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About three years ago, we had a very unfortunate incident happen with a careless nanny in front of the doorman in which my then-three-year-old son’s safety was at stake.

As a thank-you to my doorman for basically rescuing my son from the situation and filling me in, I gave him a package of $100 worth of lottery tickets and scratch-offs with a note saying, “I hope this makes you as lucky as you made me.”

Ever since then, we’ve had an unspoken understanding.

Too often, neighbors communicate only in elevator soundbites or through bared teeth when something’s wrong. That’s not exactly the stuff strong social bonds are made of. A little lobby-side vino is, we think, a better cultivator of neighborliness.

It doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and you don't have to wait for the holidays.

“Two times a year our building gives a wine and cheese party sponsored by a local wine store,” says Leslie Modell Rosenthal, a Warburg Realty managing director who lives in the East 70s. “They hold it in the lobby so if shareholders are in a hurry, they can grab a glass and a quick conversation.”

All vertical villages are not alike--just look at what residents are saying on their buildings’ online bulletin boards.

“On the West Coast you’ll find more people writing recommendations about restaurants or other lifestyle things. In New York you find more ‘Type A’ postings—more evidence of people living with more time pressures,” says Jerry Kestenbaum, whose BuildingLink online communications tool is used by around 800 luxury apartment buildings in 17 states.

Looking for help to get through the day, he says, New Yorkers tend to ask neighbors for referrals to tutors, housekeepers, babysitters, and dog walkers.

Q. A co-op board member authorized his children to place a huge charity collection can for Haiti on the doorman's desk in the lobby. I think it's a nice gesture but totally inappropriate especially in a family building--pretty soon we're going to end up with 25 collection cans on the front desk.

What policies do other buildings have on fundraising activities by residents in the lobby?

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app i tease - v. To have one's appetite involuntarily stimulated by a neighbor's cooking aromas.

Ann's neighbors appitease her several times a week with their Italian cooking--usually after her own dinner, causing her to grow resentful and large.

Back in the early 70s, concerns over air quality caused New York City buildings to shift from garbage incinerators to trash chutes and compactors.

This was excellent news for roaches, rodents, flies and beetles, which scurried aboard the all-you-can-eat autobahns snaking through many of the city's apartment buildings. (More)

Four years ago, I started subscribing to the New York Times, the Daily News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Then one morning I heard the guy across the hall open his door and my newspapers were gone. The whole stack.

I let it go because I get the full set of papers comped at work, and also because it just wasn’t worth the confrontation: He was a really grumpy old man who just growled and grunted at people– like the man from the movie “Up” but 6’ 3”.

This went on for several years, until he died.

After that, I started to get the papers for about a month. Then one by one they started disappearing again, except for the Post.

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