2024 Neighbor Resolutions, A Look Back At Top 2023 Takes [Block Talk]

ACROSS AMERICA — It’s 2024 and a chance to be a better, or at least a different kind of neighbor.

We asked readers what New Year’s resolutions they’d make for their neighbors or if they have their own resolutions to be better neighbors in 2024 for Block Talk, Patch’s exclusive neighborhood etiquette column. The answers touched on perpetual neighborhood issues Block Talk has covered in the past.

We asked readers to finish the sentence, “In 2024, I wish my neighbor would …”

Stop Blowing So Hard

“Retire his leaf blower, or at least limit his neighbors’ collective misery to one end-of-the-season blast,” said Arlington (Virginia) Patch reader Emily.

Hear, hear, Emily. You and legions of people you don’t know agree. The debate over leaf blowers versus any other method of fall yard waste removal sparked a spirited discussion. According to some of them, leaf warriors like Emily’s neighbor, who is “out there on a leaf recognizance mission multiple times a day,” are found in every suburb or town in America.

“Every leaf is like an invader that must be vanquished immediately with a leaf blower,” Patch reader Diane told Block Talk in November. “I wait until all the leaves have fallen and then have a landscaper mulch them. I think that infuriates my neighbor because sometimes my leaves blow across the street into his yard.”

• Related from Block Talk: The Great Leaf Blower Debate, Nov. 10, 2023

Corral The ‘Poop Machines’

Middletown (Connecticut) Patch reader Fred yowled set up what can rightly be called a yowl about her neighbors’ cats. Her resolution for them would be to keep the marauding felines inside “so they don’t kill the songbirds and poor baby rabbits and any other animals they view as prey.”

“These (expletive) cats just kill for the fun of it,” Fred said. “Plus, they’re (expletive) poop machines and are constantly digging in my flower gardens.”

The tom cats haven’t been neutered, “and the selfish galoots who own them are, in my humble opinion, responsible for the explosion of feral cats in our neighborhood.”

Fred resolves to be a better neighbor in 2024. He did not resolve to swear less about his neighbors.

“I guess not shooting their (expletive) cats is a good start,” Fred said.

Fred’s frustrations are familiar.

“My yard has become a litter box, they meow and howl under my bedroom window, and I have a dog who doesn't like cats, so I have to keep my blinds closed, so he won't try to jump through a window when they are lounging in my front yard,” Beth, a Scotch Plains-Fanwood (New Jersey) Patch reader, told Block Talk late last winter.

And get this: “They won’t keep the cat in the house because it torments their dog,” Beth said.

• Related on Block Talk: The Poop On Free-Range Cats, March 2, 2023

Snuff The Fireworks

“Not use fireworks,” Doylestown (Pennsylvania) Patch reader Karen responded, “They terrify animals and children.”

They scare people with PTSD, too. Steve, an Evergreen Park (Illinois) Patch reader who fought in Vietnam, said the continuing relaxation of consumer fireworks laws makes the 4th of July and other holidays dangerous for people like him. Loud fireworks can trigger flashbacks, nightmares and extreme physical and emotional responses among people with PTSD.

“The fireworks make me want to beat the crap out of whoever is lighting them off,” he said. “Too many drunks think it’s nifty to scare people and feel that it is their right to do so. Grow up, go to your local fireworks display, have a good time and respect your neighbors.”

• Related From Block Talk: The Bottom Line On Fireworks Is Respect, June 16, 2023

Get A Muffler

Germantown (Maryland) Patch reader Susan hopes her neighbors resolved to “put mufflers on their cars.”

“No one wants to hear your loud car rev in your driveway,” Susan said.

No. No they don’t.

This past fall, Medford (New York) Patch reader Rita told Block Talk she’d trade loud cars for the early morning roosters some readers complained about.

“This was supposed to be a winding country road,” Rita told Block Talk at the time. “Instead, we have Mack trucks, 18-wheelers, ATVs, racing motorcycles and sports cars, loud mufflers, loud engines and ignorant, inconsiderate drivers and neighbors. I never expected this!”

• Related on Block Talk: People, Not Noisy Roosters, Are The Problem, Sept. 28, 2023

Readers also let us know in 2023 that they don’t want loud or quiet cars racing on residential streets, either.

“I saw a girl get hit on her bike by a careless driver. I saw a boy get hit on his bike by a car. I have almost been hit on my bike by careless drivers too many times to count,” a Los Gatos (California) Patch and Campbell (California) Patch reader who goes by “Vigilant” told Block Talk in March.
“I see drivers speeding, running stop lights and driving while fiddling with their phones daily,” the reader said. “It’s an epidemic.”

• Related on Block Talk: ‘This Is Not A Drag Strip,’ March 24, 2023

Act Like They Care

Some readers hope their neighbors made New Year’s resolutions to take better care of their property.

Lacey (New Jersey) Patch reader Brenda wants her neighbor to wage a war against invasive “creeping charlie,” a persistent and not easily deterred ground ivy. As the common name suggests, the weed with purple flowers creeps into Brenda’s yard and, she said, “chokes out my grass every year.”

Tinley Park (Illinois) Patch reader David just hopes his neighbors “paint their house and act like they care what their property looks like.”

“She says she doesn’t want to put a lot of poison on her grass,” Brenda said. “I don’t either. I spend a lot of time pulling it out.”

She added, “It’s not that hard.”

Lawn and property upkeep issues are as perennial on Block Talk as the creeping charlie in Brenda’s neighbor’s yard. No Mow May, a campaign to delay the first grass-cutting until June to give pollinators a chance to become established,

Al, a Framingham (Massachusetts) Patch reader, told Block Talk last spring that No Mow May is a “dumb idea” and “another cover for lazy people to continue ignoring their ‘lawn.’ ”

• Related on Block Talk: No Mow May: Science Or Blowing Sunshine Up A Bee’s Behind, May 5, 2023

Be Friendlier

Across America Patch reader Heidi K. hopes her neighbor makes it a point to “be a little friendlier.”

“He’s not unfriendly,” Heidi K. said. “He’s just this person we see a few times a day who doesn’t make eye contact.”

Heidi K. said the fellow is “kind of a grump.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with me or the other neighbors, just some demon he’s fighting,” she said. “I’ll smile and wave more without being intrusive.”

Brenda, the Lacey (New Jersey) Patch reader, said she plans to make a greater effort to check in on another neighbor (whose creeping charlie is presumably under control). She’s an older woman who doesn’t get out as much as she once did.

“I need to check on her more and go out of my way to help her with errands and jobs,” Brenda said, “but I’ve resisted that because when I do, I can’t get away from her in under an hour.”

Jan, an East Haven (Connecticut) Patch reader, hopes her neighbors will “mind their own business.”

Some neighbors do have unmitigated gall.

Just ask Kimberly, who reads San Ramon Patch and Dublin Patch in California. When we asked about nosy neighbor horror stories last summer, Kimberly told us about the woman next door who commandeered her old carpets:

“She walked right into our house when we were having a new floor installed and started telling the workers to bring the old carpeting to her home. She didn’t ask us, didn’t ask to enter our home, just came in barking orders.”

• Related on Block Talk: When To Call The Cops On Nosy Neighbors, June 30, 2023

A Patch reader named Don doesn’t resolve to do anything to make life more pleasant in the neighborhood, although if he lives anywhere near Kimberly’s neighbor, we better understand his resolution to “fling all neighbors into the sea.”

About Block Talk

Block Talk is an exclusive Patch series on neighborhood etiquette — and readers provide the answers. If you have a topic you'd like for us to consider, email beth.dalbey@patch.com with "Block Talk" as the subject line.

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