Things your neighborhood does that makes you proud to live there...

Rupert B Puppenstein

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Sep 1, 2009
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We are working on ways to improve our neighborhood and offer activities, etc. that will make it a lot more enjoyable to live in and more desirable to move to. ;) It is already lovely, but we need more things that will bring out the neighbors and encourage participation. We have a lot of children now in our neighborhood so we want to cater more to them and the families.

Some ideas that have been brought up are as follows:

Community Vegetable and Fruit Garden where we grow seeds in advance and then plant them when ready. Children can label theirs and keep up with the progress and neighbors can particpate in taking care of the area.

Bird House Building - We have a problem in our neighborhood with a lot of our birds not building the sturdiest of nests and summer storms will knock them down and unfortunately a lot of babies will be lost. Not only would it protect a lot of these birds, but teach the neighborhood about the species that visit, allow children to decorate birdhouses, and make our neighborhood prettier. :)

Movie night - we have a square in our neighborhood (grassy area surrounded by trees) that people could bring lawn chairs to, or blankets and we could probably pop popcorn, etc. and find a projector. Still need to figure out the legalities of showing a DVD to the group without worrying about the FBI warnings...

Is there anything that your neighborhood does that makes it truly special? Any suggestions for making things work? What challenges to keep in mind, etc.? I miss the days of potlucks, knowing all your neighbors, and just having that community spirit.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions/input! :)
 
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE New Orleans. There is such diversity. I didn't go to Mardi Gras for years (decades) as my memories were all of drunk 18 year olds on Canal (yeah I was one of them). It is so different out in the neighborhoods. People meet up at the same locations for decades.

I've lived in some major cities (NY, London, San Francisco), but New Orleans is just so unique. Where I live there are very modest homes and huge mansions right next to each other.

I bought my home 10 days before Katrina. It is amazing how the community has come together. I hadn't lived in New Orleans since college, but I feel so totally accepted as a "native".
 
We don't have large porches here, so I had my husband make a small brick patio in the front yard. I put a cute seating area there with a small table.

So now after weekend days full of errands, yard work etc. you can find us sitting out there in the shade.

The close by neighbors will come over to sit, the dog and exercise walkers all stop and chat. Sometimes we bring out drinks and snacks, a little happy hour. The kids play. It's great and I love it!

Also our community has a Fourth of July parade. Car clubs, scout troops, horses with their riders, decorated golf carts, bikes, even a kid on a pogo stick one year. It's really nice, everyone shows their patriotism!
 
We have a costume parade and party for the kids on halloween. We also have a Christmas parade with Santa. There's a "welcome wagon" group who welcomes new residents. We do movie nights at the clubhouse for kids too.
 

We do neighborhood movies a couple of times a year in the common area behind our home. We project the movie onto the back side of a neighbor's home. I believe that, as long as you are not charging for the movie, you are ok. If that's not the case, I'd love to hear what we should be doing.

It's really a fun thing. All the kids spread out sleeping bags, or big bean bag chairs and blankets. The adults all sit on beach chairs, etc. We've shown things like "The Sandlot", "The Princess Bride", many, many Disney movies, and all the neighbors love it! We all make goodies, and pop tons of popcorn. It's a fun night!
 
I like that our town has good schools and never votes down a school bond issue. I like that my neighborhood is mostly quietly and friendly.

I dislike that live next to Crazy Neighbor Lady. Why me? The Crazy Neighbor in our old neighborhood was 3 doors down, and in the neighborhood before that was 3 streets over!

I dislike that our town's city government still runs on the old boy network and I dislike that the vast majority of the money taken in by the speed vans goes to a private company and not into my town's coffers. I was all for them, based on safety and the revenue streem until I found out what % the city gets from those tickets. Now I'm :confused: as I can still see the safety thing, but I'm ticked beyond belief at how much money is going into the pockets of some company in NC!
 
So sad, but nothing. Just a neighborhood of people who mind their own business. A few small chit-chats, mowing the neighbors lawn, shoveling for an older person, and taking someone's mail in. But nothing like the other posts. I guess it makes it hard to socialize with my backdoor neighbors though. See my location.
 
Tinker'n'Fun - We sound just like you. We shovel for each other, pick up mail, mow or water plants, catch up when we cross each others' path. But no organized get-togethers. And, the neighbor out my back door is a funeral home. :laughing:

OP - I do think the movie nights sound like fun. A cookout/potluck is also nice if you have a good location. Sorry, I'm not much help. I still live in a "small town", so our only community activities are for the entire town of 5,000 - live music in the park, Catholic School dinners and bingo, homecoming parades, festivals to raise $ for the volunteer fire department, that sort of thing.
 
For us, the concept of "neighborhood" or community exists in many ways. We have our core neighborhood of about 65 houses. We also have communities based around the local schools, churches, boy scouts, girl scouts, sports leagues, etc. We also have a citywide community of about 90,000 people which is divided into about 6 or 7 "villages". All of these groups offer tons of social activities including parties, parades, and events of all sorts.

At the core neighborhood level, we do many things to create a sense of community. We have 1 or 2 block parties each year. We often have a National Night Out party, although that is increasingly happening at the village level. We have a book club that meets monthly. We have a bunko group that plays monthly. We often have multi-family parties and occasional large group outings for things like canoeing or camping. Our family's contributions include setting up a garage photography studio each Halloween and take nice pictures of the kids in their costumes when they come by to trick or treat, hosting rainy-day movies for 12-15 kids in our home theater, and organizing the book club. You can see photo slideshows of many of these events here. We also share a phone/e-mail list.

In my observation, the important thing for making a neighborhood work is to have a handful of people that are willing to spend the time organizing activities. Most people are very happy to contribute their time and energy, but they often require some leadership. Left to their own, they'll sit at home and wish that their neighborhood was more social.

My wife is a major neighborhood organizer. She started the book club. She helps organize the block parties. She gathers up kids for rainy-day movies. She's always doing something to make the community a better place to live. For that reason, every place we've lived has had a strong sense of community and a lot of activities.
 
My wife is a major neighborhood organizer. She started the book club. She helps organize the block parties. She gathers up kids for rainy-day movies. She's always doing something to make the community a better place to live. For that reason, every place we've lived has had a strong sense of community and a lot of activities.

This qualifies her to run for some pretty powerful positions!!:rotfl2:
 
Thanks for the replies. By neighborhood, I mean subdivision - not a city or town. Our city is one of the All American cities this year, so it is pretty neat too, but with our subdivision being so cutesy, I would hope we could do more things to prove it. :) I will check into the movie night thing...don't want to make Disney or any other studio mad.

It is good to know that there are still some great neighborhoods out there! :)
 
I like the fact that our neighborhood leaves each other alone except in a time of need to help one another.
 
I love our neighbourhood :) We have 5 other families that live right near us that have kids the same age as us so they play together pretty much every day. The kids all ride their bikes in the street while all the parents chat or they will all go from house to house playing. With a few of the families we will get together for BBQ's, campfires, christmas/halloween parties, take the girls to concerts and plays together, girls have sleepovers, and we always spend New Years Eve together. We have some pretty great friends in our neighbourhood.
 




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