Most grackle species prefer the neotropics, though the Common Grackle does live year-round as far north as the Great Lakes and well up the eastern seaboard.
Based on the apparent size of these birds, though, I'm going with crow/raven. Most grackles are quite a bit smaller than crows and have MUCH longer tails. Any info on where the pic was taken?
I'd hate living in that neighborhood. Crows annoy the holy living daylights out of me--I can't concentrate when there's any kind of loud, unmelodic, repetitive noise in my immediate environment. Exactly the kind of noise crows make ALL DAY LONG barking at each other about territory and calling friends in when they find food (like the garbage can some stupid monkey around here keeps leaving open because they don't think there are BEARS in Montana...). Luckily for me, the local crow population doesn't like cameras, so when they try to set up a territorial calling post right across the street or two trees down the block, I just put a camera lens on them until they go away. It used to take half an hour or more, but nowadays they'll swing by a couple of times in the spring and about 10 minutes does the trick. They are VERY smart and show every sign of recognizing me with or without my camera, coat, hat, etc. I have gotten some lovely action shots over the years
.