Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood • Hacker News Board

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#71

Post by austinl » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:53 PM UTC

During COVID, the block I live on in San Francisco started doing outdoor happy hours every Saturday afternoon. People weren't traveling much then, so we had near 100% attendance of every person on the block for almost a year. I went from knowing none of my neighbors to knowing all of them quite well, and it has surprised me how much it has improved my day-to-day happiness.

Since then, we've hosted a "progressive" Thanksgiving dinner, which moves from house-to-house on the block for different courses. We shut down the street one day each year and set up bounce houses for the kids. I've made pint glasses with the name our street engraved in them, and given them to my neighbors. It's shown me that there really can be something valuable outside of your immediate family and circle of friends.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#72

Post by awongh » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:53 PM UTC

pkamb wrote: post #43

Now, even better, allow any neighbor to open a legitimate (yet small-scale and cheap) coffee shop or wine bar by-right in the garage space under their SF home.

Yea, one of the problems of USA zoning laws is that very small scale retail/food service businesses are not allowed in the middle of a block. In other more walkable/urban density places businesses will pop up where you can get a coffee and it's not on a "business street". It's where people actually live and gather.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#73

Post by jimbokun » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

happytoexplain wrote: post #4

afavour wrote: post #2

> my husband Tyler and I wanted that sense of community that feels like it’s only possible in the suburbs, but we believed we could achieve this while living in San Francisco. This genuinely threw me because in my experience the suburbs are the antithesis of this, just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. Still, a heartwarming story all the same. And yes, this is _exactly_ what…

>just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. This is a bitter stereotype that is leveled against both city-dwellers and suburb-dwellers, and, like many stereotypes, has some truth to it in both cases, but amounts to uncalled-for negativity. Some people don't want to interact with their neighbors, regardless of whether they live in a city or a suburb. Others are sociable with thei…

Suburbs often have physical constraints with the way houses are laid out making this "stoop coffee" approach more difficult, if anything. Houses laid out in a way that you're more likely to drink your coffee on your back patio surrounded by a fence or hedges to avoid being seen. And even if you are sitting in front of your house, neighbors are more likely to be driving by instead of walking so not very likely to stop and chat.

In densely populated cities, you are often in close proximity with other humans you haven't met yet. But there can be social and cultural norms to keep walking and avoid eye contact because social interaction with all the countless people you pass is completely impractical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AoNuz1gjQo

So both environments have their challenges for impromptu social interactions.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#74

Post by iancmceachern » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:56 PM UTC

They do this at UCSF in mission Bay too, such a great idea

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#75

Post by scubbo » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:57 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #2

> my husband Tyler and I wanted that sense of community that feels like it’s only possible in the suburbs, but we believed we could achieve this while living in San Francisco. This genuinely threw me because in my experience the suburbs are the antithesis of this, just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. Still, a heartwarming story all the same. And yes, this is _exactly_ what…

100% same here!

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#76

Post by tptacek » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:57 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #2

> my husband Tyler and I wanted that sense of community that feels like it’s only possible in the suburbs, but we believed we could achieve this while living in San Francisco. This genuinely threw me because in my experience the suburbs are the antithesis of this, just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. Still, a heartwarming story all the same. And yes, this is _exactly_ what…

It depends on the suburb. Some suburbs are effectively just city neighborhoods in a different school district, and they have blocks and block parties. Other suburbs are nests of culs-de-sac, where you'll say "hi" to your next door neighbors but not know anybody else.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#77

Post by tptacek » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:58 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #73

happytoexplain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. This is a bitter stereotype that is leveled against both city-dwellers and suburb-dwellers, and, like many stereotypes, has some truth to it in both cases, but amounts to uncalled-for negativity. Some people don't want to interact with their neighbors, regardless of whether they live in a city or a suburb. Others are sociable with thei…

Suburbs often have physical constraints with the way houses are laid out making this "stoop coffee" approach more difficult, if anything. Houses laid out in a way that you're more likely to drink your coffee on your back patio surrounded by a fence or hedges to avoid being seen. And even if you are sitting in front of your house, neighbors are more likely to be driving by instead of walking so not very likely to stop…

I live in an inner-ring suburb of Chicago (Oak Park) and stoop coffee would be much easier to do here than in San Francisco (where I lived many years ago).

This is what my suburb looks like:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9014246,-87.791197,3a,75y,17...

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#78

Post by James_K » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:58 PM UTC

timerol wrote: post #17

volkk wrote: post #15

i think there's a really valuable app/site to be made that involves discovering people or handling communications literally on your block (i.e hyper local neighborhood). nextdoor is the 1.0 of this that introduced the concept but poorly, and i'm still waiting for a 2.0 i guess it doesn't have to be an app, since whatsapp can handle most of this, but there's a discovery piece that would be missing that this app can so…

I could not disagree more strongly. I would be appalled at using an app for something better accomplished by a flyer or drinking coffee in front of my house. People live in physical space. "How do I talk to my next-door neighbor?" is not a problem that the internet should be helping with

I wouldn't be so quick to admonish the idea. Neighbours aren't always within talking distance. Even the writers of this article needed to create a WhatApp group, and you can already see the trouble in that. People want to receive messages about things in their neighbourhood, but groups chats cover fixed areas so some people might be on the "edge" of multiple groups. The logical solution here is a digital version of the old church notice boards you see in many towns, allowing people to place and view digital flyers in a certain range of their location.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#79

Post by mcculley » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:59 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #73

happytoexplain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>just lots of people occupying neighboring space and rarely talking to each other. This is a bitter stereotype that is leveled against both city-dwellers and suburb-dwellers, and, like many stereotypes, has some truth to it in both cases, but amounts to uncalled-for negativity. Some people don't want to interact with their neighbors, regardless of whether they live in a city or a suburb. Others are sociable with thei…

Suburbs often have physical constraints with the way houses are laid out making this "stoop coffee" approach more difficult, if anything. Houses laid out in a way that you're more likely to drink your coffee on your back patio surrounded by a fence or hedges to avoid being seen. And even if you are sitting in front of your house, neighbors are more likely to be driving by instead of walking so not very likely to stop…

Suburbs can also be hostile to pedestrians. In many designs, neighbors only see each other when one or both is inside of a car.

Re: Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood

#80

Post by jimbokun » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 6:59 PM UTC

mauvehaus wrote: post #44

rcpt wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I installed nextdoor and now I actively avoid interacting with my neighbors

On the way home from the subway one snowy Boston evening, I joked with my wife that what the world needs is yelp, but for snow shoveling. People could get out all their passive-aggressive and aggressive-aggressive crap about their neighbors by complaining about the quality of the snow shoveling in the sidewalks in town. It seems Nextdoor has fulfilled that need and more.

Pretty sure it was a conversation just like this that led to the creation of Nextdoor.