Columbia Citizens

How about moving into the neighborhood and letting your very large, very loud pooch bark incessantly beginning as early as 6:45 in the morning? …routinely.
And at all other random hours of the day, afternoon, and early evening, too, just for good measure.
This dog barks and barks and barks and barks. It's enough to make a person just NOT want to introduce themselves to the new neighbor!
As a fellow dog owner, and lover of animals in general, I think people in urban settings simply owe it to their neighbors to teach their dog good manners!
N'est ce pas?

I definitely hear you on the littering issue and I'd like to add illegal dumping to that, this is a huge problem in our neighborhood.

I'd like to list five good neighborly things, to move this to the positive side:

1) Being able to borrow something from my neighbors and vice versa. I've gotten sticks of butter, weedwacker, rice, and whatnot. I've given onions, parsley, garbage bags, etc. This didn't happen in my old neighborhood in Ballard.

2) The small inconsequential but essential conversations that transpire between neighbors. We walk our dog three times a day so we often have the opportunity to chitchat with people on the street, hanging out on their porch, working in their yard.

3) Yards that aren't walled off from the rest of the world. It's nice being able to see your handiwork and green thumb.

4) Knowing the kids in the area. We don't have kids but we love living in an area with kids! Even if it means that their soccer balls end up in your flower beds, or that they end up in your yard playing hide and seek, or whatever mischief, isn't it better knowing that your neighborhood isn't a dead, sterile place? Plus, it's nice to remember what kind of trouble you may have gotten into in your own childhood!

5) Sites like this wiki where we can extend our "neighborhood" reach and participate in a healthy discussion with the people around us.

Thanks!

A Letitia Ave resident and Columbia City neighbor

Neat idea. These are some of my neighborly favorites —

• I enjoy the regular stream of walkers past our door. As we putz around in the yard, it's pleasant when people take the time to stop and chat awhile. Now that spring is finally here, Columbia City has its outdoor "third place" back.

• I love the way that a weekend at home often becomes an unplanned sequence of conversations and activities with neighbors. The area is full of kids excited to get together. We might find our way down to the park, where we're bound to see familiar faces. Neighbors are generous with their time and their attention to each other.

• It's comforting that I can meet a neighbor in one setting — at school, on the bus, at a meeting, through the wiki(!) — and chances are that I'll connect with them elsewhere — at the market, at the cinema, in a restaurant, or on the sidewalk.

• I'm impressed by the familiar connections between neighbors and business owners, and that so many people's ties to this place and to the community are longstanding and personal.

• There's such a tremendous mix of perspectives among us, but it seems there's usually no more than two degrees of separation between any of us.

It's a fun challenge to find ways to enable the positive patterns — maybe even turning those lemons into lemonade.

One of my favourite things about CC is seeing people passionate about gardening. One of my least favourite things is hearing an old lawn mower sputtering and whirring at 7 AM on a Sunday.

Maybe they should consider some Doggy Prozac????