Township Talk Bedford

For the most part we all have neighbors. If we have neighbors we probably know them by name. If you know your neighbors by name you’re probably ‘a good neighbor’.  A good neighbor is one who:

• Takes care of their property and its surroundings
• Looks out after their property and others  (for suspicious activity)
• Says “hi” to their neighbor and waves hi and/or bye when they see their neighbor passing.
• Is respectful to neighbors concerns

Of course, we all make mistakes … especially us younger folks that are just getting acclimated to having their own home. Especially on that last part – being respectful of our neighbors concerns. My wife and I are particularly young and we like to have people over for bonfires periodically throughout the summer and we have elderly neighbors. We tend to try and keep things quiet but admittedly don’t always do the best of jobs. I always apologize the next day or day after should it have gotten, in my opinion, too loud. I guess that too is part of being a good neighbor. Of course it is always our goal to not allow the party to get out of hand and a majority of the time this is the case as far as we know.

But while I try to acclimate myself to my surroundings shouldn’t others try to acclimate themselves to their new neighbors? I am polite, generous with my time to help my neighbors, stop by to talk, keep my yard looking nice, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.  It is not as if we throw wild and crazy parties where people roam the streets damaging property or cause a raucous.

So shouldn’t I get the benefit of the doubt? I’d like to think as a neighbor I would be willing to give it (the benefit of the doubt) a time or two.

(btw … I use the word ‘I’ as a proverbial/universal ‘I’ as in all of us as neighbors)

In my opinion using police as an intervention should truly be a last ditch effort to calm a noisy neighbor. Especially so in Bedford Township where I feel like our protection isn’t adequate. A simple and proper neighborly thing to do might be to come outside and ask the noisy neighbor to quiet down or stop whatever they’re doing that is so noisy. I bet 9 out of 10 times this will accomplish the end means. If this doesn’t work .. then consider calling the police. I bet, again 9 out of 10 times, your neighbor doesn’t even recognize that they’re being too loud (for whatever reason).

Of course, there may be extenuating circumstances where one may not feel comfortable in approaching their neighbor and if you suspect that there is ANY illegal activities going on then it is certainly most prudent to contact the authorities.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things the moral of this blog is this .. don’t resent they neighbor and don’t forget that you may have been in the same shoes as that neighbor once. My guess is most of us appreciate our neighbors and would like to be appreciated by our neighbors and sometimes, just like friendships, neighbors are going to do things that frustrate us or upset us. However, we still have to live nearby these people and finding the most peaceful and amicable solution between each other, in my opinion, is the best way to intervene. Keeping a coll head about ones self is also always good.

So let’s keep making this community a great place to live and all work on being the best neighbors we can be.

Tags: bonfires, Neighbors, parties, police

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Neighbors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.