Chapter 03 – Reasons to form a Neighborhood Association
- Develop a cleaner, safer, healthier neighborhood and improve the quality of life for residents.
- Empower residents to have a voice and work toward, and achieve common neighborhood goals, a unified vision of who we are as a neighborhood.
- Work toward a safer neighborhood by reducing and preventing crime through block watch groups.
- Promote friendship, reduce conflict, and foster a sense of concern and caring among people in the neighborhood.
- Provide a means of communicating with neighbors.
- Encourage the discussion of ideas which affect the neighborhood and promote cooperative action.
- Organize neighborhood improvement projects, help the older residents with yard work, and assist those unable to clean up their property by themselves.
- Promote and celebrate diversity in the neighborhood.
- Preserve the unique historical heritage of the neighborhood by improving planning methods.
- Create open communication networks with government officials, businesses, and other groups. Make them partners in your neighborhood, all working towards a strong neighborhood.
- Protect youth, and support and strengthen neighborhood schools.
- Develop better awareness and access to the services and agencies of the school, city, and county governments.
- Seek citywide recognition (including realtors’) of the strengths, needs and accomplishments of the neighborhood.
- Fully utilize all the resources available to the neighborhood.
- Solve problems which exist/arise within the neighborhood.
There is often confusion between Homeowners Associations, Block Watch groups, and Neighborhood Associations. Each are valuable, but serve differing purposes.
Homeowners Associations
Homeowners Associations, unlike Neighborhood Associations are formal legal entities created to maintain common areas and enforce private deed restrictions. Most condominiums, town-home developments and some single-family subdivisions have homeowners associations, which are usually formed when the development is built.
Membership is mandatory for all property owners within the development, and usually fees are mandatory. Homeowners associations have the legal authority to enact and enforce maintenance and design standards in addition to those established by City ordinances. There is usually a governing board with formal by-laws which hires a property management company to handle maintenance and enforce rules.
Crime Watch
Organized by the Police Department, these neighbors volunteer their time to keep an eye on what is happening in their neighborhood. Proven to reduce crime, these groups are vital to a healthy neighborhood but are more successful if coupled with a Neighborhood Association.
“A 1998 Department of Justice survey of twelve cities nationwide found that only 11 percent of all residents have ever attended a neighborhood watch meeting to help protect themselves from crime, as compared with 14 percent who kept a weapon at home, 15 percent who owned a guard dog, and 41 percent who installed extra locks. “Participation in neighborhood watch programs almost always decays after an initial burst of enthusiasm, unless rooted in neighborhood organization of a more comprehensive sort.”
-Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone, 2000, p. 107
So you think that organizing a Neighborhood Association is a good idea; now what?