One of the biggest differences between the suburbs and the city….in the burbs, organizations (such as churches or neighborhood associations) assume all members have been there for 20+ years and “know how things are done”. In the city, details are spelled out.
For example: suburban church says “nursery will be open in September”, meaning “after Labor Day”, but not specifying. Because, you know, it ALWAYS opens after Labor Day. Don’t you know that?
City church? “Nursery will open on Sept 11.” Clear. Informative. Anyone can see this detail and make plans.
I think that this is due, mostly, to the fact that that in the city, there are more transient folks. People who HAVEN’T been there for years and years, so they GET that.
We had another issue like this with our neighborhood association. Every year for Labor Day weekend, there is a big pig roast in the park. The neighborhood associate sends out the flyers with registration information, sign-up to help do things like give out drinks, etc.
Well, last year, we showed up (second year we’d gone) and there are a ton of tables set up by the event. We pulled up to one of the tables and put the boys and their stuff there.
Shortly afterwards, a woman came up and said that they’d “reserved” that table. Apparently, if you get to the event in the morning and put a TABLECLOTH on an event table, you have called “dibs” on it for the entire day.
This, mostly, is why we did not attend the event today. We kind of hate our neighborhood now.