"Follow General Motors' lead: Live in Detroit" From this Sundays Free Press

[crawford]

It's not because Detroit is dangerous. It is because Detroit is black. We have football fields' worth of sociological data about the "tipping point"... generally, you're not going to have nonblack folks move into an area that is more than 20% black. Even if the black people are all solidly middle class, law-abiding, and believe in education, it just will not happen. Period. End of story. Case closed.

Except that we have a mountain of examples that show otherwise. Look at black neighborhoods in North Brooklyn. They are all gaining whites. Many are now "tipping" to majority-white. Even formerly rough areas like Bed Stuy are gaining tons of whites.

Look at Harlem. Look at Washington, DC. Formerly majority-black areas that are rapidly turning majority-white.

Even in racially-segregated MI, look at parts of Midtown and SW Detroit that are gaining non-blacks at the expense of blacks.

We know it's not just the crime. If it was, Southfield would be one of the most desirable 'burbs during these tough economic times. My stepfather's subdivision near Inkster and 12 has a spotless 2800 sq ft home for sale for $139 K. But of course, "Southfield's schools are bad!" Or even, "it's dangerous!" Okay...

Southfield isn't desirable because it's an aging, ugly sprawlburb with cheap homes that have weathered badly. Sterling Heights is in the same boat, and it's almost 90% white.

If anything, I am surprised that Southfield homes are comparable to Sterling Heights homes because Southfield has the additional stigmas of 1. Bordering Detroit, 2. Bad schools, 3. Sky-high taxes, and yes, 4. Racial segregation. A 90% white area will have Arabs, Italians, Jews, etc, counted among the majority, but [[at least in metro Detroit), a 90% black neighborhood will be basically 90% homogenous [[no West Indians or Africans like you see in New York or Miami).

We know it's not just the schools. Let's leave the state and think about the top tier of HBCUs. You are not going to have many white people who will go to Howard, Morehouse, or Spelman... even though many HBCUs offer "minority scholarships" for underrepresented groups... in this case, nonblacks. [[I know this, because I had white friends at my HBCU who had full ride scholarships. Every nonblack student at my undergrad who I questioned about it had full room and board, tuition, fees, and books paid for.) .

I would say this is a non-sequitur. There are plenty of reasons why non-blacks would not choose to attend historically black colleges. Roughly the same reasons why non-Jews tend not to attend Yeshiva University, non-religious nuts tend not to attend Liberty or Bob Jones University, why African Americans tend not to attend rural colleges in Northern Maine, etc.

One can't compare with "historically white" colleges because they do not strive to this "ideal", but a place like Morehouse definitely strives to have "blackness" at the core of its mission. There are few non-blacks that would be attracted to Morehouse, but there are plenty of blacks who would be attracted to [[for example) UofM or Michigan State.

MOST people feel comfortable with sameness. I feel much more comfortable [[and generate fewer weird stares!) in Detroit than I do in Commerce Township, and I am 6 months away from a PhD. I exist in a professional world where I'm usually the only brown or black face in the room, and so it's nice to sometimes go back home to the old neighborhood or Hart Plaza and enjoy where I grew up. I'd imagine that white people feel the same way... along with every other ethnicity and culture on the planet! There's absolutely nothing wrong with that! I think that ALL folks in metro Detroit should feel comfortable to live wherever the h*ll they want... city, 'burb, farm, or swamp.
.

I agree with this. While I am white, I would agree that there is a "natural" comfort level among "ones own kind", whatever one perceives that to be.

Meanwhile, because this is even a viable topic of conversation, the Detroit metro [[never mind the city) is losing young professionals under 35 like water through a sieve. I teach undergrads at the University of Michigan who mostly grew up in the suburbs of metro Detroit. NONE of them are envisioning any part of their lives after graduation within the state of Michigan. And no, this time we won't be able to use the lame excuses that "they'll move back once they have kids" or "they'll move back to care for elderly parents". They are looking for places that actually realize that it is the 21st century, but this region seems perpetually stuck in the mid-20th.
.

I agree that UofM students are not staying in-state, but do NOT agree that it is because of racial segregation. After all, Chicago is even more ridiculously segregated, and they have tons of young folks. Atlanta has horrible segregation, but appears to be growing rapidly.

If we keep this madness up, in 50 years, Michigan will have the population of Montana or Wyoming. If we're lucky, that is.

