Neighborhood
Entry
This is the entrance to the neighborhood where we live. It is a SID (a governmental body called a Sanitary Improvement District), outside the boundaries of any town or city.
Homes are single family and generally on about a quarter acre of land. The neighborhood has an elementary school within 2 miles of the students a neighborhood park with playground, shelter house and picnic tables, a water fountain, baseball and soccer practice field facilities. High School and Junior High students ride the school bus to town in bellevue, about 5 miles, for school. Although many are permitted to drive to school.
It is a nice place to live. We are away from much of the crime of the cities. There is not a lot of traffic as there is no through street in the neighborhood so it is a safe place to walk and for children to play. A stream runs through the neighborhood and this area is an undeveloped riparian woodland which belongs to all. The racial and ethnic mix of people is diverse, partly because we have so many military families living here because of the proximity of Offutt Air Force Base, though the majority are Caucasian. Our neighborhood newsletter is online. You can also find up to the minute weather in our neighborhood from a weather reporting computer.
The properties surrounding the neighborhood are still rural so those who who are not so high-sidity that they don't speak to farmers, have the opportunity to interact with both the rural and simi-urban environment right near home.
At night we can see the stars because there is still not a lot of light pollution, though it may not be long before more farms are sold for development and the city envelops us.
Stores are about 10 to 15 minutes away by car, which is a disadvantage, as the highway that connects us also does not have a safe place to walk or ride bicycles to the stores. Places of work are all at least that far away and we need to use private transportation to get there. We do have one church just outside the neighborhood, and within walking distance, which is nice if you are a southern baptist, but all others have to drive some distance for worship.
Unfortunately, this type of neighborhood is a part of the problem of urban sprawl because farmland is being sacrificed for money and the rooftops and pavements are adding to rain water runoff, flooding and pollution. There is less farmland in production to feed people and this is not a good trend.