Johnson Square is a three-block area in a municipality of 100,000 located in a large Eastern metropolitan area. The Square has few institutions, such as governmental agencies, churches, or community groups, which might serve as important dispute processors. The Square is compact, racially and ethnically diverse, and composed of middle-class and working-class families. Interviews with residents yielded accounts of troubles and strategies for dealing with them that expressed common themes. First, entitlement to services is a strong principle in the neighborhood, and this feeling includes the right to have redress for grievances. Second, self-reliance in the handling of grievances is an important theme which appears to carry with it the belief that residents should initiate and control the process of resolving disputes, though they may turn to others (including those from whom they are entitled to receive services) for assistance. Finally, there is a strong sense that there is a proper order to follow in the pursuit of redress for troubles, moving from use of self-help to invocation of official intervention. In practice, most residents approach their troubles either by handling the dispute alone, by mobilizing networks of friends and neighbors, calling on city services, or in some instances turning to a 'neighborhood notable.' While neighborhood justice centers would not appear to fit naturally into the existing patterns for dispute resolution, it is possible that it could become of value if residents could see it as a means of approaching disputes when self-help efforts are frustrated and when the conflict is with an identifiable party. Six notes are listed.