There Goes The Neighborhood

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Sunday, September 10, 2000

Paul

There Goes The Neighborhood


Who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neigh-bor-hood?

It's almost funny to me that this question seems so appropriate now. Who are the people in my neighborhood? When I was a kid growing up, I knew almost everyone who lived on my street, up and down the block. Families, old folks, young folks, fellow kids I hung out with, kids I hated, and so on.

People started moving away in what seemed like droves. A lot of the kids moved, and then the adults. Now the only neighbor I know really well is next-door. The rest? I dunno. There's the family three doors down that has loud parties all night every night, wakes me up, and lets their dog run throughout the neighborhood. There's the house across the street that has hosted many a party and once taped naked films right in the front window. A halfway house down the block that used to belong to a family friend. And one of the kids who used to be a punk... is now a punk with a loud stereo in his car.

It's kind of sad in a way, but it seems like the whole neighborhood just closed up. I can't help but wonder if this is the case elsewhere. Suburbs pack people in so tightly that it seems very funny to me that we might not know the people next door, upstairs, downstairs... all so close by. Do you know the people in your neighborhood? -pm


Comments
FROM: Ryan
DATE: Saturday September 9, 2000 -- 11:22:00PM
When I moved into my house, not one person came to welcome us. In fact, over the period of the last five months, we've only met a few neighbors.

When the new house two doors down was built and the family moved in, we made muffins and took it to them. Fortunately, we've gotten to know them a bit over the past month or so. We've also met up with the two sets of neighbors that will be moving in on either side of us in a month or two. It seems like both of them are nice as well... it'll be good to at least have a few houses nearby with people we know.

But I think you're right, Paul -- the sense of "neighborhood" has changed an awful lot in the last 15 years. Even when I go back home, all the community events that used to happen just don't. And though we may say hello to the people on our block when we see them, that's the extent of it.

I do think, though, that with time things will return to the way they were. Society, like nature, is cyclical, so I wouldn't be surprised to see more community and neighborhood building 10 years from now.


FROM: Rob
DATE: Sunday September 10, 2000 -- 12:37:54AM
Just be warned... if you get to know your neighbors, then they may know you well enough and hate you enough to put fresh meat in your yard.



FROM: Ryan
DATE: Sunday September 10, 2000 -- 1:53:28AM
Rob just proved that even Pings are cyclical. :)


FROM: Tony
DATE: Sunday September 10, 2000 -- 9:26:41AM
the only people in my neigboorhood are old people, they hate anyone under 30.
Its that simple


FROM: Robert
DATE: Sunday September 10, 2000 -- 8:30:19PM
I've always felt guilty for not getting to know my neighbors all these years. But then I remember that very few of them have taken the same initiative, so they all can go to hell.

Luckily, our immediate neighbors these days have two little kids who are quite interesting to talk to. That's a plus.


FROM: Matt
DATE: Sunday September 10, 2000 -- 10:35:47PM
Its definately a thing that has been studied in recent years in sociology courses. The decline of the neighborhood is a sign that American Culture is going the wrong way. When I was a youth, I used to know all the neighbors and would hang out with people throughout all the adjoining neighborhoods. We used to have July 4th Block Parties etc. As I have gotten older and moved all the original neighbors have basically moved. When that happens people who move in usually don't ever reach out to meet their neighbors and vice versa. I think this is another reason that youth of America are alot more messed up nowadays, because it used to take a village.


FROM:
DATE: Saturday January 1, 2005 -- 2:45:43 pm


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