Could Communal Living Take Root in New York’s Real Estate Wilds?

On a crisp Thursday morning in Astoria, the chatter on the N train was less about rent prices and more about how people are managing to stay in the city at all. The news that an experimental co-living compound in Oakland—where 20 adults and their children have shared kitchens, gardens, and childcare—has just gone up for sale, is sparking curiosity among New Yorkers restless with the city’s isolating apartment towers.

Phil Levin and Kristen Berman, the couple behind the California project, spent years transforming an empty lot into a pocket neighborhood of close-knit families. They called it Radish—a nod to putting down roots. Now, as the community shifts and the founders move on, New Yorkers are left eyeing the model as a potential answer to some of the city’s perennial woes: sky-high rents, shrinking space, and the elusive search for real community.

Brooklyn architect Ava Martinez, who’s advised several micro-housing startups in the five boroughs, says she’s fielded more calls than ever this fall from groups of friends looking to pool resources and buy multi-family homes. “The idea of a brownstone commune doesn’t sound so far-fetched anymore,” she says, fresh off a Wednesday walkthrough in Crown Heights with three families considering a joint purchase.

But New York’s zoning labyrinth and million-dollar price tags still make these utopian visions a logistical slog. Even so, as the leaves turn and the city braces for another winter of tight quarters, some are finding creative ways to close the distance: from shared backyard dinners in Ridgewood to informal babysitting swaps in Harlem walkups. Whether a full-fledged urban commune could ever take off in New York remains to be seen. For now, the Radish experiment offers a glimpse of what’s possible—if you’re willing to knock down a few walls, literal and otherwise.