I settled onto a metal folding chair in the basement of St. Luke’s Community Church last Tuesday, cradling a paper cup of watery coffee. The air carried that mix of old hymnals and floor wax that only church basements seem to have. Around me, maybe thirty neighbors shuffled through stapled agendas, the paper crinkling like… Continue reading The Front Porch Paradox: When a Neighborhood Meeting Welcomes and Walls Off at the Same Time

I walked to my first neighborhood association meeting carrying a plate of lemon bars, the kind my grandmother used to bake for church socials. It was a warm June evening, and we gathered in the public library’s community room on Chestnut Street. I’d lived on the block almost three years by then. I waved at… Continue reading The Front Porch Gate: How Neighborhood Associations Can Be Both Democratic and Exclusionary

I landed in Brookside seven springs ago, pulled by the oaks that canopy the streets and the way neighbors waved from porches before I’d even unpacked my last box. The neighborhood association met in the community hall every second Tuesday, and I showed up early to my first meeting with a plate of maandazi, hoping… Continue reading When the Welcome Mat Has Fine Print: How Neighborhood Associations Can Be Both Democratic and Exclusionary

I still remember the first block meeting I ever attended. A Tuesday evening in late September, the air carrying that golden, slanted light you only get when summer finally loosens its grip. I walked into Mrs. Chen’s living room—mismatched chairs pulled from every corner of the house—and before I could even find a seat, someone… Continue reading The Front Porch Paradox: How Neighborhood Associations Can Be Both Democratic and Exclusionary

I still remember my first neighborhood association meeting. I walked into the community hall with a plate of lemon bars, a notebook, and the kind of nervous energy you get when you’re new to a place and hoping to belong. It was a Tuesday evening in late September, and the air had that crisp, apple-cider… Continue reading The Gate with a Smile: How Neighborhood Associations Can Be Both Democratic and Exclusionary

I showed up early to the spring potluck, balancing a dish of sadza and a head full of questions. The neighborhood association had been on my mind for weeks—ever since the flyer appeared under my door, cheerful and handwritten, announcing a meeting about the new community garden. I’d lived on this block for three years,… Continue reading The Porch and the Gate: How Neighborhood Associations Walk the Line Between Democracy and Exclusion

I walked into the Maple Street Block Association meeting carrying a store-bought crumb cake and a notebook. Fourth month in the neighborhood, and I wanted to know who actually decided where the new crosswalk would go. I slid into the back row next to a retired mail carrier named Lenny, who leaned over and whispered… Continue reading When Welcome Has a Gate: How Neighborhood Associations Can Be Both Democratic and Exclusionary

I showed up at the Maplewood Neighborhood Association meeting ten minutes late, holding a coffee that had gone cold and a notebook that still smelled like my daughter’s crayons. Folding chairs squeaked across the church basement floor. I grabbed a seat by the radiator, next to Mr. Chen, who has lived on the same block… Continue reading Watching Democracy on a Folding Chair: How Neighborhood Associations Can Be Both Open and Closed

There is a quiet kind of leadership I keep spotting around here. It never stands behind a podium. It does not wave from a parade float. And most of the time, it does not even want to be called leadership. That is the part that sticks with me: the best people holding our community together… Continue reading Why the Best Community Leaders Are the Ones Who Do Not Want the Title

I remember standing in the community garden at dawn, hands in the soil, watching Mrs. Chen carefully tie her tomato plants to bamboo stakes. She’d been coming to this same patch of ground for twelve years, long before anyone called it “community work.” She just called it her Tuesday mornings. There were three of us… Continue reading The Problem With Thinking That Community Work Needs to Be Scaled Up