<story><title>Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?</title><text>I live in a &amp;quot;Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S.&amp;quot; What can I do to help? It seems like the most common solution for people who are educated and well off is to move. To get out of the situation, which is understandable. However, this causes a brain drain and leave the city in a worse place.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t want to do that, I want to uplift if I can. What is the micro thing I can do today, that can have a chance of a macro change tomorrow?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikesabat</author><text>Also in a very objective way, I don&amp;#x27;t understand this reasoning. I&amp;#x27;ve never brought up the question before and hoping that HN can explain it in a logical way that I might understand.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s say that a neighborhood is rated 3 out of 10 - not very good. There is a mix of people that live in this neighborhood. Some people own property and some do not.&lt;p&gt;Then the community makes the neighborhood better and it rises to a 7 out of 10 ranking. The people in the community that own houses costs are fixed and they now recognize the improvement.&lt;p&gt;The part of the community that don&amp;#x27;t own eventually see their costs rise. At some point they can&amp;#x27;t afford to a community that ranks 7, might only be able to afford a community that ranks 3 and would need to move to a community with that ranking.&lt;p&gt;It seems like part of the original set that owns experiences a large and lasting benefit. Another part of the original set experiences a short term benefit, then a transaction cost (moving) and reverts back to the mean.&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain what this description misses and where the harm comes from?</text></item><item><author>Retric</author><text>I mean this in the most objective way possible.&lt;p&gt;The risk with urban improvement is making the area more desirable eventually prices people out of the community.  So, the real question is do you help the land or current residents?  When you own property it’s seriously worth considering local improvements for several reasons,  but it’s also easy to confuse the two.  Further, if most people in the community own property then there is a lot of overlap.&lt;p&gt;To be clear both are worthwhile, just be cognizant of what your goals are.  Anyway, if you want to help people I suggest either the young as changing the trajectory of someone’s life is easier early on, or the elderly because social inclusion scales well with individual effort.</text></item><item><author>burlesona</author><text>The single best thing you can do is pick a neighborhood - not the whole city - and invest deeply.&lt;p&gt;Get to know everyone in the neighborhood and understand what they want and need, then try to find ways to bring that.&lt;p&gt;When you have a strong network of neighbors and a little bit of cash, you can ramp up investment by cleaning up dirty corners and getting the basic services that a neighborhood is missing.&lt;p&gt;Here’s an example of how folks in Memphis, TN did this Over time: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&amp;#x2F;journal&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;this-is-what-we-can-do-together-md2020&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&amp;#x2F;journal&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;this-is-what-w...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you’re interested in connecting with people who already have this mindset, there are a lot of them in Strong Towns, and there may even be a group in your area.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>burlesona</author><text>This is a fair point except that neighborhoods are not fungible and are in short supply.&lt;p&gt;You’re assuming that there is another 3&amp;#x2F;10 neighborhood available for the people who are displaced to move to, and therefore they gain a short term benefit and eventually end up back where they were.&lt;p&gt;In practice it’s typical that older areas which have become run down have ample city services, such as transit, parks, and libraries, which may not be the best quality, but at least exist.&lt;p&gt;Since neighborhoods are no longer built with these amenities, the best available substitute for someone who is displaced from an old neighborhood may be far less desirable than what they had before - a 1&amp;#x2F;10 trailer park, or worse, homelessness.&lt;p&gt;However, if we would continue to build traditional neighborhoods that were walkable, had city services, had transit etc. and built enough of those to keep up with the demand, then it would be much more likely that your scenario would play out. In that case the harm of economic change in neighborhoods would be greatly reduced, perhaps even to the point that it wouldn’t be a problem anymore&lt;p&gt;But that’s quite far from the reality on the ground today.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?</title><text>I live in a &amp;quot;Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S.&amp;quot; What can I do to help? It seems like the most common solution for people who are educated and well off is to move. To get out of the situation, which is understandable. However, this causes a brain drain and leave the city in a worse place.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t want to do that, I want to uplift if I can. What is the micro thing I can do today, that can have a chance of a macro change tomorrow?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikesabat</author><text>Also in a very objective way, I don&amp;#x27;t understand this reasoning. I&amp;#x27;ve never brought up the question before and hoping that HN can explain it in a logical way that I might understand.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s say that a neighborhood is rated 3 out of 10 - not very good. There is a mix of people that live in this neighborhood. Some people own property and some do not.&lt;p&gt;Then the community makes the neighborhood better and it rises to a 7 out of 10 ranking. The people in the community that own houses costs are fixed and they now recognize the improvement.&lt;p&gt;The part of the community that don&amp;#x27;t own eventually see their costs rise. At some point they can&amp;#x27;t afford to a community that ranks 7, might only be able to afford a community that ranks 3 and would need to move to a community with that ranking.&lt;p&gt;It seems like part of the original set that owns experiences a large and lasting benefit. Another part of the original set experiences a short term benefit, then a transaction cost (moving) and reverts back to the mean.&lt;p&gt;Can someone explain what this description misses and where the harm comes from?</text></item><item><author>Retric</author><text>I mean this in the most objective way possible.&lt;p&gt;The risk with urban improvement is making the area more desirable eventually prices people out of the community.  So, the real question is do you help the land or current residents?  When you own property it’s seriously worth considering local improvements for several reasons,  but it’s also easy to confuse the two.  Further, if most people in the community own property then there is a lot of overlap.&lt;p&gt;To be clear both are worthwhile, just be cognizant of what your goals are.  Anyway, if you want to help people I suggest either the young as changing the trajectory of someone’s life is easier early on, or the elderly because social inclusion scales well with individual effort.</text></item><item><author>burlesona</author><text>The single best thing you can do is pick a neighborhood - not the whole city - and invest deeply.&lt;p&gt;Get to know everyone in the neighborhood and understand what they want and need, then try to find ways to bring that.&lt;p&gt;When you have a strong network of neighbors and a little bit of cash, you can ramp up investment by cleaning up dirty corners and getting the basic services that a neighborhood is missing.&lt;p&gt;Here’s an example of how folks in Memphis, TN did this Over time: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&amp;#x2F;journal&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;this-is-what-we-can-do-together-md2020&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&amp;#x2F;journal&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;5&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;this-is-what-w...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you’re interested in connecting with people who already have this mindset, there are a lot of them in Strong Towns, and there may even be a group in your area.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dontbeevil1992</author><text>moving is not just a reversion to the mean. A neighborhood is more than atomized individuals who live there. There can be a community of people which form a network and a support system that is many years old. Pricing certain people out can rip apart these communities, so it&amp;#x27;s not just a matter of relocating then continuing as you were.&lt;p&gt;Then there are the individual-level logistical problems. What does moving do to your commute? Is it easy to find a new job? Will your kids have to go to a different school district?</text></comment>