Live on or near the Hood-Maddux Loop? Lets share our resources and ideas. Post below what you would like to see our community do to get better connected. (My skills: I am a paralegal and can help you fill out legal documents, or wade through that annoying buracracy that is our court system.)
Here are some of my ideas to inhance our neighborhood culture:
Plant a front yard veggie garden and share it
Build a raised bed for veggies; plant edible landscaping and fruit trees. Invite your neighbors to share your garden.
Take down your backyard fence
Join with your neighbors to create a shared safe play space for children, a community garden, or a wood-fired pizza oven. If that’s too radical, consider cutting your six-foot fence to four feet to make chatting across the fence easier, or building a gate between yards.
Start a Community 'Book Lending' Library
Take a book, lend a book. Collect your old reads and share them with passersby in a book-lending cupboard mounted next to the sidewalk out front.
Organize summer potluck/street parties
Claim the street, gather the lawn chairs, and fire up the grill. Take over the otherwise “off-limits” street as a space to draw neighbors together. Go door-to-door and invite the whole block, or fliers for the shy people.
Build resilience together
Create a neighborhood survey of assets, skills, and needs for times of crisis. Frame it around “emergency preparedness,” but watch how it cultivates community.
Create an online network for nearby neighbors
Expand the survey into an active online resource and communication tool. Find a new home for an outgrown bike. Ask
for help keeping an eye out for a lost dog or start a mom's group in your neighborhood. Facebook allows you to create private pages that work great for community networking like this.
Be a Good Neighbor
It’s easy to focus on your own needs and concerns, but a slight shift in outlook can make a big difference in the day-to-day lives in a neighborhood. Help your elderly neighbor shovel his snow-covered driveway and sidewalk. Know your neighbors are going out of town? Offer to bring in their mail, or water their lawn and walk their dogs. Check in on those you know to be ill, and keep a watchful eye for strangers and anything out of the ordinary to help keep your community safe.
