Is the friendliness of a neighborhood partly or more based on the net worth of the residents?

I don’t think money or lack of, has much to do with friendliness and good manners.

What LucyThrice ^^^ said. I have lived in both posh and poorer neighborhoods and it’s about the individuals, not the net worth of the residents.

I will say that having lived in both the city and rich neighborhoods, I do notice the people with more money by far tend to keep to themselves a lot more than the people who don’t have or don’t owe gobs of money.

In my new neighborhood the only people that wave back are the ones working in their yard and they probably don’t even live there! lol!

If your theory were true, then everyone living in the projects would be friends with each other. This is not true.

These people(the good ones), live in constant fear of their lives and the lives of their children, because of drug addicts and drug dealers and weapons.

A neigborhood is all about the people and their personality. I live in one the safest and friendliest neighborhood on the planet. Why?

Well, my neighborhood is guarded by three police officers, a juvenile judge, and a criminal court judge. The people that live here generally walk the walk and talk the talk. They are good people and have told me many times that they are happy with my police car sitting in my driveway.

Actually, I think there is a lot too that. Around here it seems that folks in the more affluent neighborhoods are much more standoffish than those in the less affluent places. I think a lot of it has to do with time. The rich folks are always either out earning their wealth or spending it on some recreational activity, whereas the less affluent tend to entertain themselves in and around their homes. Further, rather than spending $40 to have their yard done, they do it themselves.

The result, the kids get to know each other because they are out tossing balls in the front yard rather than taking a power yoga for pre-schoolers class while the folks are out raking leaves. The result is they get to say howdy to the folks that live next door.

OTOH, there also seems to be a lower limit of socioeconomic level where people become uncomfortable hanging out outside of their homes.

No I don’t think reason for friendliness can be nailed with how much they’re worth. But it’s true, finding a trustworthy, kind and fun neighbor is not easy. They’re like gold.

I kinda know the other people who live in my house – enough that I know who to call if music is too loud, or a cat finds its way outside and needs to go back home. But the other neighbors? Nope. I don’t really want to – I don’t care for being friends with neighbors. I never got the idea that you should be friends with your neighbors, because you need more than proximity to make a relationship work, and there’s no where to go if things sour. That’s actually one of my favorite things about living in the city (instead of the suburbs) – you’re not committing some grand faux pas by keeping to yourself.

My current neighbors are all white trash redneck families with perpetually truant kids. They have stolen our lawn decorations before, shot our house with paintball guns, and left toys under my tires (intentionally). The landlord says he’s talked to the families but they deny everything. He doesn’t seem to give a shit. These folks are obviously piss poor as well. The parents are all morbidly obese and they grunt and give you death glares when you look at them. The back of their busted-ass truck is filled with McDonald’s bags. They leave their garbage all over the yard too.

My neighbors before the Clampetts moved in were a bunch of Christian militiamen… it was three dudes who all lived together who drove a truck covered in apocalyptic bumper stickers. Every wednesday and sunday, they would dress up very nicely, put on matching sunglasses and pistol holsters, load up in their jesus-mobile, and drive off to the Antioch Primitive Baptist Church (I know the name because I have seen them parked in front of it before). Being a gun nut myself, I complimented them on their choice of pistols. They just glared at me. Another time, one of them was toting a shotgun inside and my lady friend who was with me asked him what kind of gun it was. He growled: “a big one” and slammed his door. Later that night, I was cleaning my Lee Enfield on the porch (a six foot long British Empire gun) and he came out and asked me what kind of gun it was. I told him it was a “bigger” one with a smile and offered to show it to him. He went back inside. That’s the only time he ever talked to me.

Readers Digest version: I’d rather have rich neighbors who keep to themselves than any of the menagerie of weirdos I’ve had living next to me who aren’t rich.

I don’t think it has anything to do with net worth.

Wow…. I guess it’s a culture thing. Here in Norway, the people with a ‘southern’ culture keep to themselves, but those who come from the North are more apt to chat with you and invite you for dinner or share in what they’ve made and put away that winter.

My theory on the decline of the social neighborhood is that it was destroyed by central air conditioning. Before everyone had the luxury of relaxing in cold-air comfort during the hottest days of summer, everyone used to hang out together on their stoops and porches, waiting for a breeze, while the kids played kick the can in the streets—at least, that’s the way my mom tells it. And I think there’s something to that. Suffering through the heat was a shared experience, much the same as when I met seldom seen neighbors after a huge storm caused lots of damage and flooding in our neighborhood. They came out then to assess the damage with the rest of the neighbors, and I haven’t seen them since!

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard very interesting theory. I had never considered any of what you said.
@jengray72 Also a fascinating idea: central air did away with neighborhood visiting.
I think a lot of our neighbors have been vacationing. I spotted 3 newspapers in the driveway across the street. and no; I don’t spend all day spying out windows. lol

@jengray72 They still hang out on porches in my neighborhood. Some of them don’t like A/C. And up until last year, everyone did their own gardening. Now they seem to be doing an employment program for one gardener, who is helping at several homes on the block.

A few years back, we had a block party two or three times a year. Close the block, pull tables into the middle of the street and pot luck. That didn’t happen last summer. I think that’s because people are more likely to be away on holidays and because in many of the houses, the kids have all grown up and fled the nest.

We do a cooperative Easter Egg hunt. Somehow I’ve gotten to take on the position of the starter’s pistol (a fanfare for the trumpet). They can’t do it without me, now. There’s usually breakfast on someone’s porch and a jelly bean count and a malted milk ball count. There is a jar of each and you have to guess how many are in there. Unfortunately, people seemed to get demoralized after I won them both in the same year. I only won them once, but now there’s this myth that I always win.

But for all that, the friendliness is diminishing. We didn’t have any block parties last year. People seem to be more busy outside the neighborhoods.

We’ve always been the same wealth relative to each other, so I don’t think that has much to do with it. I think that maybe it is just life circumstances. An individual reason for each neighborhood.