If you want to live longer Lane Cove – hold a street party

According to Blogger Warwick March, the key to living longer is to hold a street party. Apparently the more people that know each other in a street, the lower the crime rate in the neighbourhood.

Last year we surveyed our Facebook Fans and found out that 33% of the respondents knew their neighbours. If you want to increase this figure, then a street party might be the way to go

Recently Warwick March wrote an article about street parties and how they can have a positive impact. You can read his blog here

Warwick quoted the following statistics:

1. Street Parties Reduce Crime Curtin University have done the research and the results are that 1 in 3 people don’t trust their neighbours. Robert Putnam notes that ‘the more people know each others first names, the lower the crime rate in the neighbourhood.’

2. 73% of Your Neighbours Really Want to Party A survey of 2,100 Australians showed 59% never speak with their neighbours and 38% do not know their neighbours at all. BUT 73% said they would like to get to know their neighbours better.

3. Street Parties Save Lives Tim Costello says ‘isolation kills more people each year than tobacco related  diseases.’ But Hugh Mackay has the solution. He writes, ‘If I were asked what to do about the level of insecurity and anxiety in contemporary Australian society, I wouldn’t start with politics and I wouldn’t say too much about terrorism. I’d suggest, as the first step, that you invite the neighbours over for a drink this weekend. Today a drink, tomorrow a BBQ, pretty soon, a community.’

A few years ago ITC and one of our neighbours wanted to hold a street party. We wrote to the Lane Cove Council for approval and we were shocked at the rigamarole one had to go through to get together with the neighbours. It was ridiculous. We raised this matter with Karola Brent, one of the independents on Lane Cove Council, and she set about trying to simply the process. This resulted in a new Lane Cove Council Street Party guide. The guide to holding a street party can be found here. The guide includes details on free recycling and waste collection, shade tents and invitation templates for your party.

You can have a street party at Christmas Time, Australia Day, Neighbour Day, Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice or any other time of the year. 

A street party is a good way to connect with your neighbours and to start a street committee. Sutherland Street is well known for being a tight knit group. If there are any issues, thefts or incidents in the street, an email is sent out to the street. So use the street party as a way of collecting Email addresses from your neighbours. By the way Sutherland Street has been the winner of the best Christmas Street Lights for a few years running.

So start planning a neighbourhood street party. You don’t have to wait until Christmas.

If you would like to find out more about road safety issues, you should read our blog on the Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation

We love interviewing Lane Cove people or people with a strong Lane Cove connection, if you know anyone we should interview, please email us at [email protected]