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Maybe the overall explanation is that so many mothers are working now full time instead of staying home with the kids, so the social network is not present in neighborhoods across the US as it was for the centuries before. And, with divorce rates over 50%, maybe there are not as many families around to get to know each other. It is sad, but I think I figured out some explanation to some of the negative posts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cry_havoc
Sounds like you got lucky and had a good neighbor. I have stated several times that there are exceptions, but generally what I said holds true.
Im not talking about your neighborhood, but suburbs as a whole. So please dont take it personally.
Sounds like you got lucky and had a good neighbor. I have stated several times that there are exceptions, but generally what I said holds true.
Im not talking about your neighborhood, but suburbs as a whole. So please dont take it personally.
Also, I hope your hip get better.
Thanks. I really don't think my neighborhood is an exception. We were just talking about this on the Denver board recently. Also, my parent's neighborhood in suburban Pittsburgh was very helpful when my parents were sick.
Maybe the overall explanation is that so many mothers are working now full time instead of staying home with the kids, so the social network is not present in neighborhoods across the US as it was for the centuries before. And, with divorce rates over 50%, maybe there are not as many families around to get to know each other. It is sad, but I think I figured out some explanation to some of the negative posts.
Maybe the overall explanation is that so many mothers are working now full time instead of staying home with the kids, so the social network is not present in neighborhoods across the US as it was for the centuries before. And, with divorce rates over 50%, maybe there are not as many families around to get to know each other. It is sad, but I think I figured out some explanation to some of the negative posts.
Thats probably a bigger problem in cities than suburbs.
I think the isolation aspect of a suburb depends more on where in the US a suburb happens to be located.
Here in the Indy area we don't get a large number of transplants (just enough to keep things interesting) so many people have had families here for a few generations and the roots run deep. So our suburbs tend to be very inclusive, full of people who share many common connections and who are looking to expand their own communities. Some areas of the city which are more transplant-friendly don't fit that description as well. I'm sure this is the case for many midwestern, southern and east coast cities.
Compare that to the sunbelt suburbs, where there's a much higher chance that the people there came from somewhere else and left much of their support structure and community behind and that isolation becomes much more common. If you're from Indiana, one neighbor is from New Jersey and the other is from Georgia then what are the odds of you having a great deal in common with those people, nice as they may be?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the suburbs would tend to be less freindly and feel more isolated as you go south and west in the US, where a strong sense of community may not exist yet.
Maybe the overall explanation is that so many mothers are working now full time instead of staying home with the kids, so the social network is not present in neighborhoods across the US as it was for the centuries before. And, with divorce rates over 50%, maybe there are not as many families around to get to know each other. It is sad, but I think I figured out some explanation to some of the negative posts.
I had never thought about that, a very good point.
I think the isolation aspect of a suburb depends more on where in the US a suburb happens to be located.
Here in the Indy area we don't get a large number of transplants (just enough to keep things interesting) so many people have had families here for a few generations and the roots run deep. So our suburbs tend to be very inclusive, full of people who share many common connections and who are looking to expand their own communities. Some areas of the city which are more transplant-friendly don't fit that description as well. I'm sure this is the case for many midwestern, southern and east coast cities.
Compare that to the sunbelt suburbs, where there's a much higher chance that the people there came from somewhere else and left much of their support structure and community behind and that isolation becomes much more common. If you're from Indiana, one neighbor is from New Jersey and the other is from Georgia then what are the odds of you having a great deal in common with those people, nice as they may be?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the suburbs would tend to be less freindly and feel more isolated as you go south and west in the US, where a strong sense of community may not exist yet.
My suburb in Nashville is full of transplants, and it has a real sense of community. We moved in when I was 7 months pregnant, and all my neighbors brought us baked goods when we moved in, several brought us dinner when we had the baby, and everyone in the cove brought us a baby gift. It was very sweet. Our neighborhood isn't huge, but we have holiday events, women's nights, etc. People take care of each other during tragedies and make a real effort to get to know new neighbors.
My husband and I moved from the city of Nashville into the suburbs, so finding neighborhood friends wasn't as important to us, we already had a good established friend base. I actually assumed that the driving factor for the close knit neighborhood was due to the high number of transplants. Many people didn't have family here, so they needed to create a sense of community.
I think the isolation aspect of a suburb depends more on where in the US a suburb happens to be located.
Here in the Indy area we don't get a large number of transplants (just enough to keep things interesting) so many people have had families here for a few generations and the roots run deep. So our suburbs tend to be very inclusive, full of people who share many common connections and who are looking to expand their own communities. Some areas of the city which are more transplant-friendly don't fit that description as well. I'm sure this is the case for many midwestern, southern and east coast cities.
Compare that to the sunbelt suburbs, where there's a much higher chance that the people there came from somewhere else and left much of their support structure and community behind and that isolation becomes much more common. If you're from Indiana, one neighbor is from New Jersey and the other is from Georgia then what are the odds of you having a great deal in common with those people, nice as they may be?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the suburbs would tend to be less freindly and feel more isolated as you go south and west in the US, where a strong sense of community may not exist yet.
My suburb in metro Denver is full of transplants, and I already described the neighboliness of my subdivision. We also do neighborhood potlucks in the summer, and we have a great sense of community. Someone picked up my paper when we were gone for a little trip the past few days. Most of us have little to no family here, maybe that contributes to the sense of community, as we depend on each other.
ETA: Re: the last sentence, I just noticed Brentwoodgirl said the same thing!
My suburb in Nashville is full of transplants, and it has a real sense of community. We moved in when I was 7 months pregnant, and all my neighbors brought us baked goods when we moved in, several brought us dinner when we had the baby, and everyone in the cove brought us a baby gift. It was very sweet. Our neighborhood isn't huge, but we have holiday events, women's nights, etc. People take care of each other during tragedies and make a real effort to get to know new neighbors.
My husband and I moved from the city of Nashville into the suburbs, so finding neighborhood friends wasn't as important to us, we already had a good established friend base. I actually assumed that the driving factor for the close knit neighborhood was due to the high number of transplants. Many people didn't have family here, so they needed to create a sense of community.
Perhaps I went off track on the transplant issue and should have stuck to location within the US. It sounds like Nashville's burbs and neighborhoods are very much like our own.
My suburb in metro Denver is full of transplants, and I already described the neighboliness of my subdivision. We also do neighborhood potlucks in the summer, and we have a great sense of community. Someone picked up my paper when we were gone for a little trip the past few days. Most of us have little to no family here, maybe that contributes to the sense of community, as we depend on each other.
ETA: Re: the last sentence, I just noticed Brentwoodgirl said the same thing!
I think I'm applying observations of mine from seeing the burbs in the sunbelt across the board which is probably not correct on my part. Glad your experience has been as good as mine!
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