City As Community

I talk a lot about the strong sense of community we feel in the city. For outsiders, cities may appear to be cold and unwelcoming places, but I find it is exactly the opposite. Sure there are lots of strangers and dangers, but for the most part the compactness and diversity of urban living cultivate interdependence and community.

Nowhere is this multi-faceted mingling more apparent than at our local neighborhood association's annual ice cream social on the nearby library grounds. Friends and neighbors and city representatives arrived in droves yesterday to enjoy a beautiful summer evening together, making the city even more welcoming and the unfamiliar neighbors a bit less unknown.