Neighbors of Valpo @valponeighbors-blog - Tumblr Blog

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In 2016, Professor Allison Schuette (that’s me!) received an @NEHgov Enduring Questions grant to create a course she called “Who’s My Neighbor?” She got interested in this question doing a story collection in Northwest Indiana, a region with quite a storied past, one in which we haven’t always been good neighbors. In fact, some still question whether or not it’s possible to be good neighbors today.

Her work on this story collection (Flight Paths) made her want to think deeply about how people have defined what it means to be a neighbor. Does our sense of responsibility change depending on how large we make the neighborhood? Are there conditions that make it easier or harder to be good neighbors?

She created this course to ask students to help her explore these questions. Neighbors of Valpo is one means by which we’ll share what we’re learning and who we’re meeting.

Drop by our Tumblr house any time! We love to meet new neighbors.

How would you describe our “neighborhood?”

"Since I live in a fraternity house my neighbor’s all live in the same building with me. It can get a little hectic at times but the brotherhood/ community aspect makes it all worth it."

What do you like about living in our neighborhood?

"I mean, the fact that everything is broken and crappy but you don’t really focus on that because you realize that this environment is more about the company and the people you are living with as opposed to the actually conditions."

Best/worst experience with a neighbor?

"It’s always a good experience when a bunch of brothers just come together on random nights to play music or hang out and have good conversations."

What makes a good neighbor?

"Someone who goes out of their way to take an interest in your life but also is respectful of your privacy and personal space."

#interview #evchucksnow #neighbor #hastag

Some fun Porter County facts! Its interesting to see some of the things that have come out of this County and Valparaiso!

The title page of Valparaiso’s 2005 Strategic Plan bears the slogan “Embracing the journey from GOOD to GREAT.”

-Bloom and Old. “Reconstructing the Vale of Paradise"

I choose this quote from our ready because i feel like the slogan "Good to Great" does a very good job of summarizing the general attitude of every resident of Valpo I have met. They all recognize that they are part of a good community and they are all committed to making it even better.

I lived in a relatively small neighborhood growing up. This is a more recent picture because back when I lived there, there were only 3 houses on my street (the lowest one in the picture). On our street lived me, my friend Griffin, and my other friend Zoey. Pretty much every day after school we would get together to hang out. Typical activities including riding our bikes to KMart (about a mile down the road) just to walk around to hang out or simply walking around the neighborhood seeing if any of the other kids were home/ wanted to do something like organize a kickball game. There weren't exactly too many places to go or things to do in Gas City, Indiana however we always managed to find some way to pass the time.

“I think it’s kind of a give and take”

What do you like about living in our neighborhood?

“It’s quiet. It’s friendly. Old... The porch I have is a three season porch and it’s fairly close to the sidewalk and people look in (like I do when I walk by people’s houses, because I look to see how they decorate and that), but if I’m sitting out on the porch... a lot of times I’ll say “hi” to them and that, or they’ll say “hi,” if they see me sitting there.”

Has it changed in the 28 years you’ve lived here?

“Probably racially it’s changed- slightly. It doesn’t make a difference. You know, it’s still the same basic neighborhood with people being friendly no matter who has lived here.”

What makes a good neighbor?

“That’s hard... be helpful. If you’re cooking or something and you find you need a couple of eggs, you know, I don’t have a problem with someone asking if they could borrow a couple of eggs, and I don’t expect it to be given back.”

#goodneighbors #valparaiso #porch #friendly

Thankfully, there were a bunch of kids that lived by me near downtown Valparaiso. We would walk just two blocks to Central Elementary together when the weather was nice, and walk home from our after school Brownies meeting in Ms. Cummings’ art room. And in the summer, we would take turns playing at each other’s houses. The small alleys that split our blocks turned into expressways as we commuted from one backyard to the next, gathering fallen seed pods to make “survivor stew,” picking mulberries from Danielle’s tree, or making a swing from an old tire in Kayle’s backyard.

#valparaiso #summer #girlscouts #mulberries #tireswing

In the most recent Project Neighbors newsletter, Byron Martin shared his thoughts on his experiences in Valpo in a piece titled, “I Just Live Here... Being Black in Valpo.”

He writes,

“The way in which we say something is important is by giving it ‘space’ and ‘place.’ When something really matters to us, we give it space... This space... does not harm the individual it is meant for, it gives life for the entity to grow... culturally, spiritually, and socially... It is in this vein that we give people and things that are important to us ‘place.’

To live in Valpo as a person of color is wondering continually whether there is a space and place for us in this city. If people really matter, then how they are regarded and given a platform in Valpo has to matter as well.”

What spaces do you inhabit? Who does that include? Exclude?

What does it look like to create ‘place’?

#valparaiso #project neighbors #place

“How do you think about neighborhood and neighbor?”

Valparaiso’s Sense of Place community board wants to know! Fill out the city’s neighborhood survey to let ValpoNEXT know what defines your neighborhood.

(And, yes, this is for university students too!)

Which people and what kinds of places and participation are you seeing?

Where are your neighborhood’s borders?

What do you and your neighbors call your neighborhood?

Take the survey!

