"Neighbourhood"

[uranium_death]

I wish to look at the fallen concept of a "neighboorhood".

To those born after 1990 (or possibly further back!), a neighbourhood was where people actually talked to each other.
You would walk up the street and see familiar faces. You would greet each other and talk about things. You would actually take an active interest in each other's lives. Sometimes, you'd go inside for a cup of tea and talk.

Today (in my area especially), we are overtaken by foreign cultures who leave shopping trolleys in the street (not adhering to the rules) and refuse to acknowledge your existence.

Why reflection?

It's been a totally **** week in my street.

Two gentlemen have died in the past week.

Jack, an ex-serviceman and a feisty old bugger passed away. Everyday he worked on his garden (and bragged too) and knew all the gossip in the street.

The other, Kevin passed away last night and in my opinion, was the nicest bloke in the street.
He, along with others started the Glen Waverley Cougars Cricket Club. He was an educator of monumental proportions, culminating in his role as a regional director, answerable to the Minister of Education.
He lived the last 25-30 years in retirement in good health, bar his final year or so. Even two weeks ago when I saw him, he looked well and up-beat. I believed he would make a recovery.
His loss is massive and for me, spells the absolute end of the community I live in. Now I see people living hurried, grumpy, selfish lives refusing to help anybody around them, lest they benefit.

R.I.P Community.

[Ruger]

im an 86 baby and my area is more of a **** fight than a neighbourhood always has been as far as i can remember. its each to their own out here
sorry to hear about the losses mate my condolences to everyone that knew Jack and Kevin

[EBII Fairmont]

Yeah whats up with neighbours nowadays. The guy who used to live directly next door to me, were a lovely italian couple. Once the wife died, he had two strokes. The second made him a vegetable and remebers little.

The moron who recently moved in across the road, thinks its all good to dump cars all over the street. It even gets to the point were he parks across my driveway. I had a couple of pollite words to him, but he is stupid loser who does not know how to respect his neighbours. He decided to confront me today on why i always give him dirties and had a shot at my dad.

Whats the world coming to?

[normxb]

I grew up on a farm from 50's - 1970 & we moved to Sydney , by 1990 had married , owned my own business & bought a house (Western Sydney) & had 2 kids ,only got to know a couple of people in the street enough to say "Hi", all the usual city things ,shop broken into 14 times in 13 yrs . 3 cars stolen Etc.
Christmas 1990 convinced my wife to "have a few days on my cousins farm" . Well , for a girl raised in Concord (Sydney) she couldn't get over how fresh the air was , how clear the sky was day or night , went for walks after putting the kids to bed (walking by moonlight , 10 - 11 pm) around the farm ,she loved it. Went into town Sat morning , people said "Good morning" (wife stunned) Elderly gentleman "tipped his hat" , went into a small shop to look for some clothes (came out over an hour later after chatting) , another Elderly gentleman "tipped his hat" , "Morning" , wife says "do you know these people ? ?" (me) "No , thats just country people."

After 6 days we had packed up the BMW (Blue Mazda Wagon) kids in their seats , all ready to go ................ except the wife ....... she found every excuse NOT to get in the car...Eventually made it back home.

Ended up selling our business & our 2 1/2 y/old house & moved "up the country" . No problem finding work (if you're not too picky) Bought an old house & garage on 1/4 acre block , 3 blocks from the main St ($ 51,000 in 1995).. and have Never looked back.

We know & chat to all the people in our block & further , when it's Daylight Saving , people are walking along the streets till after dark & give you a wave , wife goes down the street to "get a few things" & comes back 3 hrs later (been chatting) , everyone looks out for everyone else , if you haven't seen Mrs XXX , someone drops into see if she's Ok.
Business-wise , if your car has been at the mechanics , it's delivered home to you , local green grocer does "free home deliveries" . While I've been a bit "crook" this year , one of the farmers brought us in a load of fire wood , another drove us 900k's for a Specialists App. last week .

uranium_death... (sorry to hear about your 2 friends , Jack & Kevin) yep , I can understand your feelings exactly , City neighbourhoods have changed so much in the last 30 odd years . Also Peak Hour in the city lasts for 3 +hours , here we have "Peak Minute" :voldar02: .. It's only recently , the Police have had to "warn people to lock their cars in the street" So anyone getting very stressed , take a few days & have a look outside the city , it's a whole different world . I'm sure there's quite a few people here on the forum can vouch for this also .

