“I was amazed when my neighbor waved to me,” a suburban friend confided. “She’s lived a few houses down for three or four years now, and she’s never waved before.”
She still hasn’t—it turns out she wasn’t waving, just reaching for the garage door opener on the sun visor. Like many of us, what these two neighbors know about each other is limited to superficial things like the appearances of their front lawns or the habits of their dogs. Despite the fact they live only four large shade trees apart, they don’t even know each other’s names.
Up and down the street, there are hundreds of potential links between people—links that could reduce time, human energy, and money spent by individuals on tight schedules and tight budgets. But not enough of these connections are being made, partly because the neighborhood culture doesn’t encourage or empower it. “It’s just not the way we do it; we value our privacy,” many say. Yet it’s becoming apparent that our quest for privacy and exclusivity has significant costs, among them the loss of personal health.
The good news is that residents themselves can begin the process of neighborhood remodeling. What if a certain energetic individual went door to door and began putting out a newsletter introducing thirty or so households to each other? What if this new social circle began to have a monthly potluck supper? Maybe people who needed help in the neighborhood would start getting a ride to the car shop or help moving a piece of furniture. The neighborhood would begin to think of itself as “we” rather than a collection of “me’s.” Baby-sitting ventures might spring up, along with tool-sharing opportunities. The connections that bind a community together would begin to form.
Someone would surely voice the desire for a community garden and compost pile, and someone else might envision an innovative way to make that happen: “What if we moved or took down some of our backyard fences and created a connecting trail through the garden, complete with fresh vegetables and perennial flowerbeds?” An energy efficiency expert might propose a SWAT team for upgrading each house in the neighborhood, collectively saving thousands of dollars in energy bills.
Once the ball got rolling, the neighborhood might submit a request for a zoning variance to allow a restaurant/outdoor café to move right into a vacant house in the neighborhood. (The smell of Italian food…) With a rising level of trust in the group, the neighbors might set up a joint bank account to fund events. In a few years they might even buy a house collectively, to become a community center with office equipment, a library, maybe a guest room. If you divide the cost of that house by 30 it’s not so daunting. Down the block, someone’s garage might become the location of a cottage industry that provides a few jobs, and a few other garages and outbuildings might become apartments or artist studios. With a well-framed proposal from residents the city might install landscape features right in the street, to slow traffic down and create more greenery.
By thinking cooperatively, each household would spend less money, but create more real wealth. While some of these ideas may seem outlandish at first, each of these ideas is already documented, delivering qualities many people say they want in their neighborhoods: more time spent with family and friends and less with TVs and computers; a greater sense of security and trust; a lesser impact on the environment; and a feeling that one’s home is someplace. Maybe it’s time we thought “outside the box” of each individual home, and began to systematically remodel our neighborhoods! Think about it – when bonds and networks are created (what some call “social capital”) the more we “spend” the more we have. Why wouldn’t any neighborhood want to create shared wealth such as this?
David Wann is a 25-year resident of a cohousing neighborhood that incorporates many of the ideas in this article. For a list of steps that can be taken in any neighborhood – whether suburban or urban – follow this link:
https://www.terrain.org/articles/13/superbia.htm
