Friendly Neighborhood Index

Ed Cameron's recent post on his blog coupled with today's Daily News story about snow covered sidewalks led me to create a new way to measure the spirit of neighborhoods.

In his post, Ed hits upon a very common--and I suppose--very real concern about the diminishing community spirit of Newburyport. Please read the post.

(Note: I happen to think that this is a societal, rather than local issue, and that Newburyport is better off than most.)

Then, today's Daily News reports that the city isn't issuing tickets to people who aren't shoveling their sidewalks.

There is a connection.

It seems to me the most overt and obvious thing one neighbor can do for another is shovel the sidewalk in the front of their own house.

Sometimes, a person has no choice. The sidewalk may be sole path to outside world. But some folks like me are blessed to have a driveway, so we could get by with minimal shoveling until the snow melts.

So I say any neighbor who talks the time to scrape their sidewalks clean is a good neighbor.

Conversely, some folks can't get out to shovel because of kids, injury or just old age. So there sidewalks go unshoveled.

In those circumstances, I think the neighborly onus falls upon those people who live the left, right and across the street. After a few unshoveled snow storms, they clearly can recognize this person might need some help and to help out as much as possible, even if it's just shoveling a shovel-wide path.

Therefore, a neighborhood with clean sidewalks shows that the residents either care enough about the neighborhood kids to clear their own sidewalk. Or it demonstrates that this neighborhood is one that watches out for its own and takes action when a neighbor needs a hand.

For the sake of full disclosure, I'm fortunate enough to have a generous neighbor with a mammoth snow blower. I think it's actually a converted 18-wheeler. He consistently clears every sidewalk (and sometimes driveway) he can find. Can't thank him enough.

What's the point of this diatribe? It's a real shame if we have to count on the city to write tickets to get our sidewalks clear. This is one area where neighbors and neighborhoods can really help themselves.

Community spirit has got to start somewhere. This seems like as good a place as any.

I'll get off the soap box now.