Sorry this is so long winded , but I'm a "Country Convert" where you still know your neighbours.

[uranium_death]

Nice norm. Great to hear of your experience of moving from the city to the country.

The city is hustle-bustle, the pressure of work is intense and people's attitudes to everything have to reflect that.

People speed in excess of 10km/h over the limit to get home a minute sooner for heaven's sake. Now there's a minute well spent! In that minute, what will be accomplished? Bugger all.

Even when I've been in the country people have no hesitation in saying "hello", even when they know you're an outsider! I reckon it's fantastic.

5 years ago the elderly lady died in bed of an asthma attack. The family down the road noticed her light on at 10am (which for her was unusual) and decided to check on her to make sure she was ok. If they hadn't looked out, she would have rotted in bed, and that's the sad story of the disintegration of community; nobody looks out or cares for anybody. Too busy chasing that promotion and all that crap.

I'm only a young bloke, but even in seeing the latter stages of the community crumble, I still remember growing up with all the old timers in the area who actually gave a crap.

The world is rapidly changing.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by normxb

Sorry this is so long winded , but I'm a "Country Convert" where you still know your neighbours.

Nah mate, no worries. Was bloody fantastic to hear from a different side of the fence (rural). Really enjoyed that.

[DOC]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

R.I.P Community.

Would not a community as you spoke of only need to rest in peace if everyone including yourself gave up?

These old guys in a way have passed the battern to you, thats how it works.

[5L]

im from 87' and i think till bout 4 years ago i lived in what was a good community in my street. the parents would interact with neighbours especially the close ones across the road and both sides of us, which included bbq's and inviting them to any partys that we had. then all the good neighbours moved either interstate for family matters or to the country to settledown. now i am surrounded by absolute ****wits who live a noisy life and only whinge when we make a bit of noise. i think that our neighbours do not even say hello now even when we walk past them in the supermarket.

[Full Spectrum]

Born in 76 and things are not the same anymore.
When i was young we used to leave the doors unlocked at night and the cars.
You would normally help out your neighbour and have a wave small yarn and run around after dark with no fear.

Now a days you can't even look sideways at people they will eat you. Lock all the doors windows and cars with hundreds of dollars of security gear.
Neighbours are snobs now and rude very inconsiderate.
I was raised in a court where everyone knew each other my family made some great friendships. The last 2 places i have lived in i didn't even know my neighbours, My neighbours here are racists not worth the time of day.

[blownba]

Originally Posted by SlickHolden

Born in 76 and things are not the same anymore.
When i was young we used to leave the doors unlocked at night and the cars.
You would normally help out your neighbour and have a wave small yarn and run around after dark with no fear.

Now a days you can't even look sideways at people they will eat you. Lock all the doors windows and cars with hundreds of dollars of security gear.
Neighbours are snobs now and rude very inconsiderate.
I was raised in a court where everyone knew each other my family made some great friendships. The last 2 places i have lived in i didn't even know my neighbours, My neighbours here are racists not worth the time of day.

