Do you find yourself not having much in common with your neighbors, not liking them, etc? A large part of friendship is some circumstance that puts you in the same time and place (school, work, sports, etc.). There must be some pretty big barrier if you can’t make friends with most of your neighbors.
Statistically, five to six out of ten of my neighbors think my marriage shouldn't be allowed, so yeah, I'd say there's a pretty big barrier with the neighbors of happenstance. The ones who will deign to talk to us politely discourage us from attending the BBQs, "Oh you know, it'll be mainly families so it won't be of much interest to you."
I can only speak for myself but if you want to help change, come and get involved in people's lives. I partly live where I do so I can have a positive influence.
> Do you find yourself not having much in common with your neighbors, not liking them, etc
Many of my neighbors are older and have lived in the homes since they were built. Mostly they just gripe that I don't behave the same way as the last guy.
Others are parents around my age who I don't have much common ground with because their kids are their whole lives basically, and I don't have kids and don't want them.
I think there's more to friendship than just proximity.
I don't know my current neighbors at all (I live in an apartment building with 150+ units) and I'm fine with that.
However, when I was in a house... I met some. They were often the worst kind of people. The most NIMBY neolib white-flight our-neighborhood-is-going-to-hell 60+ year old assholes you could imagine. The one we thought was nice apparently would beat one of his kids and make him sleep outside the house. That was the nice one!
I can't say I know many good stories about neighbors. Look at movies - conflict with neighbors is a constant theme.
Conflict with neighbors is a common theme. But also friendship with neighbors. Wilson Wilson Jr in Home Improvement. Lawrence in Office Space. All the guys in King of the Hill. Even in some which start off with frustrations about neighbors sometimes shows strong bonds between them later like Grand Torino or Family Matters or even The Simpsons.
I think a lot of TV shows and movies show a lot of different perspectives of neighbors, and I'm not convinced it's mostly negative. Lots show some amount of strife with neighbors, but even a romance movie will often show some amount of conflict between the protagonists.
