Ganas

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Intentional community in New York City

title: "Ganas" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["intentional-communities-in-new-york-(state)", "non-profit-organizations-based-in-the-united-states"] description: "Intentional community in New York City" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganas" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Intentional community in New York City ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox organization"]

FieldValue
nameGanas Community
image135-corson.JPG
caption135 Corson Avenue, Staten Island
formation1979
typeIntentional community
purposeFeedback Learning, recycling
locationStaten Island
membership70–80
::

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Ganas is an intentional community founded in 1979 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Ganas has non-egalitarian, tiered membership groups, and is thus a partial member at the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. The community uses a group problem-solving process called "Feedback Learning", which was begun by co-founder Mildred Gordon. The community was founded by a group of six people, and has grown to consist of 10–12 core group members plus 60 to 70 members of varying involvement. There are three businesses run by Ganas, including a bookstore-cafe.

History

Ganas started in Staten Island in 1979 with six founders including Mildred Gordon and Jeff Gross. In 1973 Gordon left New York City where she had founded GROW, an unaccredited school of group therapy that "turned out unlicensed group psychotherapists." Gordon went to San Francisco where she studied biofeedback which became the basis of what she termed "Feedback Learning". In the late 1970s they returned to New York and moved into a Lower East Side apartment, finally settling in Tompkinsville, Staten Island in 1979. There are about 65 non-core group residents who live in Ganas houses and cover expenses by either paying rent or working in the stores.

Culture

Ganas operates on four primary rules forbidding violence, freeloading, illegal activities, and non-negotiable negativity (requiring that complaints be discussed in group process or not discussed at all either in private or public). The primary focus of Ganas is Feedback Learning, an "intense brand of communication" according to The New York Times, about which journalist Jonah Owen Lamb writes: "Those new to Ganas would share their life story with the group, who would respond by picking apart their issues and deciding how those issues should be dealt with. By 'killing their buddhas,' it was felt, Ganas members could begin to take control of how they reacted to the world." Mildred Gordon describes Feedback Learning as an "indispensable day-to-day guiding experience" in which members of the community provide feedback—helpful criticism—to each other. Through daily discussions of every community member's behaviour members can learn about themselves and their motivations, gain from hearing unpleasant truths, and "accept negative information with the excitement of discovery". Mildred Gordon left Ganas in 2001 but still returned weekly to conduct Feedback Learning sessions at the commune.

Finances

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Everything_Goes_book_cafe.jpg" caption="The "Every Thing Goes Book Cafe" on [[Staten Island"] ::

Though Ganas is portrayed as a commune in the media, only the core group participates in income and property sharing.

Ganas runs three stores under the name "Every Thing Goes" that are dedicated to the re-use and re-sale of used goods. The stores include a furniture store, a clothing store and a bookstore/cafe with a performance stage. The businesses support the community but are labor-intensive and only marginally profitable. FFL's program services are listed as "Feedback Learning Skills Development" and "Interpersonal Skills Development". FFL's revenues do not include income from their "Everything Goes" stores, as those are for-profit entities.

In late 2006 the core group reorganized as Ganas Community LLC, and began a new business called Ganas Food Company LLC. Mildred Gordon continued to draw an annual salary of $40,000 as the executive director of FFL. In 2007 the legal address of FFL changed from Ganas headquarters on Staten Island to Brooklyn, and the same year FFL's tax return declared only $15,550 in total revenue and $75 in direct public support. The following year total revenue fell to $2295 with direct public support of $0. Ganas has a real estate portfolio estimated at $10 million with holdings in upstate New York, Brooklyn, Virginia, California and Spain.

Controversy

Two ex-members have made allegations about Ganas, including that it is a cult, Ganas opposes being described as a cult.