Yeah I agree. I was born in 76 and grew up in a place called Rowville in the SE suburbs of melb. It was almost farming contry when I was little. Our block is a 1 acre lot. Never ever used to lock stuff at night never had a fence around the back yard or pool. People used to use each others yards. The next door neighbour actually had a bit of a vegie patch in our yard. I used to ride my motorbike up and down the street in other peoples front yards, anyway you get the picture. Then in the mid 80's the housing boom started. The farm across the road went then the market gardens the next thing ya know they had built 70,000 hoses in one year!!!!! at its peak. It was the fastest growin suburb in aus at one stage.
Now you can hardly move in that ****hole of a suburb. Bloody 16 yearold ice head kids breakin into everything in sight and runnin around like they own the joint. Never had any problems with any neighbours and we have had proberbly 10 different ones in 7 years. I don't live in rowville but may parents still do and the guy that moved in next door a few weeks back has already started ****. He reckons my dog barks too much. What? Anyway he rings my mum and starts yelling at her " your f n dog has been barken for the last 2 hours" mum says mate don't exagerate the dogs barked 3 or 4 times in the last hour max ive been listening. He goes " well f n do somethin about it or youll see" ????????? My mum hung up on him.. Now the dog has been sick for the last few days ie chuckin up and not being herself. Now I have no proof but what am I suposed to do about this guy???
I wan't to be civil out: . I would like him to deal with me if he has a problem after all it is my dog and I do own half the house. Anyone got any suggestion on how to deal with this dude???
Apart from tearin him a new one. You just don't need to act like that to my mum shes a 70 yr old italian lady that has never said a bad thing about anyone in her life.
Sorry for goin on so much but I feel very pasionate about where I grew up it was an ace place to live but it is being ruined by ****heads what do I do????

[Pinkbits]

I had a neighbour 3 doors up from our other house who used to like having a drink. He would often come home in the early hours of the morning and start banging on his front door whilst cursing and swearing, funny thing was he lived by himself. This went on a few times and as i get up for work at 3 am, it was starting to get annoying. One morning i had had enough and went out to confront him (wife said on my way out, "don't hurt him").
After airing my grievance with him and him being ok with what i had to say, i turned to leave and he started to get aggressive, i had no option to but to defend myself and left him in a jibbering mess on the footpath.
All was fine for a few weeks, then one afternoon he was in his front yard and saw me pull up and came over abusing and making threats to shoot me and my family and to burn the house down. Anyway after round two (which was easier than round 1, and he was sober) i had had enough as i heard he had made the same threats to a lovely young Filipino family that lived next door to him who had done nothing to upset him.

To cut a long story short, we took out a restraining order as did the other family, which ment that because he had made threats to shoot, the police exercised a warrant to search his house as well as revoking any permits he may of had.

We still own the house but don't live there anymore, but a few times that i have been there doing maintenance and also seeing him around town, he has been polite to me.

Cannot work out if it was the restraining order which changed his attitude, or the two absolute hidings that he got!
:newangel:

[thefargo]

we live in the extreme southern suburbs of adelaide, where there still is a country feel to it. either it is the country mentality, or the fact that most people are out walking their dog(s) at some time, that we all know each other (or at least we know the dogs), this has meant that the neighbourhood concept, so sadly lamented in previous threads, is live and kicking here.

[Feathers]

We don't really know any of our neighbours anymore, but we've had one who broke into our house the night before we moved in (built a new house), and took our cooktop and mircowave, then chopped some trees down in another neighbours yard and dumped them in ours.

They ripped down part of a colourbond fence belonging to an elderly couple, and changed it to a colour that matched their own.

That house got raided by the Federal Police for various things, and we saw our cooktop and microwave being carried out of the garage.

Another house got firebombed, destroying a BMW and a Merc in their driveway.
The owner of that house has a construction/demolition business, and parks his trucks all around the street.
I complained to council, who did nothing about it. Then we saw the owner and told him we didn't want them parked next to our house.
He said he thought it was okay since we have buses parked there once in a blue moon (as opposed to his truck there every night for months).
He moved the truck that night, but after telling me he was a "nice guy" walked off swearing at me in his own language.

We are not the first neighbours to complain about the trucks, so he's currently buying every house in the street that goes up for sale.
He has 5 so far, and has ripped out all the gardens and fences around them so he can put his trucks in the yards.
He also pinched our garbage bin the other week, which I SAW him return yesterday when he thought we were all out.

