by ShortyGU12

Created on: April 21, 2009

A safe and welcoming neighborhood is almost like a utopia regardless of where in the world someone resides. Growing up in south eastern Virginia, my neighborhood seemed relatively safe - except for kids committing theft, a man shooting both his kids then himself, a child molestor being a few streets down, and so on. I currently live in a London borough and it's a suburban area however again, crime is still committed here.

In general, for a neighborhood to be safe there really should be two main institutions in place. The first is a strong relationship with the police officers that patrol your neighborhood and the second is having a neighborhood watch; hold your meetings in your library, church, or even someone's home.

From the National Crime Prevention Council, their suggestions mostly are that you inform your children of local authorities, where to go when its safe, know your neighbors, rely on them if your children are not safe within your own home, know your children's friends, give them curfews, and teach your children to resolve issues with discussion and not physical harm - other than a neighborhood watch that is.

I do feel that we should get to know our neighbors and not just for safety purposes but for smaller things like if a parcel came for them, they're not home so you take it for them or if you have pets and are going away on vacation that they can take care of them for you or vice versa.

As far as a neighborhood being welcoming - well, that's also a utopian ideal. By nature, humans don't exactly warm up to complete strangers - especially if it's supposed to be a tight knit community where everyone knows everyone and their business. People fear what they do not understand and it is still proven on a regular basis that being different is wrong to some people; regardless of what that difference is so the question remains, how can a neighborhood be welcoming when they can spite those whom are different?

I'm not saying that all tight knit communities are spiteful towards those whom are not like them, but having a connection with another person makes someone feel more confident in confiding in another human being; it really boils down to that and those whom do not fit that mold are pretty much shunned or persecuted.

The only way that a neighborhood is truly "welcoming" is if everyone in that neighborhood accepted the fact that different is ok and that being unique is wonderful.

It may sound like a difficult task to make a neighborhood safe - especially if its crime ridden, but it takes a lot more dedication to make a neighborhood welcoming, especially to a complete stranger.

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