When Emma Smith and her family moved back to her hometown of San Francisco 12 years ago, she had a desire to build something from the ground up, something she had always been interested in – neighborhood and community.
“I was determined to create a community in my new neighborhood,” said Smith. “I wanted to know all my neighbors.”
Smith said she was so determined to connect with her neighbors on the 1400 block of 12th Avenue in the city’s Inner Sunset, she would stop people she recognized from her block on the street and ask them for their email addresses.
Connecting electronically, though, was just the first step. Smith wanted the type of relationship with her neighbors that can only come from face-to-face interaction.
Soon, people on the block were gathering on the 12th of each month for drinks and conversation on the street, and, for the past dozen years, the street is shut to traffic one Saturday in October and the residents get together for a day-long block party.
“Sometimes people will say to me, 'Oh my neighborhood isn't like that and we don't know any of our neighbors,’” Smith said. “I always try to tell them, 'It doesn't always just happen. Sometimes you have to make it happen. You have to go and get outside your comfort zone.'"
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By going outside her comfort zone to bring her neighbors together, Smith was recently recognized by the social network, Nextdoor, as one of their Nextdoor 100.
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Smith believes the benefits of her community building go well beyond that of a yearly social gathering.
“It's not the block party so much, but that's a good vehicle to transform your neighborhood," said Smith. “It's the planning that brings people together and that's how you get people to come over and talk to each other.”
There are practical benefits to all this, Smith said. “There's always someone to take care of your cat when you go away.” There is also noticeably less litter on the 1400 block and, Smith reports, less crime. It is, in short, a nicer place to live when one takes the time to connect with those who live there, too.
“There's something about that knowing [your neigbors] that makes it feel familiar and comfortable,” said Smith. “I think everyone should do it.”
It is also something Smith believes anyone can do, it just takes some initiative.
