Is The Cul-De-Sac An Endangered Species?

I think there are more important factors contributing to social contacts in a neighborhood with a cul-de-sac than casual meetings on the sidewalk. I grew up in such a neighborhood and I was friends with kids from two of the five houses on the cul-de-sac. They, in turn, were friends with other kids in the neighborhood. Existing social networks played a large role in determining who we knew. If the next-door neighbor who walked over and welcomed us had a kid my age, that was how I made my first friend. That friend would then introduce me to other kids. School was also important, especially if my classmates lived in my neighborhood and walked or rode the bus to school with me. Where we lived on the block (it was actually a circle with one cul-de-sac leading off of it and access streets on two sides) was not nearly as important as these existing networks. For my parents (perhaps the more relevant perspective here), social interaction with other adults mostly centered around us kids, i.e. they sought contact with other parents in the neighborhood so that we would have friends to play with. With a few exceptions (e.g. when some of the neighborhood dads would play basketball at the local elementary school courts), our immediate neighbors (next-door and across the street) were really the only people my parents had significant interaction with. Casual meetings on the sidewalks, whether in the cul-de-sac or on the "circle", were infrequent in my hot and sticky Floridian suburban neighborhood, but this did not hinder social interaction. Granted, it was not Jane Jacobs’ neighborhood, but neither was it a ghost-town. I doubt my friends and their families on the cul-de-sac considered where they lived a "suburban disaster". I sure didn’t...that was one of the best places to skateboard! We could set up our half-pipe there without worrying about too many cars interrupting us.

Brian Salmons
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA