What happened to Neighborhoods?

Question

Im in my mid 30's ...I remember when i was a little girl everyone knew everyone else on their blocks. I can still remember neighbor's names from when i was ten yet i'm lucky to know maybe 4-6 families on my street now. When did we get so self involved? What happened to saying good morning? What happened to a sense of community? Does anyone else think about this?

Answer 1

They are changing it back again. Builders and contractors are now designing communities instead of just houses. I live in one of these new communities. It has traditional homes, sidewalks, parks, playgrounds, trails, pool, lake, schools and will be putting in small businesses. It's really nice and I've gotten to know quite a few neighbors.

Answer 2

I live in a small town (pop: 900) where everyone does know everyone. We exchange food, all of our kids play together, and I know every family in my neighborhood.
But, I agree it is awful the way most neighborhoods are.
A few things - you can't leave your kids outside alone. Even in our community, my son doesn't ride his bike by himself. They can't just play outside all day. Everyone's so busy. When do you have time to go outside and talk to your neighbors for a hour? I know I rarely have an hour to spare a day.
Also, people don't want to get to know each other. They're too wrapped up in their lives. They don't care to help their neighbors.
I think your question is a perfect example of how America is going downhill. If we all took time to slow down and become friends with all our neighbors - it would be a better world. (Like the Good Old Days)

Answer 3

I think about it a lot. Do you know how I am helping?

I seek my neighbors out. I bake Amish friendship bread and bring it to them. If we see someone working on something, etc we ask if we can help.

I have some neighbors I don't really like- but I found out that I have a lot of neighbors that are really cool. They were just too busy/shy to make the first effort. I stay out of everybody's business, but am just friendly and helpful when I can be.

I think so many people are in two-parent working households (mine included) and hear so much about stranger danger that we've lost some of that sense of community. It takes someone to make the first step, let it be you.

Answer 4

This could sound surprising coming from a twenty year-old college student, but this is what I think has happened. Many people get jobs that require them to live in different places(I have lived in 5 states) and this sense of constant job-related mobility caused an atittude of "well, I am just here until I get transfered or something better comes along, so I don' really feel the need to participate in the community and to get to know my neighbors". Back in the old days people had more loyalty to their jobs, therefore, had more loyalty to their communities and had a sense of "This is my home, and I'm not going anywhere, so I am going to be part of this community and get to know my neighbors."
Another thing that has happened is unchecked growth of suburbia. Houses are built further apart, so if a person doesn't want to interface with others at home, he or she doesn't have to. When people live closer together, they tend to see each other more and get to know each other more.
People are also living further from their jobs, so they spend alot of time commuting. Work hours have changed a little bit, but the commute has changed. Many people spend most of their time working, commuting to work, and eating dinner.
Another reason can be related to television. When alot of people get home, they watch tv until they either eat dinner or got to bed. People don't get to know each other because they are pre-occupied with other diversions.
People issues is another big reason. Trust for others is very low these days. The atitude of "you don't want everyone to know you that much because you never know what could happen, you don't want to attract attention to yourself" prevails often. Many people don't trust their neighbors and therefore won't make and effort to get to know them.
What do I think about this? I never grew up with a sense of "community" the way you did. Part of that is because I lived in so many places. If I had lived in one place my whole life, I would have gotten to know my neighbors more and I would have know nearly all of the people in my neighborhood more, and probably would have had better social skills. Living in the type of community you described that you grew up in may have been helpful to me growing up. I probably would have more loyalty to whatever place I could have been living in.

Answer 5

well if you live in good community's, like gig harbor, thers tons of neighborhoods, were everyone most likely knows each other, here were no so self centered, but a couple miles away across a bridge is the downfall of our socity, Tacoma, is a very distgusting city, my dad had to save an old man from getting muged, so if think the sense of community has gone away it has not, there's still lots of places out there with the friendly American neighborhoods.

Answer 6

All the time as I am much older than you and enjoyed the neighborhoods of the 50's. I'm pretty sure today we have been trained to judge, fear and put ourselves above our neighbors. Try leaving your doors unlocked, or leaving your keys in your car today...we have alienated each other so severely that it takes a tragedy to weed out the truly good neighbors. I now live in a rural area and we look to each other to preserve that old concept of "Love thy neighbor".

Answer 7

I lament the passing of neighborhoods, too. The automobile is partly to blame. These days, few people walk any farther than from their front door to their car. When people occasionally walked to their destinations, they passed neighbors and paused to exchange pleasantries. Even children are now driven to school and to their activities. There are very few of them playing hopscotch on the sidewalks or riding their bicycles. Were it not for dogs and their owners who walk them, there would be little opportunity to meet the neighbors. It is a sad thing.

Answer 8

I am in my late 40s and noticed this a long time ago. Lots of reasons. Both husband and wife work now. People move alot now and people also do not trust each other anymore. Sorry but it is a thing of the past in most parts of the country.

Answer 9

I stay in a rural section so the properties are unfold aside inconsistently over a lot of land, yet that still occurs. I truthfully have cats so fortuitously they do no longer bark, lol. My neighbor's dogs will start up barking, and then yet another neighbor down the long driveway has a chihuahua who will bark back at her. and then it is going on, and on, and on... presently there is been barn owls flying around and making their extraordinary owl noises. i truthfully p.c. to get an owl field.

Answer 10

cental schools that is large schools that draw students from a distance is one cause for people not knowing each other.
communting to work greater distances is another.
2 income familys still another.
too much money and too much snob attitude another.
lack of religious practices another.
all of this causes more crime .
start by tearing down large schools a school should not have more then 2 classes of students in one grade. small local neibhood schools will solve most of the problems of not knowing one another stop school shootings and result in lower crime rates.