Long-term neighborhood residence replaces stranger encounters with known others

Evidence

Most people have therefore had time to get to know plenty of other local inhabitants. They share the same background. The people they see when they go out for a walk are people they played with as children. “I’ve always known Frank and Barney,” said Mr. Sykes. “We was kids together. We knew each other from so high. We were all in the same street.” They are the people they went to school with. “It’s friendly here,” according to Mrs. Warner. “You can’t hardly ever go out without meeting someone you know. Often its someone you were at school with.” They are the people they knew at the youth club, fellow-members of a teen-age gang, or boxing opponents. They have the associations of a lifetime in common. If they are brought up from childhood with someone they may not necessarily like him, they certainly “know” him. If they live in the same street for long they cannot help getting to know people whom they see every day, talk to and hear about in endless conversation. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 794

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete data point (fifty-three percent born locally, half of rest there 15+ years) grounds the urban-village claim; contrasts with Simmel’s blasé stranger-categorization city.