Michigan's population is [[slightly) larger in 2009 than in 2000, and it's silly to extrapolate population trends out to a half-century.

[Gistok]

ooh, gistok, you quoted me with so much self-satisfaction you must think you just won a freakin' lawsuit. way to go, tom cruise.

you'd made some smug comment about how your arcane knowledge of detroit theaters shows how much you care about detroit. I countered that with the wild notion that caring about the city is about more than just masturbating to a daguerreotype of c. howard crane out there wherever you live.

I'm sure we both agree that the fox theater is beautiful. but the people who choose to live in detroit have every right to want their apartment buildings and homes to be safe and nice. there's nothing contradictory in what I've written. move downtown and I'll give your plasterwork fetish a little more credit.

There you go... basing you "limited" knowledge of me solely on my theatre postings. Funny thing is I did get a lot of kudos from other forumers for those posts [[building posts, not just theatre posts) at the DYES picnic last week.

I merely pointed out the hypocracy of you chiding folks about criticizing downtowners, when you do the same for people that live outside the city.

Less than 5% of my posts have anything at all to do with theatres... but boy that really must get under your skin, for whatever reason.

If you don't like my posts... simply use the new forums "ignore function".

[dexterferry]

gistok: "the hypocracy of you chiding folks about criticizing downtowners, when you do the same for people that live outside the city."

people who choose to live in Detroit and keep certain areas safe and nice are key to the city's future. people who live in the suburbs because they are "nicer" while worshiping at wax-covered alters to W.C. Rowland are part of the problem.

[EMG]

I'm sure we both agree that the fox theater is beautiful. but the people who choose to live in detroit have every right to want their apartment buildings and homes to be safe and nice.

That's right. One additional point: If "feeling safe" hinges on the presence of barred windows, a gated community entrance, and/or a private security force of some kind, it doesn't count.

[mwilbert]

That's right. One additional point: If "feeling safe" hinges on the presence of barred windows, a gated community entrance, and/or a private security force of some kind, it doesn't count.

Why doesn't it count? I would think people should have what makes them feel comfortable. The real question is whether those things actually make people feel safe. Probably some people.

[English]

Except that we have a mountain of examples that show otherwise. Look at black neighborhoods in North Brooklyn. They are all gaining whites. Many are now "tipping" to majority-white. Even formerly rough areas like Bed Stuy are gaining tons of whites.

Look at Harlem. Look at Washington, DC. Formerly majority-black areas that are rapidly turning majority-white.

NYC and DC have social histories that are very different from ours. That's like comparing apples and oranges.

Even in racially-segregated MI, look at parts of Midtown and SW Detroit that are gaining non-blacks at the expense of blacks.

This disproves your NYC/DC examples. Detroit is not fortunate enough to have a gentrification problem.

Southfield isn't desirable because it's an aging, ugly sprawlburb with cheap homes that have weathered badly. Sterling Heights is in the same boat, and it's almost 90% white.

This can be said about many, if not most suburban areas across Metro Detroit. And it's not true about all of Southfield. My parents' subdivision is practically indistinguishable in maintenance, upkeep, and general appearance from the ones immediately across Inkster Road in more desirable Farmington.

If anything, I am surprised that Southfield homes are comparable to Sterling Heights homes because Southfield has the additional stigmas of 1. Bordering Detroit, 2. Bad schools, 3. Sky-high taxes, and yes, 4. Racial segregation. A 90% white area will have Arabs, Italians, Jews, etc, counted among the majority, but [[at least in metro Detroit), a 90% black neighborhood will be basically 90% homogenous [[no West Indians or Africans like you see in New York or Miami).

Ever ask yourself why the bolded is the case?

I would say this is a non-sequitur. There are plenty of reasons why non-blacks would not choose to attend historically black colleges. Roughly the same reasons why non-Jews tend not to attend Yeshiva University, non-religious nuts tend not to attend Liberty or Bob Jones University, why African Americans tend not to attend rural colleges in Northern Maine, etc.

One can't compare with "historically white" colleges because they do not strive to this "ideal", but a place like Morehouse definitely strives to have "blackness" at the core of its mission. There are few non-blacks that would be attracted to Morehouse, but there are plenty of blacks who would be attracted to [[for example) UofM or Michigan State.

