Neighbor vs. neighbor as homeowner fights get ugly. 'As more are unable to pay homeowners' fees, associations pit neighbor against neighbor'. Today, one in five U.S. homeowners is subject to the will of the homeowners' association, whose boards oversee 24.4 million homes. More than 80 percent of newly constructed homes in the U.S are in association communities. And of the nation's 300,000 homeowners' associations, more than 50 percent now face "serious financial problems," according to a September survey by the Community Association Institute. An October survey found that 65 percent of homeowners' associations have delinquency rates higher than 5 percent, up from 19 percent of associations in 2005.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword on Jul 9, 2011 - 167 comments

RIP Walking Man of Silver Lake If you've spent a certain amount of time in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, chances are that you noticed the Walking Man. Or perhaps one of the two murals he appears in along Sunset Blvd. [more inside]
posted by mandymanwasregistered on Jul 22, 2010 - 37 comments

New York Magazine has crunched the numbers, Park Slope has taken the title of most livable neighborhood of New York. [more inside]
posted by minkll on Apr 12, 2010 - 84 comments

A little old, but chock full of enough wackadoodle quotes to be your morning cup of head-go-boom-iness. FOX News on Mr. Rogers and his effect on "the narcissistic society he gave birth to": "This evil, evil man has now ruined a generation of kids." "Do you think that Mr. Rogers [...] ruined a crop of our newest, youngest generation?" "Instead of telling them 'you're special, you're great', why didn't he say, 'there's a lot of room for improvement, keep working on yourself'?" [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Apr 6, 2009 - 191 comments

Want to be a good neighbor but don't know how? Now there are checklists! (Chicago and SF focus) [more inside]
posted by puckish on Nov 17, 2008 - 17 comments

Red Hook is New York's perennial next-year neighborhood, perenially held back by huge housing projects and bad transportation, despite some ambitious proposals. Ikea's proposed store has been the subject of a long battle between "it'll bring jobs" and "it'll destroy the neighborhood". It's finally going to happen, and soon these buildings will be a parking lot.
posted by Armitage Shanks on Jan 5, 2005 - 21 comments

Find out about political donors in your neighborhood Fundrace Block Party searches political donor databases and, with the input of your address and zip code, will give you a map (and spreadsheet if you like) which tells you the names and addresses of your neighbors who have supported national political candidates, and how much they contributed. You can use this information to have a block party!

Although I think this is way cool (I'm surrounded by 51 contributors to democrats and only 11 to republicans), this also struck me as a bit scary from the privacy perspective (I now know who is giving money to the whom, and where they live). Who's in *your* neighborhood? (via kottke)
posted by jasper411 on Oct 27, 2004 - 28 comments

At least this guy’s not giving up. "I can't quite figure out what's going on at 1704. From the landlord on down, they seem to have a pact with the devil. Other than the roof over there, every other aspect of that building is wrong. Everything. 1704 is a malignancy killing this whole block." Amazing documentation of someone not afraid to take a stand in Baltimore. (more inside)
posted by _sirmissalot_ on Dec 6, 2002 - 17 comments