7 ms·

Nextdoor is... very odd. In Salt Lake City, where I currently live, all I see are people complaining about homeless people and "suspicious people", who are _al

by tuxxy 7y ago

Nextdoor is... very odd. In Salt Lake City, where I currently live, all I see are people complaining about homeless people and "suspicious people", who are _always_ people of color just walking down the street (who I've actually recognized occasionally). Yeah, people call others out on this sort of casual racism, but it doesn't make it go away. It becomes a hotbed of these kinds of thoughts. When someone gets a bike stolen, you'll always see a comment like "The homeless problem here is out of control" and sometimes a comment with a picture of some random (again, person of color...) walking down the street from a Nest cam asking, "Did you see anyone like this? My bike was stolen too." It's so odd to me to see all this on Nextdoor because I live a block away from a homeless shelter (one of the "gritty" parts of the city) and I can count only twice that I've had issues with homeless people or crime. I've lived here for almost six years now and I've never felt nearly as nervous or afraid as some of these Nextdoor users claim. However, there is a ton of amusement from Nextdoor users, as well. The number of times I've seen people call each other rude because they used the word "fuck" in their post is extremely high, but that could be because I live in Utah haha. In short, it's my experience that Nextdoor is filled with the type of person who calls the cops on their neighbors for no reason (like noise complaints). These users would really benefit from just getting to know their neighbors in real life.

