Are you in a friendly neighborhood or unfriendly?

[Anonymous]

Woodley park - pretty friendly.

[Anonymous]

Friendly!

[Anonymous]

Rockville. Very friendly when we see them. But it's a lot of older couples and no side walks so there's not a ton of walking traffic. Would love block parties

[Anonymous]

We just moved to a new neighborhood so not sure how it will be. No one has come over to say hi, but people have waved and introduced themselves from the street.

In our old neighborhood, everyone was extremely friendly but we were the "30-somethings without kids who everyone thinks is really cold." We actually had no idesa what we did wrong. Everyone else was out throwing block parties and we never really got invited; we tried at first to just go on out with a six pack in our hands to add to the drink table and start to chat with people, but after a while we gave up. A couple people made vague remarks over the years about how we were never home, which was true - we work a lot. But being excluded made it suck to live there. We eventually had a child but nothing changed. I will always wonder if we made some neighborly faux pas that we didn't realize. One of the neighbors apologized to me once he knew we were in the process of moving out and I appreciated that, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I moved into an African-American neighborhood, I was delighted to find out it was very warm and friendly. As a white professional who had previously lived west of the Park, I was surprised when strangers said hello on the street. Neighbors always stopped to talk when I saw them outside. Best decision we ever made was to moved to that block.

Now that the neighborhood is gentrifying, it's gotten noticeably less warm. Sorry to generalize but we white DCers are not so good at getting to know our neighbors. We don't sit out in our front yards and chat. My new neighbors are nice folks but most of them are very busy. Don't get me wrong, the neighborhood is still nice but it's definitely not as warm as it used to be.

Totally agree. I'm white and also live in a predominantly African American community, though more whites have moved in in the past five years. White people are much LESS friendly and take a while to warm up to the norms of the neighborhood. All the new white hipsters moving in need to understand that you say hi when you walk past someone in the street, even if you don't know them and you stop and chat to your neigbors and get to know them.

[Anonymous]

Friendly - Annandale. Love it. There's a wide range of ages, family status, and country of origin in our neighbhorhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very friendly -- I'm in CCDC. We looked for this specifically in our home search. And when we'd find a home we were interested, we would walk around the block, say hi to people, stop them to ask them how they liked living there and if they'd recommend it. That told us a lot about how friendly people were.

We did this, but it ended up being completely fake and nosy - only friendly to find out your business and/or look for a target to take out their shortcomings. It got old really quick. Now we are in a more upscale neighborhood, and it is upscale in that it has much nicer houses, much nicer land, and much nicer people who MYOB. I would never change now.

Funny, PP also mentioned military types who were fake friendly, which might have been what was happening. I think some people are just really perturbed at their own lives and try to take it out on others. When people are genuinely happy, it shows, and they are friendly, in my vast amount of experiences.

[Anonymous]

Unfriendly--a particular development in western Bethesda. We have a dog and there are even some dog people who won't speak to us when we meet on the street. Some people wave hello or will say a quick word but it's very superficial. Garages, large lot size and no neighborhood listserv all contribute to the downer vibe. That said, it's quiet and problem-free, which I'll take any day over the neighbor nightmares I had before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I moved into an African-American neighborhood, I was delighted to find out it was very warm and friendly. As a white professional who had previously lived west of the Park, I was surprised when strangers said hello on the street. Neighbors always stopped to talk when I saw them outside. Best decision we ever made was to moved to that block.

Now that the neighborhood is gentrifying, it's gotten noticeably less warm. Sorry to generalize but we white DCers are not so good at getting to know our neighbors. We don't sit out in our front yards and chat. My new neighbors are nice folks but most of them are very busy. Don't get me wrong, the neighborhood is still nice but it's definitely not as warm as it used to be.

I've had a similar experience

[Anonymous]

Columbia Heights. Mixed bag. The young hipster types are only friendly when drunk on 11th Street. Otherwise, very standoffish. Older AAs are friendly, but they're suspicious of you at first. Once they've warmed up, they're friendly. The Latinos will respond with a smile if spoken to first. Otherwise, they ignore you and seem unfriendly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in PG, and I have some really friendly neighbors and other neighbors who keep to themselves. It's actually the perfect balance for me, as I'm kind of a private person.

I could never live in the kind of cul-de-sac people describe on here where it's for other kids to play on your lawn without asking. But I also would not like to live somewhere where people didn't say "hello" or neighbors didn't at least exchange phone numbers (so you have someone to call if something weird happens).

+ 1. We keep to ourselves but everyone is friendly and no one is nosey. Except one old lady that we all tolerate. When it snows, we all go out and shovel, but no one is knocking in our door asking for help with it if we don't go out at the same time. We do have HOA hosted events, picnic days where we come out and say hello each year. And we see each other at community meetings. In a cul-de-sac, and I know my neighbors on my left and my right. I have no complaints.

[Anonymous]

Silver spring and friendly. There's a list serve which helps and a neighborhood association. I'm also just a friendly person so introduced myself to closest neighbors early on and make a point to say hi when I see them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very friendly. We waited for over a year for a house on a certain street, not because of its prestige, but because a friend of ours loved her street and neighbors and really wanted us to move there. The street has been everything she promised. Neighbors range from young new parents to empty nesters and grandparents and everything in between. The mix is great and everyone is super friendly. The older families LOVE all the little kids moving in - totally dote on them.

All I'm saying is, you have to do your research. There is more to choosing a house than just the house itself.

I wish my realtor would have told me this.

But we bought in 2005, so we didn't have a choice where we ended up anyway. We were bidding on homes with 25 other contracts on them.

Our neighborhood is unfriendly, but on the "other side" of the main road that runs through our neighborhood, it seems to be more close knit/friendly. I just don't know how to get to know those people.

Our neighborhood blows.

[Anonymous]

How do you tell? You could walk through and the neighbors may seem nice, but in reality, it might be Peyton Place. No one wants that.

If you don't know anyone who lives there, is there a way to tell if you are moving next to the neighborhood crap stirrer?

[Anonymous]

Cleveland Park is hit or miss.