Balakrishna Chennupati

“The near west side reflects the pattern of a traditional American neighborhood before the dominance of the automobile, a closely knit community where neighbors walked to work and to corner groceries with a feeling of safety.”

Katie, 30,5 years

Tabitha, 20, One month

Janice, 55,3.5 years

Adam, 28, 4 months. Brandon, 26, visiting since

one monthPicture not available,

Laura, 45, 7 years

People lead busy lives and are of the opinion that meeting neighbors is an additional demand on their time. So relationships with neighbors are formed and sustained only if the parties have a common interest or there is a purpose to the interactions.

People meet other people when they have a common interest

Tabitha:“I met him at Club Kirkwood when they had dance parties last year.”

“I saw his comments on live journal, and when I saw that his location was Bloomington, I contacted him and we met at Soma.”

“I went to his house when he was having a “French Party”, as it sounded interesting, but it turned out that I had already met him at a Peace Conference.”

Adam:“Simian who lives across the street, plays the piano and you can hear it down the street. My housemate David knows him, and told him I played the piano too, and he invited me over.”

Adam:“Ben used to live down the street, but he moved away. I met him through an EC organization … Alcoholics Anonymous.”

Laura:

“I’ve met a person at the Waldron Arts Center, when I was taking a dance class, and I consider her a friend though we don’t talk all that much. It’s because of a mutual interest in the form of dance.”

“They are different people. They are less educated and have different tastes and we didn’t click.”

Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone

Suburban sprawl has fractured the spatial integrity of people. They travel much further to work, shop and enjoy leisure opportunities. As a result there is less time available (and less inclination) to become involved in groups. Suburban sprawl is a very significant contributor.

Finding people of common interest within the neighborhood, restores some of that spatial integrity.

But, the Banneker Community center has no programs targeted at the neighborhood.

The Porch and the StreetKatie:“ The woman sweeps the front porch and we got to introduce each other and she has a cat, so we talk about cats. ”

Adam:“We were on the porch, and my girlfriend was practicing some self-defense moves. They saw it and we had a good laugh.”

“She’ll see that David has some new decorations on the porch, and she’d say “Oh that’s adorable”. Porches are like conversational pieces”.

Janice:“I walk around and talk to people if they’re out. I tell them they have a beautiful garden, or I like their cat so I ask them how she’s doing”.

“When I am standing on my porch, I can see them, and I can speak in the voice I am speaking in now, and they can hear me.”

Events at individual homes

Adam:“I go to yard sales, and I meet people there, but I go looking to buy something cheap”

Laura:“The house on the east, they have yard sales, and I would go over to see what they have and we would chat. ”

Janice:“The house at the back had an open house, and there was a large turnout and I met some people. I was known at the party as house no.934 or the striped house.”

Some people are not comfortable having people visit them at home.

Laura: “I wouldn’t want people coming into my house. I am

wearing pajamas at home, and people can’t just drop in. There are people who just drop in, like religious salesman, selling you their brand of Christianity, telling you to start going to church. I just shut the door on them. I don’t give them a chance.”

Laura: “I’d like to invite them, take them cookies, but I don’t have the time, and I am really ashamed of our house. We don’t have the time or the money to fix it.”

Gentrification creates a sense of community. Katie:“The neighborhood still has personality, the houses are decent looking and are historic houses which have been remodeled. There is a sense of community since I have invested in the community and the home owners by buying a house.”

“Towards Rogers street, there is more neighborliness. Two blocks up from here, the atmosphere changes. You can see a gentrification, and the houses look nicer. Two houses here are eyesores. Towards Rogers street, on Sixth, Seventh and Eighth streets, the neighborhood is more integrated and friendly. The houses are better kept. They have pottery sales and artist walks, with ceramicists, painters and artists living around there.”

Laura:“We are literally on the wrong side of the tracks. The city takes good care of the neighborhood on the other side of the tracks, as it is closer to downtown, but not our side. We don’t know who to watch out for.”

A feeling of territoriality creates a sense of communityKatie:“There is an improved sense of community because of the presence of Bloomingfoods. We feel territorial. You can do everything in walking distance.”