2006 shooting

In May 2006 Ganas co-founder Jeff Gross was shot outside of his home on Ganas property. Gross survived and at trial identified the shooter as Rebekah Johnson, a former member who lived at Ganas periodically until she was evicted in 1996. Johnson's attorney denied that she had shot Gross, but said that she was "wrongfully accused by Gross as payback for portraying him as a brainwashing rapist and the commune as a kinky cult." Johnson had unsuccessfully sued the group for sexual harassment in 2000.

Jeff Gross left the group after the shooting, and filed several lawsuits against Ganas and Rebekah Johnson. A 2022 Esquire article followed up with Jeff, who was living in hiding. He was granted $1.3 million judgment against his shooter but it is outstanding.

References

References

  1. Andrew Jacobs. (November 29, 1998). "Yes, It's a Commune. Yes, It's on Staten Island.". [[The New York Times]].
  2. (August 14, 2008). "Radical Culture Shock: The Desire for Community and the Need for Private Space". Federation of Egalitarian Communities.
  3. (February 22, 2005). "Our Communities". Federation of Egalitarian Communities.
  4. "Ganas Info".
  5. James Barron. (August 5, 2008). "Ex-Member of Commune Is Acquitted". [[The New York Times]].
  6. Heather Gilmore. (June 4, 2006). "Commune Sex Shocker". [[New York Post]].
  7. (19 February 2011). "Community as a Path to New Social Structures and Sustainability".
  8. "About Mildred Gordon".
  9. Peterson, Iver. (July 14, 1972). "Six at School Lack Degrees". [[The New York Times]].
  10. Peterson, Iver. (July 15, 1972). "City to Look into PhD Use". [[The New York Times]].
  11. King, Seth. (July 23, 1972). "Self-Accredited School". [[The New York Times]].
  12. Kat Kinkade. (Fall 1995). "Benevolent Dictators in Community". Fellowship for Intentional Community.
  13. "Communities Directory".
  14. Annalee Newitz. (April 24, 2006). "Big Love on Staten Island.". [[New York (magazine).
  15. (August 2025). "Visions of Utopia".
  16. Jacobs, Andrew. (June 1, 2006). "Free Love, Hate and an Ambush at a Commune on Staten Island". The New York Times.
  17. Lamb, Jonah Owen. (May 2006). "Utopia Has a Web Site: Commune Life on Staten Island". The Brooklyn Rail.
  18. Farhan Haq. "'Ganas' Brings Cooperative Housing to New York". International Co-operative Alliance.
  19. (November 2, 2022). "From "cult" to community: Ganas mellows with age".
  20. (August 2025). "FFL 2006 Programs". Internal Revenue Service}}{{Dead link.
  21. "NYS Division of Corporations State Records". New York DOS.
  22. (May 2024). "NYS DOC Entity Information". New York DOS}}{{Dead link.
  23. (August 2025). "FFL 2008 Compensation". Internal Revenue Service}}{{Dead link.
  24. (August 2025). "FFL 2007 Tax Return". Internal Revenue Service}}{{Dead link.
  25. (August 2025). "FFL 2008 Tax Return". Internal Revenue Service}}{{Dead link.
  26. Maureen Seaberg. (May 31, 2006). "Ganas: Not a cult, insists groupie". [[Daily News (New York).
  27. Jeff Harrell. (June 3, 2006). "A look at Ganas from one who has lived there". [[Staten Island Advance]].
  28. Tony Allen-Mills. (June 4, 2006). "New York shooting blows apart hippie commune with kinky sex on the side". [[The Sunday Times]].
  29. Edgar Sandoval. (August 4, 2008). "Ex-commune member Rebekah Johnson cleared in shooting; guru fears for life". [[Daily News (New York).
  30. John Annese. (August 4, 2008). "Staten Island commune leader: 'My life is at risk'". [[Staten Island Advance]].
  31. Frank Donnelly. (May 28, 2009). "Gravely wounded in shooting, founder sues Staten Island commune". [[Staten Island Advance]].
  32. David Gauvey Herbert. (June 7, 2022). "The Cult Leader of Staten Island".

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intentional-communities-in-new-york-(state)non-profit-organizations-based-in-the-united-states