E9: Building Community in an Age of Isolation

The loneliness epidemic has reached staggering proportions in America, with 60% of people reporting significant periods of isolation — a health impact comparable to smoking a pack of cigarettes daily. But what if our neighborhoods themselves could be redesigned to heal this modern crisis?

Michael Gornik, co-founder of Polestar Gardens, shares a compelling vision for community-centered living that challenges how we think about home, neighborhood, and belonging. Founded 25 years ago as an educational nonprofit focused on holistic development, Polestar Gardens has evolved through remarkable challenges—including a son's cancer battle and the complete loss of their Hawaii campus to volcanic eruption in 2018. Rather than surrender their mission, these hardships became catalysts for transformation.

Now, Polestar Gardens is creating an innovative "intentional neighborhood" on the former Happy Heart Farm in Fort Collins—Colorado's first CSA. This 144-unit development integrates co-housing principles with new urbanism to create a walkable, car-optional community where meaningful relationships can flourish naturally. From micro-units to single-family homes, the development is designed to foster diverse, multi-generational connections that Michael believes humans are fundamentally wired to need.

Reflecting on Polestar's origins in youth programming, Michael reveals how watching children thrive in community settings—surrounded by mentors, peers, and opportunities to care for others—demonstrated the profound impact our social environment has on human potential. This inspired a lifelong mission to create accessible spaces where the "web of relationship" that nurtures our best selves can be woven into everyday life.

As Americans increasingly recognize the costs of isolation, Polestar Village offers a thoughtful alternative. Could reimagining how we design our living spaces be key to addressing our loneliness crisis? Visit https://www.polestarvillage.com/ to explore this vision for community-centered living and discover what happens when we design neighborhoods with human connection as the foundation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you considering donating toa meaningful charitable
organization?
One might be closer than youthink.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Michael Gornick, with PolestarGardens.
Michael, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Going well.
Thanks for having me today,Nick.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
We're excited to learn all about your business.
Tell us about your organization.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
My wife and I started Polestar Gardens, which is an
educational nonprofit.
It's a 501c3.
25 years ago this year, sowe're celebrating 25 years,
which is kind of amazing, andour basic thesis is the power of
community, and especially ineducation, and we define

(01:03):
education as physical, mentaland spiritual development.
So what Polestar is set out todo is to harness the power of
community, which is to say ourrelationships with everyone we
live and work with, for eachindividual's growth and
potential.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
How did you get into this type of volunteer work?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Good question.
I raised two kids in anintentional community and what I
learned from that was inspiringand really jaw-dropping when I
saw how important the macroenvironment around our kids are

(01:55):
to their development and to themreaching their potential.
So that was watching my kidsgrow in an environment where
they had many friends of allages.
They knew adults as friends.
They had many mentors, they hadaunties and uncles who looked
out for them.
They had younger friends whothey looked out for and sort of

(02:16):
that web of relationship isreally at the heart of what
inspired us to start PulsarGardens.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
What are?

Speaker 3 (02:30):
some myths and misconceptions in your line of
work.
Oh, good question.
Well, one of the things we'reendeavoring to do right now is
create an ideal environment,what we're calling an
intentional neighborhood.
So you're probably familiarwith co-housing I hope you are a
little bit.
Yes, you may know that this isco-housing week, this is

(02:55):
National Co-Housing Week andthere's a whole bunch of events.
You can Google them andparticipate, including open
houses and a lot of streamedevents.
But basically, you may alsoknow that 60% of Americans

(03:16):
profess that they are lonely forsignificant periods of time 60%
and so the Surgeon generalcalls it an epidemic.
It's like smoking a pack a dayfor your health loneliness.
So our American culture hasevolved.

(03:36):
We don't want to get too intothat rabbit hole, but in a way
that is conducive to isolation.
You know where we have verycar-oriented society.
We drive a lot, we don't haveour feet on the ground with our
neighbors, where we're, you know, rubbing elbows with the people

(03:57):
who live near us and createthose relationships.
So I would say, to get back toyour question, one of the
misconceptions about co-housingin particular is that it takes a
very certain kind of individual, which, in a way, it's true

(04:20):
because our society is so wiredfor the individual expression we
have to work a little upstreamto get back to that more
community feel.
That is much more common inother cultures actually, and I
could argue that we're wired tobe in a tribe.

(04:41):
We're wired to have thatcomplex set of relationships
that they contribute a lot toour sense of well-being.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I absolutely agree.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Can you hear me?
Okay, I can hear you, fine,thanks.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Who are your target supporters and donors?
How do you attract them?

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Good question when Polestar started.
25 years ago we did a lot ofyouth programs.
We had kids and we reallywanted to get kids involved in
their community, teach them lifeskills.
So we basically did lots ofthings with young adults Well,

(05:27):
all ages, but especially youngadults.
So we did a lot of adventure.
We did a lot of life skills.
I'm a builder by trade for mostof my life, so we did a lot of
building projects.
We do just about all the sportsyou know.