jahewson 7y ago
Noise complaints are “no reason”?
- CodeMage 7y ago
  At least try talking to people before calling the cops on them for making noise. What is controversial about this?
  - derekp7 7y ago
    I think that some people have either had bad enough experiences themselves, or have heard of incidents, where they fear confrontation. By talking to someone who is engaging in an annoying (to you) or antisocial behavior, you are opening yourself up to retaliation by that person. If you just call the police anonymously then the target doesn't know who to retaliate against. Of course, a much better strategy is to go out of your way to be neighborly, get to know the people around you. That way if someone is having a party a few houses down, instead of calling the cops you can grab a couple six packs and head on down and join them.
    - mrhappyunhappy 7y ago
      This might work if you live in a decent neighborhood. I lived in a shitty part of town in my teens and both of the neighbors on either side of us were total degenerates. One dealt drugs out of his house and the other had zero respect for people’s sleep - played loude music at 2 am and had druggies hang around the house. Talking to ether one was pointless. I usually just called cops right away and for the most part it worked well.
  - jraines 7y ago
    It’s a game theory situation in the context of not being acquainted with your neighbors. If you go to them directly and they aren’t receptive, you lose goodwill (or stay at par, at best). If you then call the cops, you lose at lot more goodwill, probably into the negative, possibly with more adverse consequences to you if someone decides you are discriminating against the partiers for some reason other than “I am disturbed by the noise”. If you call the cops first, and they don’t know it was you, you win (if the cops shut it down). The optimal solution is, of course, to get to know your neighbors and establish goodwill before any of this. Absent that, I don’t think law enforcement ignoring complaints is a good solution, because many people aren’t going to be content with “there is literally nothing you can do if your neighbors are making your home unlivable.” Those people, if they can’t move, will resort to rash actions or non-state “settlers of questions”
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - briandear 7y ago
    It can be pretty risky to knock on a door to tell someone to keep it down. You have no idea how they might react. Knocking on random doors can be very unsafe in typical urban environments, unless it’s someone you already know.
    - llamataboot 7y ago
      Having spent a lot of my adult living in pretty impoverished urban environments, and having knocked on a lot of doors for both personal and professional reasons (as a neighbor, and as a social worker) - I think the risks are pretty overblown. Talk to your neighbors. Definitely talk to your neighbors instead of calling highly armed and confrontational people who can kill someone or toss them in a cage because of something affecting your quality of life.
      - standardUser 7y ago
        I don't particularly want someone who has already proven themselves to be rude and inconsiderate to know my name, face and address. The kind of people who don't care about how their actions impact other people are precisely the kind of people I always strive to avoid - not get to know on a first name basis.
        rxhernandez 7y ago
        Not every culture is the same in what they consider rude; not every socioeconomic group is the same in what they consider rude; not every person is the same in what they consider rude. Consider talking to people and trying to understand them before you cast judgement on them. Cultural relativism really isn't that hard.
        standardUser 7y ago
        Honestly, I might if I think it's just women, but for crying out loud does anyone anywhere want to go confront any man about something like this? No one wants to go tell some big guy to stop begin an inconsiderate prick. And if his cultural background leads him to truly believe he is not being a prick, that just makes the situation FAR more frightening.
clairity 7y ago
i've avoided nextdoor and the like by simply getting to know some of my co-tenants directly. we trade info in person and through texts. walking my dog helps me meet folks farther afield. through that little network, i hear about stuff in about a two/three block radius around where i live (not everything, but enough). we have the usual low-level urban issues: traffic accidents, snoopers, taggers, petty theft, teenagers doing dumb things, and mentally ill folks being weird nearby, but nothing so serious to fear-monger or overly worry about (yes, be alert; no, don't suspect everyone). it saddens me that a few nearby buildings have newly put up fences, as if that promotes anything but isolation. it doesn't keep bad people out but will keep good samaritans out in case of emergency.
burlesona 7y ago
That kind of paranoid neighbor is nothing new. They would benefit from being social shamed and isolated. Connecting a whole network of them together is just about the worst thing I can think of. Nothing reinforces crazy like an echo chamber.
- Amezarak 7y ago
  If people are having their bikes stolen, that’s not paranoia. I would not want to live in such a neighborhood and it’s always a little shocking to me to see this type of commentary on Hacker News where low level theft and vandalism appears to be accepted as just how life is. It definitely doesn’t have to be.
  - Barrin92 7y ago
    yes, it can definitely still be paranoia even if there's occasional theft. We don't live in a utopia where crime never occurs, that doesn't justify a paranoid mindset. It's akin to the constantly jealous boyfriend or girlfriend who keeps track of everything their partner does. Even if they catch one cheating eventually, it doesn't change the fact that the constantly suspicious state of mind is pathological.
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    Indeed. For many people, it's not just 'a bike', it's their only method of transportation to work, to the shops and across town. Price difference aside, it's like taking somebody's car.
  - burlesona 7y ago
    The majority of low-level theft and vandalism is by bored teenagers in their own neighborhood. The worst petty crime I ever had to deal with was living next to a middle school in a nice neighborhood in Houston. There were car windows smashed all the time by middle and even upper-middle class kids walking home from school and seeing something shiny in the passenger seat. It sucks, but it’s not a good justification for being afraid of “those people.” Turns our those people is us.
bilbo0s 7y ago
>a comment with a picture of some random (again, person of color...) walking down the street from a Nest cam asking, "Did you see anyone like this? My bike was stolen too."... This is a real problem. People are having their lives impacted in a materially negative fashion because of actions like this. Not just minorities either. Recently a female police officer walked into the home of a random black guy and blew him away for no reason. (Well, no good reason.) Not 24 hours later a picture of a white female, who had nothing to do with the shooting mind you, was being circulated around the world as being the shooter. The woman had done nothing more than go to work at a place where the unfortunate victim also worked. Seneca said that a lie can travel the world before the truth can even get its shoes on. So this proclivity towards making much ado about nothing has been going on for a long long time if it's something that Seneca spent time observing. Given that reality, it has to be conceded that it's not necessarily because of these companies that your average drama king or queen is out pointing a finger at some random black guy minding his own business. But as far as low life corporate ethics go, these companies probably rank right up there with other pond scum of the internet age, like location "information brokers" and such.
- wallace_f 7y ago
  >Seneca said that a lie can travel the world before the truth can even get its shoes on [...] not necessarily because of these companies that your average drama king or queen is out pointing a finger That's a good comment. I agree with you. People have been toxic and irrational since forever, but perhaps our ability to reflect on these behaviors at arm's length on the internet is actually a good thing.
conductr 7y ago
> twice My experiences of vast majority of white people (I’m white) is that 2 is enough to instill life long paranoia level fear. They just don’t get the difference between a bike thief and a rapist. This is also a news media driven thing
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't post racial flamebait to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Simulacra 7y ago
Next-door only has two uses in my condo community: trolling the HOA, and selling crap. Nobody really gets on the thing except every now and then, and then there are some people who are retired and just sit on it all day long. Basically pointless. Go talk to your neighbors. Just to know them in person.

