Why NeighborQuad? Why now?

Hi, I’m Dom.

You know how you can live somewhere for years and still barely know your neighbors? Maybe you wave. Maybe you recognize their car. But actually call one of them a real friend? That’s rare.

I moved to a new state several years ago. Most of my close friends are still in Chicago or scattered elsewhere. I don’t really have close friends here yet. And if I’m being honest, I don’t have endless time to fix that — nor do I want to roll the dice on forced small talk at kids’ functions.

If you’re in a similar spot, you’ve probably felt this too: there are good people nearby — people you’d genuinely get along with — but you don’t know how to find them efficiently, safely, or without it feeling awkward.

I’ve caught myself thinking:

Out of everyone within a 10-minute walk of my house, surely someone loves the same music I do. Surely someone is in the same stage of life, with similar interests and values.

So why is it so easy to miss each other for years… or forever?

Social media promised connection. It didn’t deliver.

After two decades of smartphones, the irony is hard to miss: we’re more connected than ever online, and more disconnected than ever in real life.

The way we’ve built our physical world doesn’t help either. Suburban sprawl. Car dependency. Quick waves from behind windshields. Days spent staring at the medium screen so we can go home and scroll our little screen while “watching” the big one.

That’s not how community is supposed to work.

I want my kids growing up with neighbors who feel like family — the way many of us remember it being, or at least wish it had been.

Technology is a double-edged sword. Used poorly, it isolates us. Used well, it can do the opposite. It can unlock the conditions real friendships actually need: proximity, timing, and shared energy.

That’s why NeighborQuad exists.

As parts of our society feel increasingly fragmented, the answer isn’t more doom-scrolling. It’s stronger, more human communities — starting right where we live.

It’s time to stop waiting.

Time to look up from our phones.

Time to live where you reside.

-Dom

PS - credit to Mel Robbins for distilling the three pillars to friendship mentioned here. Her episode “Why Making Friends as an Adult Feels Impossible & What to Do About It” crystalized my thinking around the ideas for NeighborQuad.