Blog #2

While I was reading Sampson's book I began to see similarities (not necessarily so drastic) in my own community as that Sampson saw in these Chicago neighborhoods. Living in St.George through High school I learned where to live and where not to live if I decided to stay here in town, Mind you, high school students can be very judgmental, back then my teen self was more concerned  with how close it was to town amenities, beautiful views, and of course the status of the community. How did I come to conclusions then? LOOKS, strictly looks. So while my husband and I were looking for our first home a few years ago, I of course started looking in those neighborhoods that I felt had all the things I could ever want. After several tours our Realtor showed us a home in a neighborhood that I had never considered a good neighborhood. instantly it  seemed different. Our Realtor proceeded to tell us about the neighborhood and how the neighbors had taken care of this house for 2 years while it sat vacant. (The previous owners had moved for work but didn't rush the selling process in hopes that they may move back. We got lucky with their price drop when they realized they would not be moving back and needed to sell the home). The lawn was beautifully taken care of, the neighbors had rotated taking turns watering the lawn with their water since the water was no longer on, The porch had been regularly swept, it seemed like there had been residents all along. Of course the neighbors were not doing it for us (potential buyers) but for the neighborhood. It showed us that as a neighborhood this group of people wanted to make sure that everything was nice and tidy. The best part? Our home built in 1987 was the last home built on our street. This showed us that the people that lived in this neighborhood took great pride in it. The neighbor to our right was born and raised in her home, bought it from her parents and now her and her husband are raising their family in it. Most of our neighbors seem to have similar stories of a lifetime in this neighborhood. I've never really thought about the differences in communities until I lived in ours, someone visiting would never guess how old our homes were strictly for the fact that not only do we take care of our homes but most of us have added on or upgraded parts of our homes. So this makes me think... Do we take great pride in our community because we actually care what the outside looks like? our do we care because the rest of the neighborhood cares and as a whole we want to keep a clean neighborhood? The city has never put a lot of effort into our community, we have no new parks, no sidewalks, and no street lights like all the other communities seem to have but for some reason I would rather walk alone down our dark streets then walk on the brightest lit street of some other communities in town. The more I think about it, I feel like looks do play  a part in a community but I think that the people of that community play an even greater part. If you move to a neighborhood that has bars on the windows then naturally your going to feel unsafe, less likely to communicate with your neighbors. People play a great role in how you feel about your surroundings.