I can also give a guided tour of all the local streets known for their drug houses, drive by shootings, fire bombings, and gang rapes...
Hell I even went to school with some of the guys responsible for them.

Great neighbourhood :

Half the time I think 'This is my neighbourhood, I've been here my whole life, and I'm not going to let you move in and take over', but then I realise that these people have no respect for anyone who isn't "like" them, and especially not for women, so I might as well just get the hell out of here and move down the south coast or somewhere else peaceful and quiet.

[70caprigt3k]

I live in bushland so i dont really have anything to do with my neighbours and to be honest thats the way i like it, after spending over 5 years in a neighbourhood that was an all out warzone id rather just mind my own buisness and the neighbours do the same.

[Mechan1k]

My nearest neighbour is about 300 metres away .... and all my neighbours are great. I always stop to have a chat with them ... sometimes on a Sunday afternoon we'll have a get-together and BBQ and a few drinks.

It's always good to keep a good relationship with your neighbours.

And I still live close-ish to Sydney

[dj181]

i must admit i am lucky where i live.....(wavell heights, northg brisbane) i live in a dead end street, and i know a lot of my neighbours.....my kids can go out onto the street and ride thier bikes (if i keep an eye on them, not that silly) i talk to all my neighbours, and they are all fairly friendly (apart from one lady across the road). but working in the security industy (alarms and cctv systems) i see a lot of interesting things happen in some areas and am glad i live here

[HLC]

when we built our house, all our neighbours were all building theirs too obviously and for the first 4 or 5 years we were really awesome. but over the last few years people have drifted/excluded others and its become a bit crap. but you get that.

[big_pete]

i think country life in general is alot better in regards to neighbourhood spirit.
everywhere i've lived we have been friends with our neighbours, and always say g'day to people walking by etc.

ive noticed abit of a change in recent times though, people tend to be less willing to reach out or build friendships within the neighbourhood.

i was born in '84 and i can see a clear difference in people only 2-3 years younger than me, they tend to have alot less respect for people and tend to live in their own worlds.
i guess where the last of a dying breed, at least it feels that way

[rhysy_boi]

i am jealous normxb. always been a city boy and perth isn't as busy as over east but i still get stuck in traffic. this year is tarted working out a quarter hour past civilisation and have ever since dreamed of buying a small place up there. i love the clean air, the quiet, the clear night skys and the unbusy lifestyle. and if i ever wanted to go to town it's only 35minutes away.

if only i had more money and was older i would have put a deposit down on a house already.

and big pete, i'm 4 uyears younger than you and i do not trust many people with the amount of friends and family who have had break ins including my old car. i am scared of losing anything i have spent my hard earned money on. for me we live next to a rent house and a nice elderly couple we ahve known many years now so there is a little bit of a community going but nothing like the whole street unfortunately.

Rhyso

[FordFan86]

I'm an '86 child... The house we had back in vic was a straight court, sloping downa bit of a hill, probably 25ish houses, I would've known all but 3/4 of the families and the kids of those families.. We were prety close with direct neighbours, those across the road etc.
Nowadays it seem's like talking toa neighbour or getting to know someone in the area is a novelty because it just doesn't happen anymore.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by DOC

Would not a community as you spoke of only need to rest in peace if everyone including yourself gave up?

These old guys in a way have passed the battern to you, thats how it works.

I have said "G'day" to newcomers...

They a) ignore you b) stare at you as if you're an idiot or c) say hi, but cross the road if they see you coming

In my area, we have all the old family homes being made into units, in which Chinese and Indians move in. They don't want to talk to a 23 year old Australian male. They keep to their own cultures.

My area costs 500k to buy into. Young Aussie families can't afford that. Only wealthier families can. We have many Chinese businessmen in our street (they're good businessmen, but not friendly!).

And btw, a lot of my mates are Chinese (I went to the soccer with 3, then had a beer, nachos and wedges afterwards at my local TAB) so this is not racist.

It's a reflection of the change of my area, and I am lamenting the loss of "real neighbours".