by tuxxy 7y ago

jahewson 7y ago

Noise complaints are “no reason”?

CodeMage 7y ago
At least try talking to people before calling the cops on them for making noise. What is controversial about this?
- derekp7 7y ago
  I think that some people have either had bad enough experiences themselves, or have heard of incidents, where they fear confrontation. By talking to someone who is engaging in an annoying (to you) or antisocial behavior, you are opening yourself up to retaliation by that person. If you just call the police anonymously then the target doesn't know who to retaliate against. Of course, a much better strategy is to go out of your way to be neighborly, get to know the people around you. That way if someone is having a party a few houses down, instead of calling the cops you can grab a couple six packs and head on down and join them.
  - mrhappyunhappy 7y ago
    This might work if you live in a decent neighborhood. I lived in a shitty part of town in my teens and both of the neighbors on either side of us were total degenerates. One dealt drugs out of his house and the other had zero respect for people’s sleep - played loude music at 2 am and had druggies hang around the house. Talking to ether one was pointless. I usually just called cops right away and for the most part it worked well.
- jraines 7y ago
  It’s a game theory situation in the context of not being acquainted with your neighbors. If you go to them directly and they aren’t receptive, you lose goodwill (or stay at par, at best). If you then call the cops, you lose at lot more goodwill, probably into the negative, possibly with more adverse consequences to you if someone decides you are discriminating against the partiers for some reason other than “I am disturbed by the noise”. If you call the cops first, and they don’t know it was you, you win (if the cops shut it down). The optimal solution is, of course, to get to know your neighbors and establish goodwill before any of this. Absent that, I don’t think law enforcement ignoring complaints is a good solution, because many people aren’t going to be content with “there is literally nothing you can do if your neighbors are making your home unlivable.” Those people, if they can’t move, will resort to rash actions or non-state “settlers of questions”
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- briandear 7y ago
  It can be pretty risky to knock on a door to tell someone to keep it down. You have no idea how they might react. Knocking on random doors can be very unsafe in typical urban environments, unless it’s someone you already know.
  - llamataboot 7y ago
    Having spent a lot of my adult living in pretty impoverished urban environments, and having knocked on a lot of doors for both personal and professional reasons (as a neighbor, and as a social worker) - I think the risks are pretty overblown. Talk to your neighbors. Definitely talk to your neighbors instead of calling highly armed and confrontational people who can kill someone or toss them in a cage because of something affecting your quality of life.
    - standardUser 7y ago
      I don't particularly want someone who has already proven themselves to be rude and inconsiderate to know my name, face and address. The kind of people who don't care about how their actions impact other people are precisely the kind of people I always strive to avoid - not get to know on a first name basis.
      - rxhernandez 7y ago
        Not every culture is the same in what they consider rude; not every socioeconomic group is the same in what they consider rude; not every person is the same in what they consider rude. Consider talking to people and trying to understand them before you cast judgement on them. Cultural relativism really isn't that hard.
        standardUser 7y ago
        Honestly, I might if I think it's just women, but for crying out loud does anyone anywhere want to go confront any man about something like this? No one wants to go tell some big guy to stop begin an inconsiderate prick. And if his cultural background leads him to truly believe he is not being a prick, that just makes the situation FAR more frightening.

