DISQUS

alligator_kate · 1 year ago

I'm the co-director of my local community garden on Manhattan's Lower East Side. www.kidsmagicgarden.net It is a wild community space designed especially for kids, as it is on the corner across from 2 schools. It was designed by the community where a rubble-filled heap had been when Manhattan's L.E.S. was a bombed out war zone in the early 80's. Now due to gentrification, it is being threatened by development. Some people would like it to become a luxury condo. I love knowing my neighbors and being a part of the lives of the kids in my community. Nothing builds community in the city like gardens because they bring such diverse groups of people together. We have garden members of all different ages, races, partnership orientations, and income levels who bond over simply loving the garden. We have a peach tree, a nectarine tree, and an apple tree, which city folk marvel at, a "pizza" vegetable garden, a medicinal herb patch, handcrafted see-saw, toys, bikes, art, and a stage where local musicians jam on Sunday afternoons in the Summer. It is a magical place. I hope we are able to keep it.

lifecoachsandy · 1 year ago

As an adult who grew up as an orthodox Jew, community has always been paramount in my life. When my first two kids were 21 months and 6 weeks old, we moved to a community without a synagogue. I realized that before then, I had depended on the synagogue as a way meet my friends and form my community. My kids were too young for school, so I had no central place to find friends. I had a handicapped child and a screaming infant and I felt so alone. I'm a little embarrassed to say that the most desperate thing I did was to check in people's shopping carts at the supermarket for kosher foods. That was my connection to other Jewish people. I actually made one good friend that way. I soon discovered other young moms and their kids (of all religions and backgrounds) who lived in my neighborhood and we formed a weekly get together. I expanded my ways for connecting and forming community and it was a treasured experience that I can always take with me.

Jess · 1 year ago

I'm thinking in terms of the neighbourhood I grew up in because I still feel very close to it. I want it to feel forever safe, and too not change too much.
I want there always to be farmer's field behind my house and my neighbour's houses...I don't want development to move the neighbourhood into nature.
I want everyone to feel comfortable enough to come to each other to ask for a cup of sugar ;)

Linda Borland-Fitzgerald · 1 year ago

We moved out of Toronto 16 years ago for a rural property while my husband continued to commute daily. Then, we moved to an adult lifestyle development on a golf course - we don't belong here and we are longing for city life again, but can no longer afford housing there. Our ideal neighbourhood is first of all safe, has an old-fashioned feel to it that's 'neighbourly' and within walking distance holds fresh produce market, a bakery, organic/ethical butcher, florist, cafe, book-store, gourmet food shop, and something ethnic. Ideally, that could be the St. Lawrence Market & Distillery locations. What a dream come true that would be for us. But, and this is where it gets tricky, a place where people are compelled to smile and make good eye contact.

I love the both Carrie and Danielle's descriptions and am envious.

ally · 1 year ago

My neighborhood is also on the corner of a university, in a nice end of the city where 150 year-old houses are intermingled with apartment buildings and condos. There are still lots of trees and our neighbors include my best university friends (some who are still in school), parents of kids who I've coached in soccer for years, and a really nice elderly Japanese man who walks his elderly pug around the block everyday at 9:30 am and 4:30 pm, like clockwork. I love sitting on my stoop in the spring/summer/fall and just chatting with people as they walk by. Our corner has also been known for spontaneous get-togethers extending onto the sidewalk and bar-b-q's that somehow attract up to 60 friends within an hour or two. It's a 'hood that is always changing (isn't everything) but never losing its spirit.

Rick_Juliusson · 1 year ago

The rest of that Tennyson quote talks about his eternal unrest, always wanting to explore and do more. One important aspect of a neighbourhood, in that light, would be that it's a place you can always come back home to to recharge the batteries, reconnect with your people and energy, feel grounded, then after some time be ready for the next adventure:

I am a part of all I have met
Yet all experience is an arch
wherethrough gleams that untravelled world
whose margin fades forever and ever when i move

Daniel Gibbons · 1 year ago

I'd like my neighborhood to feel a little more authentic than it does. I live in Kitsilano, which is in many ways the nicest part of Vancouver, close to several beaches, full of tree-lined streets and older homes. However, it's also filling up with condos loudly proclaiming the too-cool-for-school urban lifestyle they embody, coffee shops that think the design of their paper cups is more important than the atmosphere and community they create, and organic food stores that are about fleecing the consumer rather than encouraging sustainable, local consumption.