Students affecting the sense of communityKatie:“Bloomington feels more like our town when the students are gone. ”

Laura:“I am not really interested in a social circle. If I was looking for jobs in other

places, I might be interested, if I was new to a neighborhood. I am not interested in making friends anymore. A lot of friends I made here have moved away, they graduate and they’re gone. I first came to study here, and stayed back. We moved a lot when I was young, and I wanted to stay in one town as an adult.”

Lack of pride in community affecting the sense of community

Katie:“The people next door don’t want to be neighborly. It is because

of a lack of pride,they are a whole bunch of squatters. They think they’re environmentally friendly people, but they aren’t. They don’t know how to garden.”

Busy and no time

Tabitha: “I am held up in my own activities. I didn’t really think about meeting my neighbors”

Laura: “Can’t imagine people embracing it because of the desire for privacy. We would have to spend some time dealing with it. There is no time to do that anymore.”

Brandon: “People got busy lives. Meetings, way too much work.”

Adam: Talking about Janice, “She’s retired.. She has a lot more time.”

PrivacyAbout a common neighbor:Adam:“It’s strange. I see their car right there, I see them come and

go, but I don’t know them. They’re involved in their inner world.”

Janice:“I had gone to say hello to the young couple when they first

moved in, saying I was their neighbor and that they could ask her for help if they needed something, and that they replied “Oh, Okay” and were like “Why is she saying hello to us?”. They’re awfully young to be snooty.”

“In the house opposite there used to be this man who was very outgoing, and he wouldn’t stop once he started talking. So I’d check to see that his car was gone before coming out.”

“I don’t like them”

Katie:“She is very particular about parking right in front of her door.

She doesn’t spend much time outside. Her parking behavior inspires not to make friends.”

“The house at the back, the man has a really foul mouth. When I am working in the backyard, I can hear him screaming at the telephone. And the kids in the house they must 12 yrs and 8 yrs old, also use foul language and is not appropriate to speak such language, and I wouldn’t want to talk to them. And his wife would scream at her neighbors.”

Laura:“They throw obnoxious parties so late at night. I don’t really want

to know them. I’ve thought about revenge schemes, like playing loud music by their window early in the morning when they’re asleep, to show them what it’s like, but I didn’t try them.”

For a PurposeTabitha:“He asked me to sublet his house for him. I found this set of people, but they didn’t pay rent. So I am on bad terms with him now. I want to be on good terms with him, as that would he would be of help later in my protests.”

Laura:“I would definitely be interested in a neighborhood watch organization. Some neighborhoods have them already, they have a crime watch. I don’t think we have one in our neighborhood, not to my knowledge. There is definitely value in a neighborhood watch organization.”

Janice:“When I first moved into the place, I was baking a pizza, and that had set the smoke alarms off. I didn’t know what to do as they were high up and I didn’t have a way to climb up and put the alarms off. So I had gone to the neighbors and asked for help.”

For a feeling of safety and community

Katie:“Yes. It is safer if you know your neighbors. If I were to permanently settle in Bloomington, I would move elsewhere, closer to Rogers.”

Katie:“In the place I do my field work, I am in another culture where there is a good sense of neighborliness. They have regular community interaction, every six weeks there’s something happening. And when I come here, it’s a disappointment. Here people just hand a newsletter. It’d be nice if the invitation to participate was more personal, like Hey 1220, we would like you to come. ”

Katie: “I had a sense of neighborliness with the people next

door, it was my first fall here and I didn’t know I had to sweep the leaves into the street for them to be picked up, my neighbor asked her husband to sweep the leaves from my yard. I used to borrow a grill or a lawn mower, and they would come over for tea, and we would enter one another’s houses.“

Laura: “One winter the pipes in our house froze, and since he

wasn’t using his house he offered to give us the key. We said “no, no” and he said “yes, yes”, and we used the shower and a bedroom. That was really trusting and kind on his part. He doesn’t live there anymore, but he owns the house and I consider him my neighbor.”

Meeting the neighbors is only incidental, and takes place over time. New members must either take incentive or wait till that accidental interaction on the street or at a community event. People are conscious of losing time and privacy in these interactions, and do not normally take the incentive.