Why is this? Did African Americans decide to form these institutions? What is their history? Why do they continue to exist more than 50 years after Brown?

I agree with this. While I am white, I would agree that there is a "natural" comfort level among "ones own kind", whatever one perceives that to be.

Of course... and to defend one's own kind, and one's own choices, no?

I agree that UofM students are not staying in-state, but do NOT agree that it is because of racial segregation. After all, Chicago is even more ridiculously segregated, and they have tons of young folks. Atlanta has horrible segregation, but appears to be growing rapidly.

There is segregation, and then there is segregation. I am mentoring a new graduate student from Chicago. She is an African American woman from the South Side of Chicago. She says she has never, ever seen anything like SE Michigan... where she walks down the street in an all-white area, and people have spat on the ground. I've spent the last 15 years of my life hearing the same thing from my friends from out of state... whether black, white, Latino, Asian... you name it. "What is going on?"

I gave the Michigan example because that is where I teach. I assure you that my colleagues and friends at other state institutions will have similar stories.

Michigan's population is [[slightly) larger in 2009 than in 2000, and it's silly to extrapolate population trends out to a half-century.

In this case, no, it is not. We're the better part of a half century away from 1967... haven't the same population trends in Detroit continued for the past half century? What strategic long-term planning is in place to ensure that the city and the metro reverses this trend? What historical and contemporary analogues are there to the situation in metropolitan Detroit?

[iheartthed]

I think some of us may be beginning to exaggerate just a bit. There really isn't much happening in terms of race relations in southeast Michigan that isn't happening in other parts of the country. Gentrification that is occurring in other areas is purely economical, and not the result of some type of open-mindedness of people in other regions. And gentrification is not resulting in a mixed neighborhood, but rather is pushing out the poorer, non-white residents [[except in some of the areas where it is actually black money that is gentrifying the area, not white).

[DetroitDad]

That's right. One additional point: If "feeling safe" hinges on the presence of barred windows, a gated community entrance, and/or a private security force of some kind, it doesn't count.

Sounds like the suburbs more than the city to me.

Suburbia while "pleasant", is pretty much a gated community with tough security. Growing up, taking a walk in Livonia or Novi would always warrant a stop by police asking us why we were walking around there, or offers for help, as clearly our car must have broken down. Many of my Black or Arabic friends get pulled over for DWB [[driving while Black) occasionally. You'll notice that when someone gets pulled over in some suburbs, you will see three to five police cars, even for small traffic violations.

Businesses in the suburbs are heavily guarded, retailers lock their dressing rooms, and offices have private security and even moats. You can't be near a suburban office park at night, otherwise you will have the police called. Neighborhoods do have bars on the windows in some suburbs, and they have property crime. However, they also often have private security, strict regulations [[don't leave your car to long in your driveway, don't keep a motor home or boat visible, don't plant any flowers dubbed weeds by your neighbors, etc.), and tough neighborhood watches. It's not uncommon for suburban bars or restaurants choose to not serve you for having a Detroit address on you license.

The police are extra tough on Detroiters as well. I met a friend at the end of a suburban street once to give her some paper work. We pulled out of the street only to have several cop cars speed up to us and block us in. THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE MAKING A DRUG BUST! One of the neighbors called them. They really didn't like it when I refused to let them search my trunk... of course, they ended up doing it while I was in the back of the police car, without my permission.

These reasons and more are what makes me and probably others a little hostile toward the suburbs. I am learning to let it go, or not visit them when I don't have too. I've met some great people at the DetroitYES picnic who live in the suburbs, I used to live in the suburbs. Still, I understand the outlook by many Detroiters is that good open minded people in suburbia are far and few between, and you run into bad attitudes more often than not. Why is it that I can go to Jackson, Flint, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw, and the Michigan countryside and be met with "wow it must be amazing living in the big city", but when I go to Troy, Livonia, Novi, or the Pointes I'm met with discrimination and sneers about how horrible a place my home is?

[Sludgedaddy]

Just like some of the posters on this forum, I, too, dislike car clogged suburbia, congestion, ugly strip malls,and former [[Now second generation) White flighters with their seige mentality. I get a big kick when they visit areas of Detroit en masse and liken the clicking of auto door locks, almost in unison , to a clicking geiger counter in a cheesy 1950's atomic monster movie.