You can't create a neighbourhood when nobody else wants one.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by blownba

Yeah I agree. I was born in 76 and grew up in a place called Rowville in the SE suburbs of melb.

I'm in Glen Waverley. It too was a village even 20 years ago. Neighbours knew everybody!

[Full Spectrum]

Originally Posted by blownba

Yeah I agree. I was born in 76 and grew up in a place called Rowville in the SE suburbs of melb. It was almost farming contry when I was little. Our block is a 1 acre lot. Never ever used to lock stuff at night never had a fence around the back yard or pool. People used to use each others yards. The next door neighbour actually had a bit of a vegie patch in our yard. I used to ride my motorbike up and down the street in other peoples front yards, anyway you get the picture. Then in the mid 80's the housing boom started. The farm across the road went then the market gardens the next thing ya know they had built 70,000 hoses in one year!!!!! at its peak. It was the fastest growin suburb in aus at one stage.
Now you can hardly move in that ****hole of a suburb. Bloody 16 yearold ice head kids breakin into everything in sight and runnin around like they own the joint. Never had any problems with any neighbours and we have had proberbly 10 different ones in 7 years. I don't live in rowville but may parents still do and the guy that moved in next door a few weeks back has already started ****. He reckons my dog barks too much. What? Anyway he rings my mum and starts yelling at her " your f n dog has been barken for the last 2 hours" mum says mate don't exagerate the dogs barked 3 or 4 times in the last hour max ive been listening. He goes " well f n do somethin about it or youll see" ????????? My mum hung up on him.. Now the dog has been sick for the last few days ie chuckin up and not being herself. Now I have no proof but what am I suposed to do about this guy???
I wan't to be civil out: . I would like him to deal with me if he has a problem after all it is my dog and I do own half the house. Anyone got any suggestion on how to deal with this dude???
Apart from tearin him a new one. You just don't need to act like that to my mum shes a 70 yr old italian lady that has never said a bad thing about anyone in her life.
Sorry for goin on so much but I feel very pasionate about where I grew up it was an ace place to live but it is being ruined by ****heads what do I do????

If your 100% sure get down and dirty with him. Speaking to anyones mum like **** is not on, And making the dog ill makes my blood boil. Call the terrorist hot line from a pay phone and tell them ge had bob and his cousin was seen in the house at all hours of the night. You wont see him for weeks.
But i shouldn't say that. Do you have a video camera that maybe you could face there way and catch him in the act of doing anything illegal ?.

[jabba]

Originally Posted by SlickHolden

Born in 76 and things are not the same anymore.
When i was young we used to leave the doors unlocked at night and the cars.
You would normally help out your neighbour and have a wave small yarn and run around after dark with no fear.

What you have just described, is what it is like in my neighbourhood. For the last 2 years I have not had a car port or garage so the car have be parked on the front lawn... Many, many times I have left the cars unlocked and sometime still with the keys in the ignition.. I go out during the day and leave the house open.... I know most of the neighbours in my street and for a while we were having BBQ's in the street every Friday night.... When we walk our staffies we have a lot of strangers just come up and ask us about our dogs(mainly because how they behave with our 2 children) The suburb I live in is Labrador on the Gold Coast, Our house is 600m to the Broadwater, we have great neighbours.. I love it

[blownba]

Originally Posted by SlickHolden

If your 100% sure get down and dirty with him. Speaking to anyones mum like **** is not on, And making the dog ill makes my blood boil. Call the terrorist hot line from a pay phone and tell them ge had bob and his cousin was seen in the house at all hours of the night. You wont see him for weeks.
But i shouldn't say that. Do you have a video camera that maybe you could face there way and catch him in the act of doing anything illegal ?.

LOL wicked idea. Nah I'm goin there today and this time I am gonna say somethin cause its gettin beyond a joke. He was yellin at my Dad yesterday and the dog had been lying in is bed sick all day theres no way it barked. Whats up with these people???

