Bowling Together: The Role of Neighborhood Associations
by Lila Shapero

Neighborhood organizations are flourishing. They often provide the most important connection residents have with local government and planning. By working with neighborhood associations, planners can gain a more accurate sense of what residents and businesses need, while helping empower citizens to become more active in their community.

Neighborhood associations come in all shapes and sizes. Some are formal 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations; others are coffee klatches. Certain housing developments such as condominiums or planned unit developments are required to have homeowner associations. They are found in mobile home parks. Neighborhood associations may form in response to a proposed change to their neighborhood, or they may be multi-issue groups trying to plan for their community's future.

Neighborhood association bowling has caught on throughout St. Petersburg, Florida, with neighborhoods now challenging each other! In Elgin, Illinois (below) "popcorn" meetings, sponsored by the city's neighborhood associations, have proved effective in getting residents involved in the local planning process.

Whatever shape neighborhood associations assume, cities, towns, and counties have been reaching out to them to find ways of working together. As David Kaptain, executive director of Elgin Community Network and an Elgin planning commissioner, puts it, "resident perspective through neighborhood associations is a big advantage of bottom to top planning."

Kaptain's thoughts are echoed by Bob Miller, director of Minneapolis' Neighborhood Revitalization Program, who considers Abraham Lincoln's words apt in describing the participation of neighborhood associations in local planning as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Although neighborhood associations sometimes form in reaction to what residents view as a threat (e.g., crime, traffic, or an unwanted land use), the key is to create a more proactive partnership, one which -- over time -- can strengthen the community. "Bringing the neighborhood associations into the planning process helps them take a long view of what their communities need," notes Mike Dove, St. Petersburg, Florida's deputy mayor for neighborhood services.

In the following pages you'll find just some examples of the broad array of neighborhood associations found in cities and towns across the country: