves building community among parents, introducing grandparents to each other, and probably coordinating local real estate options.
In my conversations with San Francisco parents, I repeatedly hear the desire for third spaces with included childcare.
They’d love nothing more than to visit The Commons for a salon and have an adult conversation, knowing that a professional is ensuring their kids are safe and entertained somewhere nearby.
Childcare has economies of scale, and the Neighborhood is basically a coordination service. This service is easier to provide because it could be mostly automated: we’d maintain relationships with nannies and babysitters, watch for events that have a critical mass of RSVPs from parents, and offer to arrange for childcare at that venue. The Commons could probably already allocate some space to a kids corner, if wanted, and the coworking space will also have a kids area.
The most common reason for leaving San Francisco is the unpredictability and variability of SF public schools. It’s one of the reasons SF has the fewest children of any top 100 US cities.
Our community is just starting to have kids. For the next 3-5 years, the main demand will be for daycare space. For this, perhaps we can establish our own network of Tinycare units? Tinycares are Montessori-inspired micro-daycare units for kids aged 3-72 months, usually embedded in 2BR apartment buildings. The founder of Tinycare, Michael Lai, lives with Jason and advises the Neighborhood, so we can benefit from his expertise.
In this age with roughly general AIs, making predictions about the state of education is difficult. If you believe AI scaling laws will continue, then you might be persuaded that this is a moment that calls for redesigning education from first principles. The goal is still to raise children that are emotionally healthy, intrinsically motivated, and curious. But it’s not so clear what is still important to learn, or how to learn it.
To pursue these questions, we’ll convene Neighborhood house(s) of education experts and entrepreneurs starting with a Califlorence in February 2024. If past coliving communities are any guide, this house is likely to start experimental microschools in the Neighborhood, or franchise great schools for local San Franciscans, or make us aware of existing best practices.
These plans will evolve further as we make more progress. We’d love your comments and feedback on any of these ideas: [email protected].