Comments on: the ‘hood

By: George

George — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:55:49 +0000

We live in a street where most houses are well cared for and have some kind of small business vehicle (truck, ute, van) parked in the driveway. There are lots of guys walking around in those bright orange shirts that you have to wear if you’re loading a truck somewhere semi-dangerous. It catches me off guard because I don’t come from that. My mother is a teacher and my father was an orchardist – in the country district where I come from farmers were top and orchardists were top of the farmers. I a university educated. So you see, to put it bluntly, if I were to class myself and these people around me I would put us above them. But there’s two trucks in our drive and Will wears a bright orange t-shirt every day! Either way, I love our neighbourhood. At the local park everyone chats to each other while the kids play. The guy in the post office knows most customers by name and also who to speak English to and who to speak Greek to. When Bubble got off his lead outside the supermarket someone caught him for me. These are awesome attributes for a neighbourhood to have. So much so that we reckon we might buy here.
(Mmm, sorry for the essay!)

By: Mrs. Chicken

Mrs. Chicken — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:34:35 +0000

Our neighborhood is just on the verge of suburban, made up of affordable, new housing in an area where housing prices are prohibitive for many. We are also just a stone’s throw away from apartment buildings that accept welfare vouchers. This is, by far, the most racially diverse place I’ve ever lived.

I like that The Poo sees so many faces – African-American, Asian, Eastern European, all the colors, really.

Some days, I can’t help but be annoyed by the sameness of the houses, row after row of identical facades, and I miss the variety of our old neighborhood in New York.

But other days I see how the sameness highlights the differences.

Thank you for this thought-provoking post, as always.

By: bubandpie

bubandpie — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:50:46 +0000

I’ve been loving all these posts about neighbours and neighbourhoods. They’re all about sense of place, and this post is full of that.

By: niobe

niobe — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:11:31 +0000

I love this post so much.

But I don’t think about my own neighborhood all that much, mainly because I’ve been there so long, it’s almost impossible to imagine living anyplace else.

By: christine

christine — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 02:16:30 +0000

i like this. a lot. so evocative of the place you are in. and the scene crossing the parking lot was very vivid.

and we have a Smoking Youth down the road, too. he also spits, though not very attractively.

the kind of neighborhood i like and want my kids to grow up in is one where there is a connection between neighbors. i love our neighborhood parties where all kinds of people from professors to mechanics and librarians to waitresses live. we come together, we take care of each other, and we respect each other.

now there is the matter of the level 2 sex offender a few houses down. . .sticky subject that one is.

By: cinnamon gurl

cinnamon gurl — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:12:10 +0000

Our neighbourhood is much the same I think… and we chose it for similar reasons. Walkability is essential to me. We can go whole weekends without taking the car out once.

By: bon

bon — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:36:54 +0000

i have to agree, absolute quiet would be nice. especially with a baby. but we’re really not all that urban – and the city bars are a good few blocks further downtown – so the night noise is usually not terribly disruptive here, or i’d not be nearly so keen on the place. and we do have grass, bless its little dandelion-ridden heart.

but the walkability? yeh…see, that i love. love. don’t like driving, plus i always feel like i’ve practically gone to the gym or something if i do the ten minute walk to the drugstore and back. ;)

By: Christy

Christy — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:15:06 +0000

When we lived in Kentucky, our house was located in a very urban area. We lived next to a corner store, across the street from a church, and around the corner from a bar. I had lived in that area my whole life, and I was sick of it all. I was sick of the drunk people stumbling up the street. I was sick of the kids yelling and screaming on their way to the corner store. I was sick of the church people stealing all the parking spaces on the street.

When we moved to New Jersey, we bought small house, in a very quiet neighborhood. I LOVE it here. I love the trees. I love the grass. I love the peace and quiet. I am perfectly content to stay in this neighborhood.

By: radical mama

radical mama — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:40:13 +0000

I’ve had enough of neighborhoods, actually.

I hate the suburbs, so we tried the city. And that’s not working either.

The rental house next door became occupied again last weekend and now all I smell is pot and all I hear is G.D. and mother-effer this and that. It’s ridiculous.

I want no neighbors and the only walkability I want is me to the garden or barn.

I want absolute quiet and stars at night.

By: bon

bon — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:22:31 +0000

ah, Thor, i didn’t exactly say “good pizza”…i said the best pizza in town. :) which, depending on where one sets one’s expectations, is at least tolerable but not necessarily fabulous.

and the classism, oh i got it too. i wish there were other kids in the neighbourhood but then i step back and realize that i wish there were other kids with families like ours, educated even if not particularly wealthy, sharing the same values. ’cause at heart i apparently AM my mother. sigh. but even more families like us would change the place…for the better, from my selfish perspective…but the semi-diversity would definitely be impacted, and the other people would need somewhere to go, wouldn’t they? and in this city, there’s really not a lot of cheaper streets left to move to.

Beruriah…i know what you mean about the street where you could live for the rest of your life. i’m not sure this is it for us…if those other families like us move in, then sure, i suppose. there are a lot of things i like about living here. but about four blocks over in either direction, the houses are a little bigger and the scene a little more residential and gentrified, and a part of me would think i’d Arrived and gone to heaven to live in one of those pads.

but for now, i like it here.