Solutions & The Problem
Imagine There’s No Fences, It’s Easy if You Try…
Posted: 01/16/08 10:48 AM
Allow me to introduce you to my next-door neighbors. Below you see what my son Marco and I see of them when we play baseball or hockey in our side yard adjoining their property.
And here’s what we see when we play bouncy-ball on the sidewalk next to their house.
Gee, they look pretty boring, don’t they? Well, actually, they aren’t. From the shrieks of laughter we hear over there from time to time, I believe two elementary school-aged kids live there. And I think they even have a play structure in their back yard…
However, from our point of view, they’re total zeroes. They might as well be a commune of 85-year-old hermits.
Imagine, if you will, if they didn’t have that fence and those hedges. From our point of view, it would be *great*. Our son Marco loves playing with kids of all ages. As of now, he has no neighborhood playmates, period. We’ve tried to reach out to kids around here, but it hasn’t worked out.
Besides having playmates, Marco would have access to a play structure. When I was a kid, other kids all over the neighborhood would come to our back yard when they saw my sister and me on our swing set because we had no fence, so they could all see us instantly. Kids love playing with each other on play structures.
But would tearing down the fence and hedges benefit our next-door neighbors? With the fence and hedges, their yard is dark. It’s claustrophobic. Without the fence, their yard would be much more bright and open.
In addition, I believe that those older kids would enjoy 3-1/2 year-old Marco as much as he would enjoy them, maybe even more. Marco’s 9-, 11-, and 13-year-old cousins are crazy about him. Age-matching for play is way overrated. At any rate, they don’t have to be the world’s best bosom-buddies - they would just hang out together and play.
OK, OK, so what about privacy? What about it? Are these folks sunbathing nude in their back yard? Having wild sex? Committing heinous murders? I don’t think so. Neither are we.
So what about this privacy thing? In my opinion, the “benefits” of privacy are wayyyy over-estimated relative to the costs of shutting others out. The members of the N Street co-housing community, which I wrote about recently, have a very rich community life due in part to the lack of fences there.
So, should we blame the architects and builders and city planners? Well, yes, but that’s not going to get us anywhere. We need to look long and hard at the fences we have around our yards today and start talking to our neighbors about them. Then, we need to tear them down. That’s what some Berkeley, CA residents have done, and they’re very happy with the results.
You may hesitate to tear them down because you’re worried that you may not like your back yard after a few months. Or, you may worry that tearing down fences will decrease the resale value of your home. If these are concerns for you, you can preserve the wood from the fence so you can re-install it later. That’s what the folks at N Street have done, and they’ve never reinstalled one board. The wood just lies there.
Imagine how much more fun your kids and your neighbors’ kids would have if nobody had fences separating your houses.
Then, do something about it! Unfortunately, we’re renters and our lease runs out in a few months, so I’ll have to wait until our next house - one we own, I hope - to start tearing down those fences.
by Mike Lanza
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Before we had our son, we lived in Buffalo Grove (outside Chicago) Very few of the houses had fences. The kids ran everywhere, and played in large groups. Several of the parent chipped in to buy some great play sets. I wish we had a neighborhood like that here. There is a child near us who is the same age as Kai, but she is never allowed out of the house. My son plays with the kids across the street. Three younger, two older. I pray they don’t move because they are the only kids we see.
by Heather Wang on 01/16/08 10:46 AM
We have fences around here mainly because everyone is paranoid about dogs. I don’t want to get into a dog debate b/c they get ugly, but when I was a kid, dogs roamed the neighborhood with the kids and somehow no one seemed to mind. People get really upset these days if dogs are out loose so folks build fences to they can let Rover out to play with the kids. Otherwise the poor beast would never get off the leash.
Now… those two story hedges in the photos.... seems like that’s not necessary. Four to six foot picket will do the trick and you can still see your neighbor’s yards.
Remember the Ramona books? Remember Henry and Mudge?
Shoot we even have coyotes around here - but that’s for another blog.
by Suzanne Miller on 01/16/08 11:04 AM
I spent most of my elementary school years growing up in Vancouver, Canada and there were very few fences in my neighborhood. We used to play badminton across our next door neighbor’s yard all the time. And we used to play hide and seek on our street and would be running around people’s houses, under their stairs, hiding behind their sheds, and behind their cars. Kids ruled the neighborhood.
I like what N Street folks have done - I wonder how we can encourage more families who live on the same block or behind each other to tear down their fences?
by Perla Ni on 01/16/08 02:23 PM
I think one of the issues might be the fear of litigation. If a kid fell off your play structure, who would be liable? You, probably. I don’t agree with this, but I think it’s a factor.
And by the way, we had fences growing up but all the neighbor kids played in the street anyway. From our apartment, we can see the neighbors’ play structure, but I have never once seen a kid play on it. Come to think of it, I have never seen the kid (kids?) who live there. I have never seen the kids that live next door either, although I know they are there because I hear them.
by Lupine on 01/16/08 06:54 PM
I’m going to have to agree with Lupine on this one. When I hear the description of a great play structure that all of the neighborhood kids love to play on, I think attractive nuisance. Sure, it’s great in theory, but wait until someone gets hurt…
by Matthew on 01/22/08 06:48 PM
Huh??? The remote possibility of a lawsuit from a neighbor is more important than a great deal of certain fun for your kids and your neighbors’ kids.
How sad…
by Mike Lanza on 01/22/08 08:43 PM
The lawyer issue is a sad fact but I agree that it cannot run our lives (a bit of a parallel to terrorism-- even sadder). One of the core issues hiding behind fences is that we have become an adult-oriented society which is what this whole site is addressing. More than the legal issue is protecting home values and making a neighborhood somehow pristine. I would never live where there were covenants controlling property, but I see this relating to the fence question and host of others raised in Playborhood. California is generally a friendly place, but there is an underlying fear about creating the very logical community values that are espoused here. When a neighborhood is seen as MORE attractive in recognizing neighborhood community, this will be alleviated. Block parties are the one way I see this happening. We need tear down some physical and non-physical walls very close to home.
by Ed Prentice on 01/25/08 12:11 PM