Neighborhoods Rule
Blue Springs is fortunate to enjoy a number of vibrant, healthy neighborhoods, and it’s our job to keep it that way! Neighborhoods, after the family, are the ground zero of maintaining a healthy township, and somewhere along the way, America had forgotten the importance of neighborhoods. Wherever we travel we love to visit quaint neighborhoods or burgs, and explore their differences.
In I Feel Bad About My Neck Norah Ephron talked about moving from New York to a suburb and the difference inherent in driving to the grocery store as opposed to having groceries delivered. Having never lived in a big city, my first thought was, "They do that?!" Visiting Italy, every zone had its own markets and cathedrals. In London I was drawn to exploring all the stops on the tube. I loved all the boulangeries and flower markets on each block. Blue Springs is similarly rich in neighborhoods.
Neighborhood isn’t just the people in your gated community,the folks next door, or the apartments in your condo. These may be the peopleyou live next to, but neighborhood is supposed to be much more thanthat. When we moved to Blue Springs from acreage in the country, we lookedforward to having neighbors within walking distance. We came from a communityof people close in spirit, if not in distance, and enjoyed pig roasts andneighborly support within a short car’s ride.
We were surprised to find that many people want not justtheir privacy, but social distance (pre-coronavirus style distance) from theirneighbors. They don’t want to be or have neighbors at all! How sad. I get thatit’s easy to feel like life in a fishbowl affords little privacy, but lifewithout neighbors isn’t life at all…it’s just existence.
Fostering neighborliness is incumbent upon all of us, andit’s not that hard. Watch for opportunities. When we learned one of ourneighbors was having extensive cardiac surgery, we went door to door to set upa neighborhood meal train for the family. That outpouring of neighborhoodconcern did more than feed the family, it fed the soul.
In IdeasFor Vibrant Cities John Karras describes how to determine if yourneighborhood stands out as a great place to live. He suggests that eachneighborhood needs to have a name or be known for something. A lot ofsubdivisions have names, but they may not be known for anything more thanexpensive houses. Becoming known for something takes a little ingenuity andeffort.
As a matter of fact, there are 101Ways to instill healthy living into your neighborhood. It begins with oneperson, it begins with you. Hold an outdoor socially distant bbq and get toknow someone. Talk about some ideas for making the neighborhood a more vibrant,happier place to live. Even antisocial people get inspired by increasing theirproperty value.
It doesn’t take a lot to plant seeds and start positivegrowth. When we do this, our neighborhoods become vibrant, and in the process,Blue Springs becomes an even better place to live.
