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Super Bowl, Big Ads — and a Small Word: Neighbor

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  Welcome to the Super Bowl — not just the championship of football, but the championship of advertising and marketing. Every year companies spend extraordinary amounts of money to capture 30 to 60 seconds of American attention. The game is massive, but the audience is even bigger: well over 100 million viewers gather in one shared moment. No streaming algorithm. No niche targeting. One national living room. That’s why the advertising matters. The Super Bowl isn’t where brands test ideas. It’s where they reveal what they believe Americans feel right now. So when a mortgage company chooses to talk about neighbors instead of interest rates, that tells us something. Who Are the Ads For? Super Bowl ads don’t target a demographic in the traditional sense. They target a national mood . Families watch together. Teenagers scroll while watching. Grandparents comment from recliners. Party guests talk during commercials but fall silent when one grabs attention. Advertisers are not speaking t...
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Why Would HBO Create a Show About Neighbors Now?

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  W hen I first heard that a major network was releasing a drama centered on neighbors, my reaction wasn’t surprise — it was recognition. I said, " Of course they are!" Not because our culture suddenly became obsessed with property lines or petty disputes. And not because writers ran out of ideas. A show about neighbors works right now because it taps into one of the deepest tensions of modern life:  We live closer together than ever, yet know each other less than ever. And that creates a story waiting to be told for five major reasons. 1. The Neighborhood Has Quietly Become Emotional Territory For decades, popular storytelling drifted away from the neighborhood. Television lived in workplaces, friend groups, police stations, and hospitals. Those places made sense in an era when identity was tied to career, institutions, and social circles we intentionally chose. But something has changed. People spend more time at home. Remote work, digital entertainment, online shopping, an...
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Neighborhood Sports Fields Better for Belonging Than Sports Complexes

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  Cities love big sports complexes. They’re tidy, legible, and easy to sell to voters. There’s a ribbon-cutting, a drone photo, and a weekend tournament that fills hotel rooms. You can stand beside a glossy rendering and say, Look what we built. Neighborhood fields are different. They’re uneven. They don’t photograph well. There’s no sponsorship banner fluttering over left field and no consultant estimating economic impact. Over time, many American communities have made a quiet tradeoff: in the name of safety, efficiency, and liability control, they’ve narrowed the circumstances under which play is allowed to happen at all. Locked school playgrounds are the clearest example, but they’re only the most visible symptom. No single official planned this outcome. It emerged from layers of reasonable decisions. Rules accumulated. Fences went up. Hours shortened. Permits appeared. Eventually informal play disappeared—not because people stopped wanting it, but because we stopped leaving spa...
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Why America’s Obsession With “Bad Neighbors” Misses the Bigger Story

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As a longtime community development professional and the founder of Missouri Good Neighbor Week, I’ve spent more than two decades working with neighborhoods across Missouri—urban, suburban, and rural. That’s why, when I recently watched the trailer for HBO’s new series focused on neighbor conflict premiering February 13, I had a strong reaction. Not because conflict between neighbors doesn’t exist—it absolutely does—but because what we choose to spotlight says something important about who we are becoming as a society. Conflict Makes for Good TV—But a Poor Civic Diet Television thrives on tension. Loud arguments, boundary disputes, feuds, and outrage capture attention. That’s not new. What concerns me is how easily these stories become the  dominant narrative  about neighborhood life. Most neighbors are not at war with one another. In fact, my work—and the data we collect statewide—shows the opposite. Every year, tens of thousands of Missourians quietly check on elderly neighb...
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HBO Series "Neighbors" Looks at Bad Examples and That is a Problem

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  When I watched the trailer for HBO’s new series about bad neighbors , I felt a familiar tension. On one hand, I understand our cultural fascination with conflict and disruption — it’s dramatic, it’s sensational, and in media terms it grabs attention.  On the other hand, from the work that I’ve devoted years to (studying neighboring, civic trust, community belonging, and the conditions that make neighborhoods thrive), focusing on the worst of human behavior is  exactly the wrong lever  if our goal is healthy, connected communities. Here’s why I think that emphasis is destructive: What we focus on grows.  There’s a psychological and cultural feedback loop: when we celebrate the negative or elevate it to entertainment, we inadvertently normalize it. People see the most extreme behavior and think that’s what “neighbors” are like — not just a few bad apples, but representative of everyday life. That corrodes trust and increases social distance, exactly the opposite...
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Book Review: Neighborhood Mission Trips for Everyday Christians

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  Neighborhood Mission Trips for Everyday Christians , reimagines the mission trip not as a distant excursion but as a walk across the street. It’s a book for ordinary Christians who want to live missionally, starting in their neighborhood.  This book is a practical, devotional-style guide that empowers Christians to see their own neighborhood as a meaningful mission field. Written for individuals, small groups, and churches seeking to reimagine outreach, this book brings the structure of a short-term mission trip into everyday life—without passports or plane tickets. Combining Scripture, personal stories, devotionals, and practical guides, this book equips individuals and churches to cultivate deeper relationships, overcome social isolation, and love their literal neighbors in tangible ways. This is not a theological treatise or a feel-good collection of ideas. It’s a blueprint. Readers are walked through a week-long neighborhood mission trip complete with daily themes, ...
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Why Mattering Might Be the Missing Ingredient in Strong Neighborhoods

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If you asked most people what they want out of life, you’d hear answers like happiness, success, security, or maybe purpose. But underneath all of those is something simpler and more powerful:  "We want to know we matter." Not in a spotlight way.  Not in a fame or status way. But in a deeply human way. We want to know that someone would notice if we were gone. That our presence makes a difference. That our lives ripple outward in ways that help others. Recently, conversations sparked by "Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose" by Jennifer Breheny Wallace have helped bring this idea into the mainstream. But if you work in community development, neighboring, or local civic life, you probably recognize something important: We have been seeing the effects of mattering — or the absence of it — in neighborhoods for years. Because here’s the truth: For many people, the place where they are most likely to experience mattering is not at work. Not onli...
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Book Review: "Mattering" is a Timely Exploration an Overlooked Human Need

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"Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose" is a timely and deeply meaningful exploration of one of the most overlooked human needs: the need to feel that we matter. Jennifer Breheny Wallace offers readers a compelling blend of research, storytelling, and practical insight that speaks directly to the quiet ache many people carry—the desire to know they are seen, valued, and needed. The idea of mattering is especially relevant to the work I do in communities. Whether I am engaging partners, strengthening neighborhoods, supporting leaders, or serving residents, helping people feel that they matter is at the core of building resilient communities. Wallace’s research also highlights insights I can integrate into my programs, communications, and relationships. At its core, the book argues that mattering is not the same as achievement, popularity, or even success. Instead, mattering is rooted in relationships, contribution, and mutual recognition. Wallace caref...
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