Why can’t we all just be good neighbors?

I moved to Las Vegas in 1973 when practically nothing was here, and most roads were not yet paved. My family and I built our home on 4 acres in the middle of, what was then, nowhere. We enjoyed the vast open space and felt we were part of the "wild West" with our horses and dogs. After my children grew up and left the roost, I downsized and moved into a home in the center of the city. Talk about culture shock! I was accustomed to peace and quiet, and now I was in the middle of noise and insanity.

Looking back on those years, I see the changing atmosphere of comedy, tragedy and eye-opening experiences that have come to be the changing landscape of Las Vegas homeowners.

The house next to mine rotated a nearly comic group of nutcases. Once there was an uncontrollable drunk, another time a wife-beater, another time drug dealers whose friends would pound on the door at all night and scream at each other all morning, and another time someone who started a music school in his home. I was surrounded by noise all day, every day.

I moved to a developed area south of the city hoping again to live a normal life surrounded by normal neighbors. Unknown to me when I moved in, the psycho grass lady lived next door.

At a homeowners' meeting she said she planned to sue the minister next door because his grass was an inch taller than hers. She also complained that the house across from her kept their grass cut too short, and the lady next to them kept her grass too long.

In the same development were homeowners who hated to observe laws, so they would systematically remove parking signs, animal control signs, fire lane signs and every other type of sign that infringed on their right to "live freely and do whatever they wanted to do" without regards for others.

I decided to move again and searched for a quiet, small neighborhood with normal respectful neighbors. I finally found one and decided to give it a test run for one year. If the neighbors were normal and respectful of each other, I would stay. If not, I would make it a rental and move to the top floor of a high-rise tower away from crazies.

Aside from isolated cases such as a homeowner who threaten to sue because he was asked to remove his parked car from a fire lane or the homeowner who constantly let his dogs run loose in the neighborhood despite being warned by animal control, there are no nutcases or neighbors from hell. Most of the residents are middle-aged to older, and they have respect for each other and each other's property.

I'm still here, loving where I live and enjoy knowing all of my neighbors on a first-name basis. When I was recently in an accident, offers of help and goodwill poured in from my neighbors. It showed me we are truly a community, each looking out for the good of the other and working together as one. It's been 22 years since I moved here, and I have no intention of leaving. I've found my Camelot.

Robert Rothwell, Ph.D. is board secretary of the Nevada chapter of the Community Associations Institute, a national organization for homeowners associations management companies, volunteer board members and other professional service providers. He can be reached at robertarothwell@aol.com.