My block held its annual block club party this past Saturday. I’ve lived on my block for 35 years now. Over those years, the block has held up against the test of decline. I feel one of the biggest problems within the Austin community is that the individual homes do not maintain the level of street appeal that attracted people here to begin with.
As a group, block clubs can help establish/maintain the kind of environment that is conducive to a positive block.
I can still recall attending my first block club meeting. One of the items on the agenda was getting light poles installed in the front yards for every house. Having just spent all the money I had buying the house, that was not something I wanted to hear. We never did it as a block. But I ended up doing it years later.
I eventually got to know about my new neighbors — they were school teachers, office workers, factory workers and retired folks. Our commonality: we are people who had purchased our homes looking for a better, permanent life.
Fast forward to the present, and over 30% of my block has lived here for 30-plus years. That shows a lot of commitment to the home, the block and the neighborhood. And it hasn’t always been easy. We’ve had to battle people who moved in with the goal of making the block the same kind of hot mess that they left.
Block clubs are important for a community. As the current president of my block club said, it’s not about being a nosy neighbor; it is about being neighborly. It’s about keeping an eye out so that negative things are kept away from our block. It’s about living together because that is what we do.
If you don’t have a block club, get one started. If you do have a block club, get involved in it.