5 Ways You Can Get To Know Your Neighbors in the Inner City Atmosphere.
(These are NOT all inclusive or exhaustive.. just to get you thinking)

1.  Go Borrow Something (i.e. an egg, a saw, a shovel, etc.)  It is always important that   a relationship be reciprocal.  You need your neighbor just as much as you think your neighbor needs you.

2.  Play with the kids (outside, unless parents approve them coming inside your home).  Kids have a way of looking past all the barriers we adults set up such as color, economic status, culture, and even expectations of cleanliness!  They are a great gateway to meeting their parents and beginning conversations.

3.  Be Intentional and Strategic.  You don’t want to seem like a stalker, but you also don’t want to have the excuse “They are never home.”  People do come home!  Pay attention to when people are outside, getting into their cars, checking their mail, sitting on their porches.  Example,  make an effort to check your mail when you know your neighbor is pulling up to the house from work.  This might provide an opportunity for a conversation or at least a friendly hello.  Or, when you hear your neighbor taking out their trash, go ahead and take yours out too.  This works well in the urban areas because the homes are so close together – you can’t help but talk to your neighbors.

4.  Take Walks.  If you have a child, a dog, or a friend, just take a short walk around your block or to a local park.  In inner city areas, more people are walking on the sidewalks because their transportation is either the bus or their feet.  This is a great time to meet new folks.  And kids and dogs are great ice breakers (unless you don’t take the pooper scooper!)

5.  Stay Home.  This could also fall into the the ‘intentional and strategic’ category, but the basic premise is this:  Staying home means you are available!  How are we to meet our neighbors if we are ALWAYS at work, church, school, or the gym (while simultaneously on our cell phones)?  Sometimes we have to ‘schedule’ home time so that we are there when the neighborhood kids want to come in and play CandyLand unexpectedly, or the lady next door needs to borrow some milk.  If people come to an unanswered door enough times, they stop knocking.