A sense of belonging and interconnectedness is the most essential feature of a cohesive neighborhood, and gossip is the glue that makes this happen. We also tend to think of gossip as something that other people do, and we fail to recognize how many of our own conversations qualify as gossip. In my own neighborhood, gossip about what was going on in the backyard of a reclusive neighbor helped to identify an illegal automobile repair business, and other gossip alerted the neighborhood about a poorly controlled, very dangerous dog that was eventually removed by authorities. People get to know each other through casual day-to-day chit-chat about neighborhood business, and people come to trust each other through gossip. Just as any social group without gossip is not really a social group, a neighborhood without gossip is not really a neighborhood.