Editor’s note

Pity those neighborhoods where the lawns are always neat and everybody has trash service, where the trees are all tiny so limbs and leaves aren’t a problem, where crime is confi ned to drugs in the basement or embezzling at the offi ce, where the schoolkids are all smart and rich, where all the houses are owner-occupied and the only vacant lots are high-priced, where neighbors don’t need each other very much. Give me a neighborhood with issues, and I’ll show you a place that attracts characters who like characters. They don’t mind rough edges on buildings or people, and put up with each other for the common good. As you’ll discover by reading this week’s cover story, we fi nd satisfaction in working together under the banner, “You don’t have to move to live in a better neighborhood.” –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher