O'Reilly Street, Parramatta, NSW 2150

It's a short street on the southern side of Parramatta. Most of the old houses are being replaced with apartments, making the traffic and street parking more and more difficult. The street is fairly close to Westfields Parramatta which is good if you like crowds and shopping. It's also walking distance from the rest of Parramatta city and that's convenient for meeting friends, catching trains, buses and the beautiful Parramatta Park. The noise pollution is not too bad though the street is one street away and parallel from Great Western Highway, but you get used to the traffic noise.
What's missing from the street is a sense of community with the whole suburb. I found my neighbours in my building were extremely nice and friendly, but beyond that you just don't get to know anyone. There are no community markets are community focus places. There is no village atmosphere where you can go to a local butcher and have a conversation for instance. Westfield tends to kill off any community spirit, and also kills off many small businesses trying to compete in the neighbourhood.
In the ten years I lived there I had two break-ins: one was into my lock-up garage, the other years later was into my car. The phone booth on the corner is constantly being vandalised.
THere are a few nice apartment blocks on the streets with some nice gardens, but there's one particular one on the corner of Pitt St which is horrendous, always graffitied, always with real estate signages out the front, always noisy.
I moved out 12 months ago and am now living on the coast where it's much more quiet, safe and where the people are friendlier.