Suzyn · 1 year ago

Great question, and one I've thought about a lot since we moved from Manhattan to the DC 'burbs four years ago. We didn't pay THAT much attention to the neighborhood - we just found a nice house that we could afford with a commute my husband could manage. We ended up very close to a large military base. I had no idea what a clique the US military can be - my husband sports a goatee, so they don't even have to talk to us to realize that we're not a military family (facial hair is forbidden in the US military, and even most retired officers (those who still choose to live near a base) tend to stay clean-shaven). It's been lonesome out here. It's also total suburban design - there's a gorgeous brand new library about a mile away, which I cannot walk to, because it would mean navigating my stroller through a cloverleaf highway intersection.

Ok, enough complaining. My ideal neighborhood (which I have my eye on, and we'll move to as soon as we can manage) is first and foremost about the vibe - people greet each other, you know your neighbors, you have block parties and BBQs... I also want great schools, sidewalks, coffee shops and restaurants, walkable access to public transportation, a nature trail/park, and TREES.

Traci · 1 year ago

Well, I quit my job yesterday to freelance from home full time, so my neighborhood had better feel GOOD! :o)

I live in a large apartment complex, so there's an inherent element of anonymity, but my building is the "doggy building" (the only one in the multi-building complex that allows dogs), so there's a bit more interaction when the puppies decide they want to know their neighbors.

In the end, I just want to feel safe, calm, and that there is a general lack of hostility.

DanielleLaPorte · 1 year ago

Traci! Congratulations! What a way to end the year. Blessings on your new, uh, chapter(s)
Love,
Danielle

K. · 1 year ago

I live on the Upper West Side and I love how it feels here: bustling but not overwhelmingly so, diverse, literary. There is a lot culturally in terms of cafes, restaurants, access to museums and the like, but I also live near Riverside Park and Central Park. I like the little farmers market that pops up twice a week. The "mallification" of NYC is happening up here, and that is unfortunate; I wish we could preserve more local businesses.

Storyeller · 1 year ago

NYC...how dreamy!

Storyeller · 1 year ago

I live on the East Side. This means my block has the widest variety of people possible: high grade piano teacher, opera singer and two actors in our block. We have the old families who have been here for decades: the Chinese and the Italian, back to back, both extraordinarily fond of family gatherings and cement lawn ornaments. To our left are Australians, to our right are Filipino and Vietnamese. We have a funky corner of lesbians, one is my childcare worker. We have the yuppy family who have refurbished the Victorian special on the corner, their gourmet dog yapping in the window. We have an ol' English Bitty around the bend who is a bit nutty but has the best garden on the East side, the dart champion beer drinkers behind us, the construction worker from Alberta and the family from India in the big pink house. Walking down our street at supper time is like attending some International food festival - the scents are amazing! So, yeah, I love the mosaic. We live shoulder to shoulder in relative peace and harmony and it gives me hope for the rest of the world.

Celise · 1 year ago

Like we're living in an age appropriate area. My best childhood memories were on Warren Way in Reno, NV. That was a family neighborhood. There 2-3 kids per house. That was perfect for me. Now, I think my husband and I some neighbors diagonal from us are the only 30-something couple in the neighborhood. Probably because we live in an older (and by older, I mean aesthetically) area. We don't really know any of our neighbors and the house to our right is Immigrant Central. I hate it and wished we lived in a condo or townhouse.

Natasha_L · 1 year ago

My neighbourhood feels full of the contrasts that I love so much. I live in a tiny apartment in a big building with many neighbors. People are friendly but respectful. The bulldog in the elevator wears pearls. Cobblestone streets and old warehouses converted to chic restaurants and tech firm offices. It's a downtown neighbourhood with it's city issues but I feel incredibly safe, and love walking home to my place at night. It feels accessible with everything I could want steps away - ocean and seawall, other neighborhoods, library, community centre, gym, art gallery... It can feel noisy and alive with construction and traffic, or still and peaceful late on a weeknight or early on a Saturday. It's all these things and always feels like home. With constant construction since I moved there, I can't wait for it to feel more established. Legendary.

laurie_matthews · 1 year ago

Like my old neighborhoods in Brookline and Cambridge Mass. Where you could walk to great restaurants andpubs. Where great public transit options were right around the corner. And where there were great parks - large and small - to chill in. All located near a city with amazing cultural and sports events.

elinwoods · 7 months ago

I would it to feel like a small town even in the heart of a big city. I would want to have a "usual" at the local diner and be friendly with my neighbors. That's not to say that I want to have picnics with all of them or live in the suburbs, but I would want them to know that they matter to me.