Tue 5 Sep 2006
The New York Times last week had an interesting article on the new residential development in Northfield, Minn., the town home to St. Olaf College. Apparently no one's a fan of cul-de-sacs.
It raises an interesting dilemma of whether we should support insular societies that promote security, or more open societies that possibily integrate the community more while, a side effect of which may be integrating the bad with the good. I wonder how many people on cul-de-sacs actually speak to their neighbours on a regular basis, and would even call their neighbours friends. Perhaps you hate your neighbours, but you still feel it's better the enemy you know than the one you don't.
Playing The Sims 2 over the Labour Day weekend (thanks to Emily reintroducing me to my addiction to computer games), I noticed that when I first moved into my house, the neighbours all came over and met me (and continued to come over on a regular basis). I'm not sure how often that happens in real life. In Oxford, I've lived in a ranged of houses, from one in the city centre where my neighbours were a pasta restaurant and a homeless shelter to north Oxford, where the neighbours were never home, to student houses, where I often had breakfast, lunch, and dinner in different houses in our row. I discount the last as not being an adequate representation of 'real life' - it is college after all. But what about the others? Do neighbours really play a part in our lives anymore, regardless of where we live? This summer I'm living in an apartment, and I haven't met anyone in the 10-story building.
I started this post thinking that I was against cul-de-sacs because they don't allow much interaction with a wider society, but looking at the agruments I've just presented, I think I can't go either way any more, because I have no evidence that neighbours really matter at all.
September 8th, 2006 at 3.14 am
Hi, Sam - I read the article about cul-de-sacs and I can see why parents of small children might favor them both for safety from cars and, these days, for safety from strangers. My observation here locally is that Berkeley has a grid pattern which it is busy breaking up to keep people from speeding and to enhance bike lanes all through the town. They have some streets blocked off with big concrete barriers (attractive but nevertheless it’s clear what they are for), roundabouts to slow traffic in certain areas, and speed bumps to slow people down. Some streets are becoming “bike only” streets, too, to encourage leaving the car at home. Berkeley is always a little avant-garde; can’t comment on whether or not the blockades have improved the sense of community or not.
As to neighbors, here in Point Richmond, we know all of our neighbors and many of the townspeople but I wouldn’t say any of them are truly our friends. We do watch out for each other’s kids and pets and we house sit while each other is away but there is only one fast friendship in our little street of eight houses. But, is this a change in American life, or was it always like this even back in Samuel Clemens’ day? Hmmm….?
Cheers,
Pam
September 21st, 2006 at 3.00 pm
Hey Sam, Introductions from neighbors are still quite common in my parent's world, perhaps that's because they live in a more rural community and maybe because they own their property so are planning on sticking around for several years. The kind of short term leases you get in the student world don't really lend themselves to getting to know the people you live near. Having said that, when I've made an effort with neighbors in Oxford it's been reasonably successful but I've always had to make the first move. My neighbours never bring me chocolate cake like the Sims do however so I'm thinking of applying to live in a computer game full time. x