I do not have the financial means to live the high rise/ loft / new urbanist life style such as poster DetroitDad. But, my area, just north of Hamtramck, has amenities all unto themselves.

The milkman don't come around any more, but now, I can get hookers delivered right to my door. I only use my car to drive to work on the West Side of Detroit and have lived a walking life style like most old timers in Hamtown.

I can walk to Achmed's Party Store for all my beer, wine and lottery needs, for example. And the many dope houses in the area offer another destination at the end of a pleasant walk through the wasteland.

As an amateur astronomer, I appreciate the lack of street lights and can see the point of dark sky advocates.

Nature walks are but a short distance away and wildlife abounds. It's amusing to watch racoons and opposums frolic in the garbage and trash that make up their habitat as they become Mother Nature's gentrifiers of Detroit.

Any anti-government radical or separatist would love my Detroit where police or city services are almost non-existant.

Who needs downtown fireworks, when gun shots, screams, thumping rap crap fills the air every night. And let's not forget those lovely colors lighting up the sky when the house several doors down goes up in flames!

Isn't living in Detroit wonderful ? There is a multitude of life style choices for those who would seize the opportunity !

[crawford]

^
Your "Arabic" friends are accused of "Driving While Black"? Putting aside your conflating of Arab and Arabic, WTF?

And businesses in the suburbs have heavy security, while those in Detroit do not? Again, WTF? The CVS in Birmingham has security guards, and the one in Detroit doesn't? Huh? Do I need to get my eyes checked?

[DetroitDad]

^
Your "Arabic" friends are accused of "Driving While Black"? Putting aside your conflating of Arab and Arabic, WTF?

And businesses in the suburbs have heavy security, while those in Detroit do not? Again, WTF? The CVS in Birmingham has security guards, and the one in Detroit doesn't? Huh? Do I need to get my eyes checked?

Minorities in general are sometimes just grouped in the same category there, you can call it whatever you like.

Eyes checked?

Well, I did not say that Detroit was any better in regards to security in that post. I'm not hiding our urban problems. I don't think I ever said Detroit didn't have it's share of problems, if I did, I take that back. As Sludgedaddy pointed out, the deficiencies are across the board. I really think that is part of the problem here in Southeast Michigan, don't you?

[Det_ard]

A comment on Rochelle Riley's column about the recent break-in and ransacking of her home.

Re: Break in
posted at 6/9/2009 9:57 AM EDT on freep.com

MichVoterGuy
First post: 6/9/2009
Last post: 6/9/2009
Total posts: 1


Hi Rochelle,Just wanted to say that I understand how you feel. I'm a DPD officer who sees this same event over and over again. I have been with the department for a little less than 10 years, and in that time I've seen it go from terrible to worse. Honestly [[speaking as a police officer here), my best advice to you is leave. You have the means, so get out while you can. The sad reality is that things are not going to get any better anytime soon - perhaps ever. We cannot keep you safe; not with 10 cars for every 20+ square miles and 2400 calls for service a day. The size of the police force would have to be at least triple what it is now, and that is simply not going to happen. The city has no money and there is no turnaround on the horizon. Now the governor is closing 5 prisons and sending these people back to the neighborhoods. What do felons with no jobs, no prospects, and no real oversight do? I think everyone knows the answer.

Look, I'm not a cold cynic. I came to DPD because I had ideals and a strong sense of hope the city. I was young, mostly liberal, and wanted to take part in the rebirth of the city. But I've been force to meet reality, and reality isn't pretty. I still come to work and bust my butt, answering as many calls as I can, writing the best reports I can, and showing up to every court appearance. But I've had to accept the fact that none of it means anything. The officers are worn out and burned out. Equipment doesn't work or isn't available. Supervisors are overburdened with meaningless DOJ paperwork. Investigators have mile-high caseloads they can never possibly tend to. Judges don't care. Offenders go free and go back to offending - nerely every arrest I make is someone on probation or parole. And although nobody wants to believe it, even many of the cities residents don't even care. They won't cooperate with us. They spit at us and throw rocks at our cars. Sometimes they even try to kill us. The blight and lawlessness of the streets continues to worsen and even Chief Barren - by far the best chief of my career - can't stop it. In this environment, there are no answers.

