Camille: The Importance of Community

My neighborhood and community were extremely important in fostering a positive environment for my development during the entire time that I lived in Eureka, CA. Although I lived in the middle of Eureka, I lived down a winding road in a hidden street away from traffic. From a young age, my parents felt comfortable enough with our relationships with the neighbors that I was free to explore the neighborhood as I pleased, allowing me to form relationships with the people that lived around me, as well as the environment that I traversed every day. I felt comfortable going almost anywhere in a quarter-mile radius by the time I was about 7 years old. Because of this, I was able to form strong bond with my community that stepped beyond the relationships that I had in school or sports; many of these relationships lasted and my neighbors became people I could count on to help me through life, some cleaning me up after a skateboard crashes in front of their houses, some giving advice about life, and so on. Living on the east side of Santa Cruz near the San Lorenzo River, I've experienced an interesting relationship with my community that is directly affected by the way the road is designed. Last year I lived on Pearl street, a little one-way street with little traffic other than the ins-and-outs of the street's residents. Some of our neighbors have had movie screenings on the street, and during the summer our neighbors successfully closed off a section of the street with orange cones (guerrilla style) and we had a block party. Pearl street fostered a tight community of neighbors who really seem to understand and care about one another. This year I live two blocs over, on Bixby street. Being a two-way street, the community is much more disjointed and I can't say I have any relationship with any of the neighbors (besides the next-door neighbors, whose son is insufferably friendly). Two nights ago there was a car-chase down Bixby; there's been several alleged stabbings on the street; all in all it gets a bad rap. It's so clear, looking at this example of streets that are two blocks away from each other how much bearing the design of a road has on the tightness of a community. I can't imagine having grown up on Bixby and having the comfort that I have now in traversing the streets or in forming ties with my community that began in my tight neighborhood in Eureka.

Pearl Street

Bixby Street