I have touched on some of this stuff before, and even brushed up against it previous when i had 4 things i just touched upon.

So here we go, I’m writing from notes i took on a paper plate.  I almost prefer writing on unconventional things than on a legal pad of paper with a pen.  well, I generally always write with a pen.

I know when i initially came home from college and started looking to create my own community and find friends and people with common interest, it was difficult.  I was baffled at, when  i sat down and fully thought about it, where in the hell i was supposed to meet these "like minded people".  I thought about the old days of a small town and how you could run into people at the grocery store, and see them on the street later, and run into them at the bank or post office, and then see them again on sunday at church or at a friend’s party.  Now granted… this is a small western town idea that i have seen in TV shows and movies.  Lord only knows if it really existed, but i like to think it did.  And I like to believe that this sort of community also existed in cities.  People didn’t have the ability to cover as much geographical distance and so would stay within a certain radii as they went about their business.  *side note*  there are always pluses and minuses when it comes to innovation and new technology, the car/train/airplanes are great, but they separate us.  computers and cellphones are fabulous, but they isolate us.  But these are highly innovative and great advances… it’s the nature of the beast**  So to continue… I entered my suburban lifestyle living with my parents almost a year ago and struggled with the concept of where i was supposed to come up with people to have relationship and community with because as a human, that’s what i crave.  (which ties into a lot of what i’m learning and reading in Searching for God Knows What by donald Miller)  So i thought, well there’s bars and coffee shops, and church and my job… and my family.  But realistically, my job was very isolated, i don’t like the bar scene, I have no intention of approaching people at a coffee shop, and my family had limited connections, it was their friends from their interests…  so there really was no place to meet people except at church.  So that’s where i started.  But i think that is a sad sad state of affairs.  the ability to find community is slim and hard.  and making friends is a difficult task to begin with, and now we have gotten to a point where it is even harder.  Do you know your neighbors?

So that was one point.   another one is something i may have forgotten what i meant.  *looks at plate*  all i have written down is "the city community".  I’ll go with this one where i’m at right now.  I think there is a lot of potential for the city community.  I think there is so much benefit in investing in the area where you live, in getting to know your neighbors, being involved in your area.  It gives back to the city, it keeps areas in better repair, and it shows people that we care about the area around us, the public space and that it deserves respect.  I know it’s like throwing a stone in an ocean in hopes of creating a dam.  but i think it’s possible.  There’s something about seeing people on their porches, walking the streets, and hanging around outside that us suburban folk have forgotten.  These actions mean that the neighborhood is safe, it’s taken care of in whatever capacity the residents can.  When people are out and about thei’re looking after each other, they’re aware of the changes and happenings of their neighborhood and their outside of their own head.  Now granted this is very idealistic and not true for probably 25% of the people out.  and there’s the issue of loitering and "idle hands becoming devil’s tools" but there’s always a cost/benefit ratio that is present.  In the suburbs, people have enough yard space and that they’re more isolated and introverted.  they don’t have ot interact with people around them.  this affords some sense of security but it also isolates people.   so choose what’s more important to you and do it.    Yay for hitting two points in one.  my third point was the “porch monkey/ saftey” issue.  When i get my house, i’d love to hang out on the porch and watch my neighbors go by.  Because if they see you around and become accostom to you then they can watch your back persay.  When i go and visit the co-op, it makes me laugh and feel almost more comfortable, one of the neighbors knows me because my car is beat up like hell, and they’ve watched it get all beat up.  So they recognize me… i feel accepted almost.

My fourth point in this crisis was just an introspective look at how i would train myself to become an urbanite and become comfortable doing community and being around and involved in the neighborhood as a suburbanite.  How does this transition occur, is it easy?  I know initially i was apprehensive to tool around the area, but my friend, who introduced me to the co-op and got me comfortable in the area, doesn’t really have a cautious sense of feeling unsafe or truely worrying about it, so i was a little more willing to just move around and tool around with him, and then i grew comfortable in the neighborhood.  it’s curious watching boys’ security and comfort in an area vs. female security, caution and comfort in an area.

I also somewhat hit on the point of how technology is aiding in the creation and destruction of community.  I know a number of people that would have never found the co-op that i hang out at, without the internet and everything, and many people passing through using the co-op as a hostile would have never been introduced, met or helped out without technology.  But it also serves as a tool to isolate us and seperate us.

This point i’m stealing more from my friend who feels passionate about the crisis of community .  The rate of change in our socitey is soo fast and frequent that at this point, i don’t think we have time to process them or react to them with enough time and thought to process what the consequences might be and how this will affect the future of our lives etc.  I mean how is the construction of new office space in the city and outside of the city affecting our neighborhoods?  how is the continual vacant office and store fronts in our city coupled with the new construction affecting us.  and How is the destruction of vacant property affecting both pro/con the neighborhoods?  we need to stop and dialogue, assess some of the actions we’re taking.  even when there’s good consequences and when it’s the best route to take at a sepcific time, we need to conintually be coming back and check-pointing and seeing if we should change our courses of action…

there.  that’s what i have to say for now.

So the last post was about Rochester.  I live in Rochester, New York.  Grew up in the suburbs actually.  but we’re pretty close to the city.  and once I got my driver’s license and wanted to hang out, I generally (always) would go to coffee shops in the city.  So it was a nice contrast.

I want to add an addendum to the last post.  I was thinking about it today while driving down the 5 lane super suburbia transport.  I asked myself why this road is soo unappealing to bike down.  And then I thought back to my college days in Holland Michigan.  I spent a summer there and biked all over the place.  I even biked up to the state park with a friend once (45 minute bike one way)  But there were side walks everywhere.  and the township was set up on a grid, so there were blocks and blocks of houses and parks and neighborhoods and some main streets and a cute little shopping street and a farmers market on the end of it.  there were about 5 main, heavy traffic roads that if you wanted to bike or walk or run or hang out you avoided.  But there were numerous other side streets to loop around through and explore.

So, today I take that memory and experience and compare it against the Suburbian thoroughfair.  When i would consider biking down Chili Ave (for those who think it’s not daunting) I wouldn’t want to do it.  It has right of way over all the hundreds of crossing streets, it has 4 laned roads coming in at intersections, It has numerous huge parking lots in front of buisnesses accessing it’s street.  And I would be biking no where.  There are patches of trees near the residential houses, but those are few.  There is nothing to see.  The residential houses are split level houses with one or two car garages taking up half the visual.  Any “rules of the road” that accompany a bicycle would be over ruled in my head for safety.  Sure the shoulders aren’t too small (which is surprising)  but there’s a side walk that’s a little further away from the 40mph cars.  And I know how I drive on that street, 49mph.  So I’d be up on the sidewalk anyways.  Just doesn’t welcome the pedestrian.  Here’s to reiterating and re-illustrating the point.

(it’s a sad day when you feel you had a great point to make and it gets lost as you provide the substance to make that point on.  Tee hee.  still sounds good though)