Being neighborly is good.

Porches aren't just for aesthetics

I came across this 2020 article on Indiana porches after starting on an economics podcast. Don’t ask me how. This is our modern world. That’s what I’m writing about today.

https://www.curbed.com/article/porch-design-history-porching.html

The article in question is good. Not great. It kinda meanders a bit into the history of porches, detours into porch decorations, and it definitely feels a little boomer-centric. BUT! At its core is what I want to dwell on (pun?)

Soon the event had its own name — porching — and a weekly time slot on Sunday afternoon. “People would send an email or text saying, ‘Porch? 3 p.m.,’” Taft says. “Now I literally porch every single Sunday from three to 5:30. It’s this really meaningful rhythm that has enriched my life.”

In 2014, the Harrison Center for the Arts launched Porch Party Indy to galvanize gatherings with friends and neighbors on their porches. Forty-five families in mostly white Herron-Morton Place signed up, hosting neighbors on their own porches. Then they traipsed a few miles east for a cross-porching initiative with a nearby predominantly African-American neighborhood, Hillside.
Over time, it’s become more organic, with porching happening statewide.

The internet is amazing. It helped me find this story, which for certain I would never, ever have on my own. But it also drives us into solitude. With our keyboards and monitors. Into rabbit holes, like the one I opened this with, that just entertained ourselves solely.

Neighborhood and interactions are good. Being neighborly is good. Having relationships in real life? With those who live close to you? That’s really good.