Saturday evening, my husband and I set up some quick and dirty Halloween decorations: orange twinkle lights lined our walk way, battery-operated tea lights set upon the front porch banister, and one latex decapitated head hanging from a tree branch. We sat on our front porch in the early evening darkness and waited for the little trick-or-treator’s….and waited, and waited. Soon, a group of 5 children came bounding up the path. The little ones were slightly hesitant, due to the scary head, but that’s what Halloween’s all about, being slightly afraid and having fun. (This year my husband had a cold and didn’t want to dress up in his leafy suit and lay in the lawn.)
In between groups of children, my husband and I commented on how few houses were participating, yet again, this Halloween. We noted that only one house across the street was participating, like they do every year. I walked out to the sidewalk and looked up and down, trying to see how many houses were participating this year, or at least had their porch lights on. Between my house and the corner, which is only a total of 6 houses, only two other houses had their front porch lights on or decorations, making it inviting for children to approach. The other direction, I couldn’t see any, due to some tall hedges. Across the street, only the single house with multiple decorations was participating.
We do live on a highly trafficked street. It’s also quite wide, so our neighbor’s across the street aren’t really neighbor’s in any sense of the word. The frequent flow of cars and the 4 lanes makes it a little impossible to be neighborly. But, I also realized, while scanning the sidewalk, that our block is really long. On our one block, there are maybe 20 houses. So, if a group of trick-or-treator’s starts moving down the sidewalk, and soon realizes only one out of every 4 or 5 houses are handing out treats, they soon give up. We saw a few groups of children, turn around and head the other way.
The fact that I live on a very long, busy block, probably discourages some houses from participating in Halloween. Perhaps they feel few children will want to walk down such a busy street, or that parents may feel it is unsafe. Last year, we had many fewer children than this year. At least this year, they came in large groups. That may have made them feel a little safer on the long block. The interior blocks behind my house are a little bit shorter, the streets aren’t nearly as wide, encouraging a zig-zag flow of movement. There is also less traffic, which makes it a little easier to cross over to houses that are giving out treats.
My husband and I don’t plan to be living in our rental house this time next year. My observations about the type of block I live on now, will help influence where we will look for a house to purchase. For instance, my husband likes the flow of traffic on our street, he says it motivates him throughout the day. He works from home, so the noise and motion are comforting to him. However, I don’t like how long our block is. If it were slightly shorter, or maybe a little less trafficked, I think it would help build more of a community feeling and more continuity within the neighborhood. There are so many things to consider when planning to purchase a house, this is just one more thing we will need to think about.
Does anyone live on a really long block? Do you feel that the community is less connected? How about the opposite?
1 Comment
I agree with your observation that wide streets and long blocks have a distancing effect. I lived on a street like that once–used to call it a runway because it was wide enough to land an airplane. There are lots of reasons for fewer trick-or-treaters though, including changing demographics of neighborhoods. For example, my street has mostly people near or at retirement age. There are a few young families as homes turnover, but not many. And these days parents often bring children to indoor Halloween events. We got only 2 sets this year–a group of 12-year-olds and then another group of older teenagers.