I was a latch key kid also. When I was 4, I used to stay home alone while my parents were at work. My parents were not ballahs, they could not afford to send me to pre-school. Granted I grew up in a new subdivision mostly consisted of people/married couples in their 30's with a new house. There was only a handful of kids I knew of around my age down the street. I used to ride my bike all over the place. My parents would turn off the breaker to the oven, so I wouldn't burn the house down. After talking to my parents about this recently, they say they were lucky no one called the cops or CPS on them. During kindergarten to the beginning of first grade I used to walk a half mile to school and back. Nothing ever happened. I was lucky to be able to get a bike. I actually believe I got more hurt on a bike travelling to and from school because of trying to do stupid tricks on various ramps I could see than from just walking.
Before, I used make my son ride his bike around the block. At first he was hesitant because of what his mom and aunt would say, "What if this and that." Hell he could not even walk to his grandparents house afterschool just about 400 meters away. After all my talking to him to finally just say f**k it and prove them wrong. Needless to say, he walks to his grandparents house afterschool now.
I live in a great neighborhood. The one neighbor on the side of me is always home because he just retired a few years ago. The other neighbor on the other side of me, the stay at home mom/grandma is home majority of the time also. The one neighbor in the back is another stay at home mom with 3 year old and an infant. So yeah, we hear the neighborhood gossip every now and then. But bottom line, we alert each other about suspicious people/activities. It's common for one of us to run out with our cell phones and video or take pics of suspicious cars/people.