Moving to a new neighborhood? Recently moved and want to learn a little more about your home? Been there a while but feel like much you don’t know? We modified 10 questions from our Kids Summer Activity Guide to help us grown-ups better understand our neighborhoods. Taking a good look at where we live and understanding the history of the place we call home isn’t just nerdy, it’s the first step to becoming informed about the ways you can get involved in making your city better for everyone! That’s something worth spending time on.
How many neighborhoods are there in your city?
What or who was your neighborhood named after?
What’s your neighborhood’s current population?
What people groups or ethnicities have called your neighborhood home over the years?
Who built it into what it is today?
What is your area best known for? Is there something that few people know but should be more popular?
Why do you love living here?
What challenges does your neighborhood face?
Are you equipped to give back to your community in any way?
Some of us choose city life and others are born and raised within the same few blocks where they now live. For those of us who are relative newcomers, it’s important to understand the place we’re entering in order to be a good neighbor and thoughtful citizen of our cities and our neighborhoods.
We talk often about the good things we receive from our cities as parents raising kids—museums, parks, concerts, free days, public Transit, good food, diversity!—they’re endless. City life is a good life! But we’ll ruin it for ourselves and others if we always approach our city with an eye toward what we can get from it. Learning the history and story of our own neighborhood is a good place to start leaning in and learning where we can give.