So my message to you is to protect yourself and move out. No other city in Michigan that I've been to tolerates the kind of crime without consequences that Detroit does. No amount of cheerleading and pride and downtown beauty can change the fact that our neighborhoods are warzones. There is no point putting yourself in danger. This time, you weren't home and all you had to contend with was a ransacked house and shaken nerves. In many cases, it's a whole lot worse than that. I know this isn't the politically correct message, but it's the one I give to every victim when I walk in their door as they try to pick up the pieces of their lives. I truly am sorry.

[iheartthed]

Yeah, about that Rochelle Riley column... I'm almost willing to bet that the person who broke into her house is someone she knew. How convenient for her to have gone all these years without any incident, and the one time she goes on a trip her house is burglarized? What are the odds?

[DetroitDad]

That is unfortunate. There is definitely a problem in portions of the city, since many people don't seem to want to cooperate with the police. I really think downtown is safer then many areas of the city. I have never experienced any problems with law enforcement yet. 911 has always worked like it did elsewhere, and the police response time was great. Clearly you're right and there must be a problem, but I just don't see it in Downtown Detroit, which is the topic of this thread.

[DetroitDad]

http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_m...1/p22401-1.php

Crime prevention has long been regarded as polices’ responsibility, however, with limited resource the police agency is more and more unbearable to handle the crime in globalized cities today. This paper aims at examining crime prevention in a different approach. Since Newman [[1972) proposed the “defensible space” construction as a new way to decrease crime rates, the crime prevention through environmental design [[CPTED) has been the most popular approach. However, most researches employed this framework implemented either in a smaller scale of location, or in a closed space, the effects of crime prevention in a broad area or large location will be weakened due to the lack of integrated design. In a larger area, crime rate is easily contaminated by improper urban planning and land use. In this paper, by proposing a new strategy, we argue that crime rate will be controlled by well-knit planning of land use. By the tool of Geographical Information System [[GIS), the relationship between land use and crime locations in Taipei city is recognized and analyzed in this study. The result identifies a dual pattern coexists in which the higher rate of “property crime” is found at the better off suburb area and the “personal crime” is reported high at the downtown business districts. In contrast to existing studies, this result suggests crimes can be controlled by proper land planning. Moreover, the design of land use should be sensitive to social contexts.

[Lorax]

What's this crap about Southfield being full of crummy houses?

I live there part of the year, and I love it. My house is a mid-century modern marvel on a half acre of hardwoods, and my neighborhood is beautifully maintained.

I'm really sick and tired of the constant score keeping on who's black, who's white, where everybody's going to beat the blight, etc.

This region needs to get over itself, and decide if it's going to forge ahead and drop old stereotypes, stop wasting great housing stock, or keep an all-out war going on.

I am truly amazed at the negativity and constant whining of people who refuse to solve problems rather than constantly bitch about them.

[Haikoont]

What's this crap about Southfield being full of crummy houses?

I live there part of the year, and I love it. My house is a mid-century modern marvel on a half acre of hardwoods, and my neighborhood is beautifully maintained.

So you live in Europe half the year, Miami half the year and Southfield half the year. Where do you live the four halves of the year?

[Haikoont]

Why are people assuming Rochelle lives in Detroit? She doesn't mention where she lives in the article, and the police response seems more comprehensive than what Detroit's resources can typically muster. A quick yahoo people search lists Rochelle Rileys in Ann Arbor, St. Clair Shores and Southfield, but not Detroit.

[crawford]

What's this crap about Southfield being full of crummy houses?


I live there part of the year, and I love it. My house is a mid-century modern marvel on a half acre of hardwoods, and my neighborhood is beautifully maintained.

I didn't say every single house was crummy! Heck, Highland Park has some beautiful homes.

MOST of Southfield is full of crappy homes. If you live on an half-acre of hardwoods in Southfield of all places, you are definitely on the far western edge of town, which isn't remotely typical of the city.

[epiphany]

As usual, people fail to make the distinction between downtown Detroit and the rest of the city. How does living in the Millender Center compare with living on a typical street outside of downtown? Of course Detroit is a safe and beautiful city when you can live in an exclusive, security controlled high-rise. But try telling that to someone that lives on a street where 1/3 of the homes have been torn down, 1/3 are vacant, and 1/3 are inhabited by people who are repeated victims or perpetrators of crimes.