#valparaiso #neighborhood #survey #valponext #sense of place

“We had to help”

In 1968, a young African-American mother living in Cabrini Green Chicago public housing told Valparaiso activists, “Your children can go home to safe streets, good schools, and clean neighborhoods. My children will be either on drugs, or dead, or in jail.”

One of the activists decided, “We had to help each family till they got on their feet”

How far will you go to welcome someone into your neighborhood?

#1968 #chicago #project neighbors #valparaiso

I grew up in a pretty large neighborhood, so getting to know all of my neighbors wasn’t really something I ever tried to do. Looking back, I’m not sure that I regret not getting to know the rest of the neighborhood, if that even was a possibility. Most of the people in our neighborhood our either much older or much younger than the friends I have, and so there was never much that brought us and those neighbors together other than living near each other. What I did enjoy most about this neighborhood was being a short walk or bike ride away from my closest friends. Ever since I was 5 or 6 years old, the majority of my best friends lived in this same neighborhood with me. We all grew up accustomed to meeting up at the 7-11 to get slurpees and hang out, and even though we didn’t feel super connected to the neighborhood itself, we didn't mind because we had our friend group. This group of friends lasted all throughout our childhoods and still continues to this day. Despite all of us being away at college now, we still regularly get together whenever we’re back home. Even if we weren’t very close to the other people in the neighborhood, this group of friends learned how to be good neighbors to each other and the people we met at school or elsewhere outside of our neighborhood.

#neighbor

What was your community like growing up?

“My community in the small town of Bremen, IN was a very close-knit community. It was the kind of place where everybody knew everybody, and if you didn't know them, you had a very close mutual friend. It was a very traditional atmosphere in Bremen being partly a farm town and partly an industrial center because of the foundry and factories on the edge of town. Being a small town, many of the families have been in Bremen for decades, some even more than a century. There is also a large population of immigrant families from Mexico and Honduras, and they also have a somewhat separate community that is very close-knit with many large family units. I grew up right in the center of this little town, less than a block from the police station and town hall, so I saw everything that happened in good ole Bremen. I always knew when the high school football games started and if they won because I could hear the cannon go off from my house. I could always hear when the fire trucks or police zoomed out of the station, and I would often watch them from the front porch. I always knew when church was about to start because I could hears the bells ringing from all around town. And we always left our doors unlocked because we felt safe in that community. As a kid, I could just walk across the street or down a couple of blocks to find some friends to hang out with, I could walk down the middle of the street any time of day (I often had to anyway because there aren't sidewalks everywhere in town), and I could count on running into some friendly faces along the way.”

What do you think is a good community?

“I think that a good community is all about the people. Yes, it is important for there to be a decent infrastructure and a sufficient amount of resources, but everything is molded and created by the people -- their interactions, their family dynamics, their political beliefs, their religious beliefs, etc. I think the most important attribute of a good community is inclusiveness. I think that an inclusive community should be seen as a stranger with open arms, a stranger that wants to sit down with you and have a warm beverage while talking about your culture, your family, your home, and yourself. A good community should not be a place where everyone is the same, and that is something that I learned when transitioning from my small hometown to the city and University here in Valparaiso. My hometown is full of people with similar beliefs in almost all areas and similar cultural background, and I see how that does not leave room for change or for social discovery and advancement. Here in Valpo, being a University town, there is a wide variety of cultures represented and students bring a wide variety of beliefs and thoughts with them as well. This is where the inclusiveness of the community plays a huge role. If the community is inclusive and welcoming then they will lend an ear to the thoughts of these young people from many different cultures and walks of life, then offer their own opinion as well whether it is in agreement with what they just heard or contrary to it. A good community is one where the people not only talk but they also listen with the same amount of energy and they allow their beliefs and background to be challenged and maybe even changed. To me, a good community is all about balanced conversation.”

#neighbor

Portage and Porter County will work together to stop flooding issues at County Road 700 North and Willowcreek Road.

#valpo portage

“In 1834 J. P. Ballard built the first house in what became the town of Portersville, its name until christened Valparaiso in 1837. After Porter County was established by the Indiana General Assembly in 1836, the first county board of commissioners, meeting in Ballard's kitchen, selected Portersville as the county seat.”

from the Valparaiso entry in the Encyclopedia of Chicago

#Valparaiso Encyclopedia of Chicago

The canine good citizen program has been endorsed by 44 state legislatures. With 65,000 dogs graduating last year alone, experts say these doggie diplomas are helping to win over property managers.

Unable to come to a common articulation of what we are touching, we are chronically unable to benefit from its existence.

Daniel Kemmis, in Community and the Politics of Place

#Whyhashtag?

I think we have a good neighborhood. It’s a nice mix of people. We’ve had several young families move in the past couple of years, so it has changed a little bit in the time we’ve been here, but we still have the same older people out doing their lawns and walking dogs. People are friendly and we don’t really have any sworn enemies on this block, which I appreciate. Perhaps the most annoying thing anybody does is when that band of middle aged men pulls up on their motorcycles and then practice in someone’s garage with the door open. But when we have a block party, they play for those, so there’s really no hard feelings.

#what'sahashtag

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