talk to each other less, etc. is because they don't have the proper neighborhood design to facilitate it. But that's not the reason. The reason is the entire economic structure, which typically means we have few ties to our neighbors other than being (temporarily) neighbors.
When I was young neighbors were connected in the following ways:
1. They usually worked in the same general field, or even the same plant. i.e. they shared a lot of their lives and had a common world view because of it. Also, employers used to be more locally based, rather than franchises of big corporations with interchangeable employees and managers.
2. They usually shared labor (i.e. neighbors would help each other with big projects like haying, building a school, building fence, canning, etc.) I.e. neighbors *needed* each other in a very concrete way.
3. Women were typically in the neighborhood during the day, and that involved sharing childcare experiences and some of the old-fashioned "housework" experiences (like getting together to quilt, sew, etc.)
Working women today come home tired & do double duty = less time/energy to socialize, help others, etc. Women's work also used to make a "free space" for men when they got off work, so they could for example just join in with the neighborhood party that women had already prepared rather than helping to prepare it and helping to clean it up.
4. Less mobility = more kin close by, more intermarriage or other kinship connections with neighbors = less suspiciousness. Also more time to spend with neighbors at holidays, etc, because you're not flying/driving to see your kids halfway across the country.
5. Locus of more activities was at the local level. For example, I remember my family helping with local voting when I was young, & I mean setting up the polling places. Now most people vote by mail, & the party organizations are shops that set up only during elections and have no presence otherwise.
6. A lot of entertainment was homemade. People used to get together to make music, do crafts, etc. as a routine thing -- often during shared work. Now it's TV, video games... All the kids in my neighborhood used to take mayday baskets around. Haven't seen that forever. I can also remember carolers in my early christmases. haven't seen that either. trick-or-treat is about all that's left, and even that is disappearing.
Which is why I think things like "pocket neighorhoods" will never be more than isolated projects within the larger morass of anomie. People don't become sociable by acts of will.
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