Some federal agencies refer to U.S. households as “consumer units,” an insult that should incite acts of consumer disobedience rather than bargain-day stampedes. Ideally “where you live” means something far more satisfying than where you generate five pounds of trash every day, park your car, and stare at one screen after another. In some U.S. neighborhoods, residents are working together to recreate the comfortable kinds of places where humans have always lived. (For 99 percent of human history, we’ve lived in clans of 12 to 36 people.) We’re hard-wired to cooperate and when we can’t participate, we feel frustrated. In the spirit of a collective do-it-yourself project, some neighborhoods are sponsoring concerts in the park, poker games and potluck dinners in backyards. They are forming “eco-teams” to make the neighborhood more efficient, one house and yard at a time. In one neighborhood, a costumed manikin travels from one lawn to another depending on who’s throwing the party.
In recent years our support systems, like schools, workplaces, churches, and social groups, have been disrupted. Neighborhoods are emerging as a natural gathering place – a social and physical asset that we have in common. Great neighborhoods meet human needs directly, delivering a sense of belonging; security and trust; and leisure time well-spent. In the book Superbia, Dan Chiras and I proposed 31 ways to make any neighborhood more supportive and sustainable. We researched the health implications of where Americans live, documenting that when neighborhoods become more lively and safer to walk in – with mom-and-pop stores, parks and other destinations that give walking a sense of purpose – people come out of their houses and get to know each other. As a result, their stress levels and medical bills go down. Physicians tell us that Chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, asthma, and depression can be avoided with well-designed modifications in our neighborhoods. Wouldn’t the steady addition of mini-shops, pocket parks, community gardens and commuter van pools make life more satisfying? Imagine new walking paths and alleys, better street access for the disabled; homes with solar panels, schoolyards with butterfly habitats, and gardeners’ markets on the weekend.
It’s interesting to think about the savings in time and money that neighborhood cooperation can yield. What if Homeowners Associations encouraged lawns and houses that were more efficient? What if car-share, tool-share and babysitter co-ops began forming? What if someone volunteered to take hard-to-recycle objects to a recycling center? What if rides to the airport or car mechanic were available? If a person had more friends and interests right in the neighborhood, wouldn’t he drive and boredom-shop less? If it became part of a neighborhood’s culture to help when sidewalks needed shoveling or couches needed to be moved, wouldn’t the overall stress level go down?
For the last 25 years, I’ve practiced ideas like these in my cohousing neighborhood. Because I work at home, walk to stores for exercise, and have friends and recreation (a large community garden) in my neighborhood, I’ve had to borrow my neighbor’s battery charger a few times over the years because I’m not driving enough to recharge my car’s battery. A few basic changes in my daily routine and my personal identity have saved me a lot of money on gas, parking, food, consumer junk, medical bills, insurance premiums, and other expenses, not to mention a lot of stress on the highways.
My neighbors and I worked together on two successful projects that preserved the “feel” of our neighborhood. An educational facility that taught agriculture for fifty years was going to demolish a silo that gave us a sense of tradition. By simply making a few phone calls we convinced the facility to leave it up. (They had a rent-able antenna on it, which helped). We then followed up with the city historical society which by certified the silo as a perpetual landmark. A little activism also worked when large homes were being built on vacant land at the edge of our neighborhood. By working in small groups to gather 500 signatures and making our case at the City Council, we spear-headed public funding to compensate the developer and create a pocket park instead of a large, looming house at the end of the street.
I’ll have more to say about the neighborhood where I live in the next article. Please stay tuned, and maybe get that summer neighborhood potluck on the calendar! First step? Compile a list of neighbors and have a brainstorm session about possibilities. Yes, there will be some neighbors who don’t want to join, but assure them some of the perks will be available to them anyway.
