»These are the people that you meet Pt VIIa

Can you meet your neighbours online? And then in the 'hood qua hood?
I'll give an ice-cream cone to anyone who can tell me how Meet The Neighbors is better than -- or functionally different from -- putting up flyers in the lobby, on the corner telephone pool, or sitting on the stoop and hollering at people who walk past.

Meet The Neighbors is not just a website - it's a call to action!  We provide the tools for you to take some very simple steps, right where you live, to create a vibrant, real-life community with the people you share the same walls and roof with.  We help YOU take these steps - but you actually have to take them if this is going to work for you."

Hmmm. I'm not convinced: I entered in a full-on 9-digit zipcode, and the system thinks I'm in the Upper Haight. For the love of mike, I'm even wearing my genuine Lower Haight cap, which you can't get online. As far as hoods go, I'd definitely draw a line between the patchouli-drenched, street-urchin-laden Upper Haight, and the vapour-inhaled-ganja-drenched, schizophrenic-vagrant-laden Lower Haight. Oh yeah, and we gots the hair salons and the Toronado. Beat that, you Amoeba-hustling, Jerry-Garcia-mourning Ashbury tourists.

I think I prefer the L B Jeffries approach to getting to know one's neighbours.