I lived on a 10 acre plot in the US northeast for a while, in a cozy cabin. I had the best neighbor, and old guy who owned the 200 acres mostly around me and let me hike around on it. He eventually died and some dipshit CEO of a healthcare company bought the place, logged most of it, and then gave it to his kids, a teenager and 20-something, both boys. The kids would come up all the damn time and drive their lifted trucks, quads and unmuffled motorbikes with their friends all night long, and then shoot all afternoon and night. It was way outside city limits so anything goes. Of course I tried talking to them, and they just thought I was some loser old guy trying to stop their fun, and their dad simply didn't give a fuck. There was no way the tiny police department that we shared with a neighboring town would even care.
I eventually moved because they ruined my peace and quiet, and because I was getting sick of the 5' snow drifts starting in October.
My problem is neighbors. They would call the cops instead of talking to me if they saw my daughter out there biking or playing. Can't they just chill and keep an eye out? I do for their kids and even let them play on my lot.
Nope - they all hide behind the drawn in curtains and think there's pedophiles lurking in my backyard bush.
When I was a kid growing up in the same town (different neighborhood), we would play hide and seek and similar games in the back yards of all the houses on our street except the one couple who didn’t have kids and asked us not to. We had no problem respecting their property, as we had plenty of other yards to play in.
I think it was mostly a “how dare this stranger tell our kids what to do” situation as the previous renter had apparently never had issues with the kids in his yard. I didn’t either until they damaged my truck, and I didn’t expect that kind of reaction from the parents. It sucked but it was a good life lesson.
It depends on where. A few years ago, I lived in a falling-down house in a family neighborhood of mainly immigrants. There was a school a few blocks away, and kids used to come hang out in our trees (I’m pretty sure they thought the place was abandoned) and occasionally set off fireworks by the creek we lived next to.
I wouldn’t have called the cops on them since they weren’t causing any real trouble, but if my neighbors did, no one ever came. There are bigger problems in that town (like the feral fucking dogs) that the cops refused to do anything about.
But honestly, most of the neighbors were familiar with each other and let their kids roam pretty free. It was nice to see that places like that still exist.
I don't know my current neighbors at all (I live in an apartment building with 150+ units) and I'm fine with that.
However, when I was in a house... I met some. They were often the worst kind of people. The most NIMBY neolib white-flight our-neighborhood-is-going-to-hell 60+ year old assholes you could imagine. The one we thought was nice apparently would beat one of his kids and make him sleep outside the house. That was the nice one!
I can't say I know many good stories about neighbors. Look at movies - conflict with neighbors is a constant theme.
It's attitudes like this that have caused my wife and I to build our forever home in the middle of a a huge plot of land. The house will not be visible from the road and I'll be able to fire a gun in any direction without worrying about hitting anything or anyone. We've both grown weary of allowing our comfort to be dictated by neighbors and however they decide to behave on a particular day.
My suburb has houses crammed together so close I can see into my neighbors kitchen if the blinds aren't close. When I do go mow my lawn I have the alcoholic on the one side come out and complain to me about his life and an old retired lawn obsessed guy on the other side come tell me how my lawn is shit and I need to take better care of it.
And I'm just thankful I'm no longer in apartments where I have to deal with neighbours screaming matches at 3am, people having parties above me every single weekend, crappy landlords, and all the other shit.
Around 2000-2001 I rented a house in the small town where I grew up, and there was a plum tree in the yard. I mentioned to the landlord that I had been approached by the neighborhood kids asking if they could harvest from the tree, and the landlord said he had no problem with it if I didn't mind (that was his arrangement with the last renter).
Kudos to the kids for asking first, and at first I didn't mind, but they ended up climbing on my pickup truck parked near the tree (the only place to park it) and dented the hood and roof in several places. After I showed them the damage and asked them not to climb on my truck, I had a gaggle of neighborhood moms beating my door down to tell me how much of a prick I was to forbid their children from climbing my truck to get to the tree. I ended up having to call the cops to have them removed.
When the landlord found out I called the cops on them, he took their side and asked me to find another place to live (I wasn't under a lease, it was a month to month rental agreement).
I'm a homeowner now, in a house that is not in a neighborhood specifically so I can avoid incidents where people feel they have a right to invade my space and damage my property. Again, I'd have no problem if I had a fruit tree in my yard today and people walking past wanted to get a bite to eat as long as they are courteous about it, but mob mentality is not something I'm comfortable with.
Once in high school I was at a friends house in a subdivision that didn't even have sidewalks. We wanted to go out for a walk but the dad gave us a warning that the neighbors would probably call the police because people don't ever walk in this neighborhood.
The nearby neighbors made the mistake of thinking that the property owner was a fellow homeowner. The problem is that the property owner doesn't see things that way. In their eyes, its a business and the neighbors who tried to deal with the problems person to person was just showing their lack of sophistication - this was a "pay yourself first" endeavor.
Jimmy's father built the goal at the end of the driveway when Jimmy was about 8. It is a thing of beauty - Ryan was a craftsman. Three summers ago he drove Jimmy and his teammates to the AAU Nationals. The next Thanksgiving he was diagnosed with liver cancer. 15 months later he died. When, I heard how the damage had been done and that the property owner had promised to get it fixed, but hadn't, that's when it was clear the owner didn't give fuck about the neighborhood or the people affected by their business.
It's simple economics. Two weekends a month gets the owner past breakeven, and the third and fourth are mostly profit. The values systems between the property owner and the neighborhood residents are incommensurate.
In the end, all it took was for two assholes to collide and agree that calling the police was the best solution. Well that and hitting the city manager and elected officials over the head with email.
Oh goodness. I'll never forget my across the street neighbors. They were the nicest people generally, but the wife didn't work and used to spend all her spare time doing busy work in the yard.
I'll never forget having to listen to leaf blowers running full throttle for hours nearly every day in the fall. This lady would get a ladder, climb up, and leaf blow her gutters out every single day between the hours of 11am and 2pm or so. Then chase those leaves around the yard in the wind, mostly fruitlessly. The only brief reprieve was her moving the ladder over 3 feet at a time.
I don't think I've ever held such negative feelings for a human before that I didn't express. Having a good neighbor is so rare for me, I didn't want to spoil it by complaining, but boy did that make me miserable all fall long.
They hurt my ears indoors across the street, I don't know how they are even legal.
My neighbour (illegally) put it right next to our house (between the walls of his houses and ours in a very dense area which is a very bad idea) and I basically had to move out for a few month in winter because sleeping was impossible, before I was able to convince him and get it moved (which I basically paid to be able to sleep again)
That sounds terrible. I have a yard with a nice block wall and privacy hedges growing over the top. I have a pool, spa, 100s of plants in my garden, every type of bbq contraption you can think of, a large tv and other games for lounging and best of all, I decide who besides my family can be there. I don’t have random teenagers, homeless people, or quincenaras with mariachi bands in my backyard.
I eventually moved because they ruined my peace and quiet, and because I was getting sick of the 5' snow drifts starting in October.
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