I suspect you are projecting too much on their motives. It seemed to me to be a great place to establish neighborhood communities they could advertise to, with the side benefit of opening up communication inside the neighborhood as well.
What's unfortunate is how some people choose to communicate and fear monger. I've seen it used both positively and negatively- really depends on the neighbors.
Depending on the privacy agreement, would be very intriguing to see neighborhood sentiment analysis... Maybe pick out those racist neighborhoods to avoid (or join? Maybe you are into homogeneity).