I love the Northside. I moved here from Roseville nine years ago. In most ways, I love it more than Roseville. Unfortunately, in a couple of significant ways, I cannot live here anymore.
I love things about the Northside you don’t often hear about. I love that the majority of people do not leave their outside lights on overnight. This reduces light pollution, and consumes less energy, which is better for the environment, and for people. I love that most yards do not look like golf courses. Yards that do look like golf courses are due to many chemicals and other things that also cause environmental harm.
On one New Year’s Eve, my car got stuck going up my steep driveway after a heavy snow that night. In less than two minutes, I had no less than two neighbors over helping me.
I love the community involvement, such as what was demonstrated in the aftermath of the terrible tornado of 2011.
I love the usual things about Minneapolis and the Northside that you often hear about. I love it far more than living in the suburbs in many ways.
The reason I am moving is basically noise annoyance due to dogs barking, late-night noise, and fires. Last summer, I had no less than 11 dogs within two houses from me, all of whom were untrained and outside barking for no reason. The city does nothing about this. I have a neighbor who burns wood 15 feet from my house, in an area that holds the smoke like a courtyard, and at least once they were burning painted and treated wood. They do this for hours. I have no AC, but usually cannot leave my windows open. Recently I walked down the alley and asked some people to please hush it up because it was a weeknight and people had to get up. They told me to go to bed.
I am not so angry at those people. In any neighborhood there will be irresponsible, thoughtless people. Perhaps they are young, perhaps they just aren’t thinking. Perhaps they are really truly irresponsible. But I am very angry at the responsible neighbors who are also bothered by these things and do not come out and complain, who do not call the city, who allow this to happen. If the neighbors who are bothered just sit in their houses, complain amongst themselves and seethe, then nothing will change. It is those people who push people out of the city and into the boring suburbs.
Marnee DeRider,
Cleveland
Editor’s note: Getting together with your neighbors to form a block club can help with problems like the above. See page 1.