clairity 7y ago

i've avoided nextdoor and the like by simply getting to know some of my co-tenants directly. we trade info in person and through texts. walking my dog helps me meet folks farther afield. through that little network, i hear about stuff in about a two/three block radius around where i live (not everything, but enough). we have the usual low-level urban issues: traffic accidents, snoopers, taggers, petty theft, teenagers doing dumb things, and mentally ill folks being weird nearby, but nothing so serious to fear-monger or overly worry about (yes, be alert; no, don't suspect everyone). it saddens me that a few nearby buildings have newly put up fences, as if that promotes anything but isolation. it doesn't keep bad people out but will keep good samaritans out in case of emergency.

burlesona 7y ago

That kind of paranoid neighbor is nothing new. They would benefit from being social shamed and isolated. Connecting a whole network of them together is just about the worst thing I can think of. Nothing reinforces crazy like an echo chamber.

Amezarak 7y ago
If people are having their bikes stolen, that’s not paranoia. I would not want to live in such a neighborhood and it’s always a little shocking to me to see this type of commentary on Hacker News where low level theft and vandalism appears to be accepted as just how life is. It definitely doesn’t have to be.
- Barrin92 7y ago
  yes, it can definitely still be paranoia even if there's occasional theft. We don't live in a utopia where crime never occurs, that doesn't justify a paranoid mindset. It's akin to the constantly jealous boyfriend or girlfriend who keeps track of everything their partner does. Even if they catch one cheating eventually, it doesn't change the fact that the constantly suspicious state of mind is pathological.
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  Indeed. For many people, it's not just 'a bike', it's their only method of transportation to work, to the shops and across town. Price difference aside, it's like taking somebody's car.
- burlesona 7y ago
  The majority of low-level theft and vandalism is by bored teenagers in their own neighborhood. The worst petty crime I ever had to deal with was living next to a middle school in a nice neighborhood in Houston. There were car windows smashed all the time by middle and even upper-middle class kids walking home from school and seeing something shiny in the passenger seat. It sucks, but it’s not a good justification for being afraid of “those people.” Turns our those people is us.

bilbo0s 7y ago

>a comment with a picture of some random (again, person of color...) walking down the street from a Nest cam asking, "Did you see anyone like this? My bike was stolen too."... This is a real problem. People are having their lives impacted in a materially negative fashion because of actions like this. Not just minorities either. Recently a female police officer walked into the home of a random black guy and blew him away for no reason. (Well, no good reason.) Not 24 hours later a picture of a white female, who had nothing to do with the shooting mind you, was being circulated around the world as being the shooter. The woman had done nothing more than go to work at a place where the unfortunate victim also worked. Seneca said that a lie can travel the world before the truth can even get its shoes on. So this proclivity towards making much ado about nothing has been going on for a long long time if it's something that Seneca spent time observing. Given that reality, it has to be conceded that it's not necessarily because of these companies that your average drama king or queen is out pointing a finger at some random black guy minding his own business. But as far as low life corporate ethics go, these companies probably rank right up there with other pond scum of the internet age, like location "information brokers" and such.

wallace_f 7y ago
>Seneca said that a lie can travel the world before the truth can even get its shoes on [...] not necessarily because of these companies that your average drama king or queen is out pointing a finger That's a good comment. I agree with you. People have been toxic and irrational since forever, but perhaps our ability to reflect on these behaviors at arm's length on the internet is actually a good thing.

conductr 7y ago

> twice My experiences of vast majority of white people (I’m white) is that 2 is enough to instill life long paranoia level fear. They just don’t get the difference between a bike thief and a rapist. This is also a news media driven thing

dang 7y ago
Please don't post racial flamebait to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Simulacra 7y ago

Next-door only has two uses in my condo community: trolling the HOA, and selling crap. Nobody really gets on the thing except every now and then, and then there are some people who are retired and just sit on it all day long. Basically pointless. Go talk to your neighbors. Just to know them in person.