[Ozfords]

Being a cop its sad to see how a Sergeant (me thinks?) in "The Force" got it right by saying we are society's parents. So many people need to learn how to tolerate others, instead they don't tolerate little things like someone owning a milkbar next door and having trucks park accross their driveway for a minute or so as they grab a hot snack on the way through.

Don't tolerate someones dug up driveway as they await concreters to finish the deal, don't tolerate kids running around the backyard, being kids!

It is even sader to see how far these little intolerances go, cameras in backyards, people threatening to clobber each other with pieces of furniture, spitting, throwing fruit, and on and on until they call the Police.

Even worse is the family's off struggle street who move into houses they can just afford into areas that are cheap for a reason. They get broken into, backyards destroyed as crims try and jump over fences. Sad.


But at the end of the day I like to keep to myself, as long as people stay out of my way, I'll stay out of theres. End of story. I'm not much of a chatter.

[PepeLePew]

Ok ok thinking like this makes you think you're descending the other side of the hill....

But WHAT is wrong with people these days in general? I run quite often around the banks of the lovely Torrens here in Adelaide and it makes me wonder whats wrong with the word 'gday' these days...

How hard is it just to smile or acknowledge someone walking or running out there on their own, brightens up peoples days. Old people do it. Some young lassies do it (now now), but generally people walk around studying the black ****e between their toes when you're passing them.

???

[Keepleft]

Many reasons;

We are a 'put-upon' society - where government and all its entities treat you as a 'human resource', your allowances are ever restricted, even in this sites topical subject - that of driving.

You add to that the reality of business in an ever globalised world.

You add-in certain new arrivals who will culturally *refuse* to fit in, and then resist what is the considered 'norm', in schooling and so on. This takes generations to repair or adjust.

In education; we teach much, BUT much of it is meaningless, pure 'chatter'. This has been a deliberate effort instigated against America and the western world since the 1950's, and indeed goes back decades earlier. Some of you refer to it as 'dumbing-down', it is 'an effect' of this 'education'. You might like to see an American exam paper for say 'fourth grade' circa 1890, and compare.

We re-educate the judiciary, we give them 'sentencing guidelines' and wonder why they seem to pass 'odd' sentences.

We allow the slow white anting of this nations heritage, the constant nibbling away at the way things were, or as were done, say in parliament, small - but institutionally important things like the removal of what the class-less call 'trinkets', portraits etc.

'Smart ideas and conceptual design' are resisted domestically, deliberately, but we are great at issuing fourth mountains of paper work with which we inundate Ministers and MP's.

Then after a days work we come on home.

Some stay at home for whatever reason, and that is none of my business, BUT 'some' people feel a need to know your business.

Some willingly give away their privacy and believe givernment will care for that, they can't, as MP's too are 'adjusted' as needed.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of wrong-doers, society will tolerate only so much. Just don't mess up the football.

And that is another exploited weakness, can, is, and will be - our laid back - yet ever critical 'voicing of opinion and view'.

"FREEDOM IS NOT HEREDITARY", this is true and will stay so, as it is perhaps, human - to restrict and control other human stock and resource.

[Full Spectrum]

Originally Posted by blownba

LOL wicked idea. Nah I'm goin there today and this time I am gonna say somethin cause its gettin beyond a joke. He was yellin at my Dad yesterday and the dog had been lying in is bed sick all day theres no way it barked. Whats up with these people???

They are animals haters i reckon and i hate people like that. Next door there is this dog that barks sometimes, The old bag comes out and slaps it around i hate that. Her son doesn't know what she does and he comes everyday and walks the dog for 1 hour i might Tell him, Get up him be straight and tell him what happens to people found guilty of animal cruelty, They stick them in a cage with 10 pit bulls:P.
But differently it's not on talking like crap to ones parents it's just such a lack of respect to people.

[chief]

Our neighbourhood is going strong. We catch up with each other and have a bbq and beers or scones and tea depending upon which generation you are. But we all get together to help each other out. We halped our neighbours cut down a tree and they gave us the mulch. They help you you help them.