In the recent movie, "The Net," a computer buff played by Sandra Bullock stays in her house, communicating with the outside world exclusively by modem. When her identity is appropriated by another, none of Bullock's neighbors can corroborate who she is because none of them have met her.
Not so in the large new development in the Eaglewood area of North Salt Lake, where residents appear eager to get out and meet their neighbors whatever the obstacles of fences and houses and large lots might be."Every neighborhood is about the same," said Bess Webb, 74, who along with her husband Roland moved into her home next to Eaglewood Golf Course just a few months ago. "You have to exert yourself (to make friends)."
The Eaglewood development is 3 years old, with most of the 300 approved houses either complete or well on their way. They are hot properties, with fine big houses and spectacular views, so the builders aren't holding back.
"They're going gang-busters up there," said North Salt Lake Public Works and Zoning Administrator Rodney Wood.
The development, tucked around the Eaglewood Golf Course, will ultimately comprise about 500 homes.
"I don't know all of my neighbors, but I know most of them," said Peggy Harding, 45, whose family moved from Pennsylvania to their new house near the eastern end of Eaglewood Drive last year. Harding says everyone is in the same boat. They are all new, all reaching out, all trying to establish a sense of community.
"It's just the kind of people that live here," she said. "They are all good people."
The physical layout of the Eaglewood development - free-standing houses and fences typical of developments nowadays - hasn't stifled interaction, Harding said. It's easy to drop in on someone and she often bumps into her neighbors.
Harding said one thing working in her favor in getting to know people is the LDS Church - she has met most of her new friends through church activities.
"If I had as many kids as I do and staying home without the church, I don't know what I'd do," she said.
One of Harding's children has a non-LDS friend on the North Salt Lake Youth City Council. The friend has expressed frustration at being automatically excluded from many community activities. Harding sympathizes with her.
"I feel that's a problem for non-LDS people," Harding said. "They kind of feel ostracized."
Harding also appreciates the large number of stay-at-home mothers at Eaglewood. Her old neighborhood near Pittsburgh had more families with two working parents.
"Many of the moms are at home around here," she said. "When you have a lot of kids that's nice."
Sandy Wood, 38, is one of those moms at home. The mother of three has lived a little over a year on a spur of Eaglewood Drive. She has plugged into the at-home-mother network, often carpooling and visiting with her counterpart next door. But she said she sees plenty of the other neighbors on the weekends puttering around the yard and the like.
But Wood has an ironic twist on the concept of getting to know the neighbors.
In her old Centerville neighborhood, "we were all extremely close - maybe too close," she said. "We were all LDS, we were all the same - here it's more of a variety."
She points out that many of her new neighbors have moved in from out of state and are not LDS, which is fine with her. In her old neighborhood, whenever the Woods wanted to invite someone over to watch a football game or something they felt duty-bound to invite the whole neighborhood to avoid hurting somebody's feelings. Not so here.
What's more, whatever the shortcomings of the move, the view makes it all worth it. Unlike many new Wasatch Front developments in which residents can't see farther than across the street, many if not most of Eaglewood's residents have views all the way to the Great Salt Lake.
"Sometimes we just sit here and look out the window," Wood said. "This view gives me an entirely new view of, well, the world, really."
At the very top of the Eaglewood development lies a small planned community with about 15 houses arranged in a semi-circle around a small park and bowery. But with the park unfinished, it hasn't proven itself a community magnet. While it attracted many of the residents there, it is an unproven entity with regard to community feeling.
The Webbs like the plan mainly because they don't have to take care of a large yard, but Bess Webb said she hasn't really thought much about the community aspects of the neighborhood center.
Webb said whether residents are LDS Church members or not is pretty much irrelevant when it comes to getting to know people.
"We've had as much encounter with non-LDS people as we have had with the other," she said.
She often runs into neighbors, and though no one has had a formal neighborhood get-together yet, "It could happen."