Quote:
Originally Posted by Wharn
It's not really a suburban thing, it's more of a North American attitude problem. I live in a townhouse complex, which is fairly dense with people in much closer proximity to each other than they would be out in Herp Park. After 2 years I know an equal number of people: my neighbour on one side, and a classmate who also lives in the complex. Most people (even students- who make up about 1/3 of the complex's population) live their entire lives inside their units. Reaching out to them is a waste of time because you're usually met with a cold rebuke.
The same thing happened to my old neighbourhood in North York. I noticed that as a lot of the older (usually Jewish) owners moved out, the newer owners made every effort to avoid interaction with others. At first I was tempted to treat it as a cultural issue (they were mostly from Hong Kong), but I think it has more to do with the fact that people don't have established roots in a community and thus don't really care for the place or the existing residents. A friend of mine who lives near Mortimer and Woodbine in East York is beginning to complain about the same thing- as the place gets "yuppified", the newer folks are much less inclined to interact with the people already there.
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Good... I'm not the only one who has noticed this.
In the Westboro area of Ottawa, we get infill in the form of massive semi-detached houses (ea 2500+ sq.ft.) replacing tiny old cottages and bungalows on 50' lots. Many of these infill semis 'feature' large garages and "ground floor" entrances a full flight of stairs above the street. It's like a physical manifestation to the same non-neighbourly attitude and helps facilitate such attitudes.