This estate is almost laughably communal (for those who want it). I can't walk to the shops without talking to someone I know and benefit from, as well as aim to provide, a lot of informal helping out. Plus, a community hall, a recently completed history project, a gardening club, a newly built playground, pensioner visits to the seaside and - most recently, a Funday Sunday where the local Lib Dem councillor cooked the hamburgers (well, he would, wouldn't he).
Of course, this doesn't mean we all get on. 'Community' is a much more complicated thing than that, as much about conflict as sweetness and light, with plenty of tensions between old and young, middle and working class, tenants and leaseholders. I, for one, would be happy to belt the kid who I just caught trying to steal my bike by attempting to cut through a thick metal chain with a blunt knife. But, still, its nice this feeling of connectedness.
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