Exactly. When you can't find a place or afford a place that is reasonably priced to live in the downtown area or midtown or something [[which are both incredibly over priced) Detroit really sucks. Try taking the bus or walking around some place east of eastern market or west of WSU for a couple of months and then tell us how you feel about it. I've done this for some time now and will gladly leave when my degree is finished... It's not like I will actually be able to find a job here. I mean, I haven't had a long lasting, stable job for the entire time that I have lived here and I have constantly tried to find one. I have never been so poor or had to go without so many things in my entire life. Try living on a monthly food budget of like 60 dollars for a month for like 3 years straight and then tell me why you love Detroit.

[iheartthed]

Why are people assuming Rochelle lives in Detroit? She doesn't mention where she lives in the article, and the police response seems more comprehensive than what Detroit's resources can typically muster. A quick yahoo people search lists Rochelle Rileys in Ann Arbor, St. Clair Shores and Southfield, but not Detroit.

I noticed that she didn't mention where she lived either. I also don't remember her ever stating where she lives in previous columns... But I also don't read her columns that often.

I wouldn't be so quick as to say that she wouldn't get a response like that if she lived in Detroit. I'm sure she can afford to live in an area where she wouldn't have trouble getting a police response...

[iheartthed]

Exactly. When you can't find a place or afford a place that is reasonably priced to live in the downtown area or midtown or something [[which are both incredibly over priced) Detroit really sucks. Try taking the bus or walking around some place east of eastern market or west of WSU for a couple of months and then tell us how you feel about it. I've done this for some time now and will gladly leave when my degree is finished... It's not like I will actually be able to find a job here. I mean, I haven't had a long lasting, stable job for the entire time that I have lived here and I have constantly tried to find one. I have never been so poor or had to go without so many things in my entire life. Try living on a monthly food budget of like 60 dollars for a month for like 3 years straight and then tell me why you love Detroit.

Any city will suck if you are poor.

[epiphany]

Any city will suck if you are poor.

I have lived in plenty of cities that didn't suck because there were jobs. I didn't become so poor until moving here.

[dcmorrison12]

You know, I've been doing some Demographic research on Midtown for my internship and I've come across some good news. Even with the long standing recession and it's ramped up intensity over the past year, Detroit has led most cities in SE Michigan with new housing permits. Also, I came across [[with the help of the UCCA) some demographics explaining to me that Midtown Detroit has been continually growing since 2000 [[I didn't look any farther in the past) at a 3 % increase. Mind you again, this is during an intense recession. Its' true, these are only estimates because you cannot get a true reading unless you were to do the 2010 census [[which can be flawed as well) but WSU compiled this data and I spoke with the Chair of the Geography and Urban Planning department and I was told they were strong estimates. Detroit is growing and getting better, Midtown is a shining example. In the past two years of living down here, I would need 3 or 4 hands to count how many new restaurants/stores have opened up, not to mention the multiple new construction projects. It's a very pretty and attractive [[SAFE too) area with caring residents, saturated with wonderful culture and history. It's an experience you cannot give anywhere in Michigan and I would encourage anyone to move down here, It's truly wonderful.

[DetroitScooter]

I'm a supporter of Detroit and I work there almost every day. And I love it. I gain plenty of energy from my commute to downtown on my scooter and my lunchtime walks. I patronize dining and shopping establishments in my own little-money-to-spare way. I love the Opera, the DIA and the sporting events downtown and on Belle Isle. We are fans of Detroit and try to be there whenever possible.

I happen to live in downtown Royal Oak [[which IS a downtown, albeit in a turn-of-the-century railroad commuting suburb) and I love it too. It is a better fit for my family, and my commute is literally minutes if I take the car on the highway. We walk to dining and entertainment, shopping and our Farmer's Market. My daughter is in a great school and [[thankfully) loves it. We are proud members of the community and are fans of Royal Oak.

Enjoying the livability of one city while living in another is not a crime. I'll staunchly defend the choices that make sense for my family, and I'll respect others whose choices are not duplicates of my own. It's great to have the resources of both cities within walking or a short drive. It makes the entire area more livable, and yes better. We have it pretty good in this area and sometimes I wish that we make our story of all the wonderful things here rise above the negativity and selective journalism that seem to be "our story". Spare a thought for your neighbors, and realize that they may be just like you, loving where they live.