Just since last Friday, people in my neighborhood have come out of our homes and talked to each other in a central gathering place in our eastern Clovis block. 
The park, with a number of mature sago palms and coniferous trees, has been there since we moved in, early in 2004. But without any playground equipment or picnic tables, there wasn't a feature to draw neighbors there with a central purpose. People walked their dogs there, kids played with airsoft or paintball guns, families flew kites. But often the big green space was empty.
That all changed Friday, when the construction fence came down, and the new playground opened up to the public. We'd watched it being built with excitement. I got the news Friday afternoon when my friend who watches my little girl emailed me at work: "The park by your house is open! I'm taking the kids to play there."
As soon as I got home from work, I had to take Katie back. The playground swarmed with happy children, at least 15 or 20. And parents watched from the perimeters, sitting at tables talking to each other amiably, or pushing strollers nearby with babies.
In our visits back there since Friday, I've talked to more people who live in our neighborhood than I think I had in the three years we've lived in our house. We all have a tendency to get too caught up in our own little worlds, closing ourselves off from others. But we are all part of something bigger, a community of different people and different beliefs. We need places like this to come together, to get to know each other and to make new friends, widening the borders of our world to include our neighbors who surround us.
I'm glad that's something valued by the city planners in the community where we live.
Sadly, the concept of a neighborhood get-together has passed. I know of friends back east who had parents that would post neighborhood invitations to nearby parks for picnics and social get togethers, and unfortunately this doesn't happen anymore. Some of the most interesting people I've ever met were brief connections made in parks and play areas.
Neighborhood parks can be both positive and negative. The positive aspects were clearly stated in the article. My childhood neighborhood now has a park, and I see it full of activity most days I visit my folks. However, like any public place that has children around, a neighborhood park is another place for predators to seek victims. Tragically, the predators are often people who gain not just our trust, but also our children's trust. As a society, we have had to learn to be more cautious and discerning. We have had to teach our kids to be streetwise not only on the streets, but at home, at school, and at church. We have code words, cell phones with GPS, self-defense, school programs that teach kids how to be safe, and emergency cards with names of people who can pick up our children. Not to mention the incidences of drug dealing/using from which we sometimes find evidence lying on the grass or amidst the playground woodchips. And sometimes, we witness people expressing their love rather graphically. Used condoms carelessly discarded aren't an unfamiliar sight, either. Is it so surprising that neighborhoods today seem so different from our good ol' days? Are times really so different or are we just less naive? Whatever the case, my experience has shown me that a neighborhood's atmosphere has more to do with how I choose to act. Sean, rather than lamenting upon how neighbors aren't having get-togethers, do something about it. Become part of the solution, not part of the problem.