(05:48):
So we and we enjoy having a lotof fun with our kids.
I think that's a real importantthing Having fun with your kids
.
Designing events that all agescan have fun and play together
is a real bonding importantthing.
And now I've forgotten yourquestion.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, you might've just answered my next question
because that didn't sound likemost people's work.
But outside of that work, whatdo you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Oh okay.
Well, I've been a fairlyserious volleyball player my
whole life but have finally putdown the volleyball and we play
more pickleball now, which isactually a pretty great sport.
It's when you can play withyour grandkids and I think

(06:36):
there's a lot to recommend.
Pickleball is a lifelong sport.
You know it's a little harderrecommend pickleball as a
lifelong sport.
You know it's a little harderto play competitive volleyball
at my age.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
So I have to acknowledge that let's switch
gears.
Can you describe a hardship ora life challenge that you
overcame and how it made youstronger?

Speaker 3 (06:59):
What comes to mind.
Okay, well, that's an obviousone.
We started Polestar.
Well, I'll first tell one story, which was my son got cancer

(07:26):
when he was seven years old or,no, I'm sorry, nine years old.
He got cancer and prospectsdidn't look good, and that was
just a whole lot to face andtaught us a lot.
You know it.
Really, we learned a whole lotthrough his cancer journey and
he beat the odds.
He did lose his right foot tocancer and he's amazingly, he's

(07:50):
on the Parabeach Olympicvolleyball team or national team
, I should say and he's a veryserious athlete, and so that was
something that we all struggledthrough and learned a lot about
life and about each other andabout what we value, and so that

(08:13):
was very educational and thenreally, in the end, inspiring.
The other thing I have tomention because it's so it's
much more about our organizationis that we went to the Big
Island and spent 15 years thereand built a whole campus and

(08:35):
community there Big organicgarden, you know, had big guest
programs there, did manyretreats, many programs.
We had a woofer program.
People would come from all overthe world to work in the garden
.
But in 2018, there was thatKilauea eruption, which was a

(08:55):
historically very large eruptionand it surrounded our whole
property.
Well, we had to evacuate, usand all our neighbors, and in
the end the lava actually didn'tcover our land, which was just
20 acres of pristine beauty inthe tropics.

(09:16):
We had 25 avocado trees and allthe fruits and nut trees
growing and beautiful, beautifulsetting with a community center
and a community house andcabins for guests.
And it was.
It was a big loss but and for along time it didn't nothing
happened because the lava wasjust flowing by it, but over

(09:38):
time it ended up burning downthe main structures there and so
we basically lost our Hawaiicampus, and it was a real
turning point for us.
We thought about it for about15 minutes and realized we would

(09:59):
try a new, we would try tocreate a new campus.
But what we learned and this isthe how it made of stronger
part of it is what we reallylearned was that we wanted to
and this was the original goalwhen we started Polestar we
wanted to create an environmentthat was more accessible, more

(10:20):
integrated with, you know,normal modern living.
You know, our Hawaii campus waskind of a retreat, very remote,
very beautiful, wonderful timewe had there.
But in terms of what we reallyset out to do, what we're doing
here in Fort Collins is muchmore on point.

(10:44):
Please tell our Michael, pleasetell our listeners one thing
they can remember, or theyshould remember, about Polestar
Gardens Okay, well, I think themain thing we'd like you to
remember is that we are just,you know, we bought the many

(11:04):
people in Fort Collins mayremember Happy Heart Farm, which
is on Elizabeth Street and itwas the first CSA in the state
of Colorado and it was farmed byour dear friends Dennis and
Bailey Stinson organically formany decades.
They were over three decadesfarming that place and many

(11:27):
people have had a farm to forkmeal there and fondly remember
Happy Heart Farm.
Well, we've known DenisonBailey for many decades and we
bought that farm and someadjoining parcels and are now
almost through the city processof approvals for what we call an

(11:47):
intentional neighborhood whichwould be the new Polestar campus
.
So it's kind of a co-housingmeets new urbanism meets
spiritual community kind ofdevelopment.
You know it's a largedevelopment and it has all the
things that we want to envisionin a conscious community.

(12:11):
And so anyway, just to you know, to make a plug for it, we have
there's 144 units beingapproved in the next weeks.
Actually we're that close tobeing approved.
It includes 18 single-familyhomes, everything from micro
units 450 square feet, townhomes, condos it's a whole range of

(12:39):
living units that are designedto have a very diverse, very
intentional community that caresabout the values that we
express in Polestar Gardens.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Impressive.
How can our listeners learnmore about Polestar Gardens?

Speaker 3 (12:59):
PolestarVillagecom and, yeah, you can read all
about it.
We've got, we got, you know,architectural drawings in there.
The whole site plan, this wholething is made to be walkable.
So you could, you could, reallyin Polestar Village, you could
really live without a car if youwanted to.

(13:19):
We've got the bus line onElizabeth Street, which is going
to be upgraded soon.
We've got a bike share and acar share program and we have,
you know, places there to growfood, places there to do yoga
and meditate, places there togather with your friends, places
to work.

(13:40):
There's just a lot of intentionbeing put into the macro
environment, Rather than whichAmericans are good at this.
We think about our home, youknow, which is great, but we
don't think about designing, inmy opinion as well, our
neighborhood, you know.
So if we really think aboutwanting to know our neighbors

(14:03):
and be in relationship with ourneighbors, we'll think about
that environment much moreclearly and differently.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well, michael, I really appreciate you being on
the show.
We wish you and PolestarGardens, polestar Village, the
best moving forward.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Thank you, Thank you for listening to the Good
Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPFortCollinscom.
That's GNPFortCollinscom, orcall 970-438-0825.