As long as I have lived in Downingtown I have always heard the mantra "Good Neighbor Community" and while so many great things go on in the borough sometimes the most rotten of attitudes reside among the "good neighbors". So many times I have heard instances of residents calling the Codes Department, or the Police or any other official before even going to the neighbor themselves and possibly resolving the issue or getting an explanation for the situation. Sometimes even when the "whistle blowers" have been given the information that is necessary to prevent a call to a borough official it will be ignored. If you are having a difficulty with a neighbor wouldn't it be much more productive to ask them what the problem is and maybe you are in a position to help them resolve the issue or time is needed to correct it.
Growing up I remember a time when neighbors watched out for each other. If I had done something that was not behavior that I was supposed to display I got told about it by the lady whose house I was in front of and by the time I got home my mom knew about it. We knew our neighbors names even if we didn't socialize or we could wave and knew the greeting would be returned. Granted it is a much different world today and neighborhood watches are a necessity, but those watches should be working to encourage people to be good neighbors, reminding them to turn on porch lights if activity is in the area, watching houses of families on vacation, making sure that the elderly have their sidewalks shoveled and simply knowing when someone doesn't belong in the area. There should not be an atmosphere of "search and destroy"...how many violations can we find, or how many suspicious characters can we bother the police to come out and check, how many neighbors can we alienate because we did not bother to check the facts before calling in the officials.
My challenge to you as a Downingtown resident. Find out the names of four of your neighbors. They do not have to live right next door. If you already know that many expand your horizons and discover four more. Downingtown can be so much more if we work together and actually live up to the "Good Neighbor" motto.
So well stated. It is a shame that we even need a neighborhood watch to begin with. I have found that a lack of parenting children, breeds trouble. Those children grow up to be adults which in turn bring up thier kids the same way. Where if good behavior is passed on it works the same way. When I have seen a "bad" kid I am never surprised when I meet the parents and find they are "bad" as well. Not all of the time .. but most of it.
ReplyDeleteA watch program in any area should bring neighbors together to weed out the drug dealers and real bad people. They should be lending a helping hand to solve a problem like a code violation. Helping others to help themselves would be a huge benifit of a watch program for a community. In walking by and calling the cops or codes department on every little thing you can find is a sure fire way to get a lot of people to dispise you fast!! Then when they really need the help the last group they are going to want to call is the "WATCH GROUP" for fear they will only report them and not offer a solution, or offer to help them. Nothing more sad then seeing something that was meant for good, perverted by inflated ego's walking the streets looking for the stick in others eyes ignoring the plank in thier own.