I grew up on a street named Southview Drive in San Diego. Southview was a long cul-de-sac where we kids would play outside long after dark, until we heard our moms or dads call us in. We had slumber parties in each other’s garages and turned various yards into staging grounds for our latest large-scale adventure games. It wasn’t just the kids who lived an idyllic existence. Among other activities, Southview residents organized block parties, neighborhood plays, and progressive dinners. One summer, I started a newspaper called the Southview Drive Gazette, with updates and news about the people and pets who lived on Southview and their goings-on. It was handwritten and short-lived, but good practice for my future career choices.
Later, raising my kids in Santa Barbara, we never lived on a street quite like Southview Drive. On the Mesa, the Westside, and then downtown during their teenage years, we lived in some great neighborhoods, but never enjoyed the connection that I knew from childhood on Southview.
I know firsthand that such local neighborhoods do exist, however. Entire streets whose residents coordinate their Halloween decorations; blocks where kids go from house to house after school, landing in one kitchen or another to do homework or kick off their shoes to play upstairs. Many years ago, my friend Janine invited us to a block party on her family’s San Roque street, and I felt the Southview Drive camaraderie right here in Santa Barbara.
