We had a neighbors party last night.

[crud]

We had a neighbor couple over our house 2 weeks ago to plan. We had a great time, so we decided to invite more neighbors.

So last night we had three more households over to our place for a total of ten folks. We had a potluck and sang karaoke, it was loud with everyone talking at the same time. Couldn't ever hear the music playing. It was a diverse group, different ages, races orientations, veggie eaters, and meat eaters, and all against the current regime. This was an organizing effort, and everyone was super enthusiastic about it. At the same time, politics was probably 5% of the conversation. The last two folks walked to their doors at around 1:30 am...so it was really successful.

We have plans for next month having a much bigger party at someone else's house. And from there we want to organize a block party and close off the street and invite the whole neighborhood.

I'm sharing this just to say that everyone feels a need right now to connect. And when we did, it was joyous relief. "So happy you did this" was what we heard all night long.

We bought our house in 2013, in a Sacramento neighborhood that was built in the early 1950's. Little cedar frame, 2 and 3 bedroom houses, very working class and like most of Sacramento, very diverse. People are worried and angry and afraid for the future and our little get-together ended up being a perfect antidote and least for one evening. Everyone clearly understood that this was about sticking together if ICE Shows up, but it was hardly mentioned, we were having too much fun! I have to confess though, there were a few rousing chants of F**k ICE and F**k Trump, felt fantastic.

I hope you all have an opportunity to do something like this in your neighborhood. I would highly recommend it!

[pat_k]

1. I'm grateful to live in an apartment complex that has at least two events every month in the common rooms.

Trivia nights, ornament decorating, plant cutting/swap, donation drives, wine tastings and other drinks oriented things. There is absolutely an appetite for socializing "in the real world."

The building tends to skew younger, but there are always some older foggies like me. And one older couple who has attended several events is here from Iran. Neither one has much English, but we manage to converse a bit with Google translate open. I'm looking forward to getting their take at the next event.

[ananda]

3. I wish my complex was like that.

Sounds like fun.

[pat_k]

4. The management company, Thrive Communities, has been great.

They manage a lot of buildings in Seattle. I don't know if they all sponsor resident events, but the management for the group of three buildings that make up "Green Lake Village" seem to come up with an almost endless supply of creative activities. The places tend to be pricey, but the buildings they manage all seem to have a percentage of affordable units (in exchange for developer incentives provided by the city). For example, my rent is capped at $1300, while equivalent market rate units run about $2700. My place is tiny (600 sq ft) but the layout is excellent. My fingers are crossed that the building management is not taken over by some other company anytime soon.

[ananda]

5. That's so nice.

I pay a little under $1300 for 950 sq feet.

I've been downsizing for awhile. It won't
be too long before this will be too large.

I like it a lot. It's in a great location, just
a few blocks from the doctor, grocery,
pharmacy, car dealership, credit union
and financial management, and so on.

So far so good. But I would like to live
in a place with more fun activities.

[Lifeafter70]

2. We lived in Wilmington NC for four years

Shortly after we moved in we attended a block party. It was so much fun and great to find out so many of our new neighbors were aligned politically. This was in 2012.