Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25007697

by davidn20 • 6 years ago

479 324 6 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I live in a "Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S." 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.

I don'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?

seasoup• 6 years ago

Get involved in the cities government by volunteering, or serving on a city commission. Just start showing up to city council meetings and start learning what is going on and who the players are. You’ll figure out a way to help there.

aklemm• 6 years ago

That right there is it. You'll have opportunity galore once you're privy to what's going on and what's needed.

totalperspectiv• 6 years ago

Seconding the 'go to city council meetings.' Hearing first hand what goes on there will be helpful, and depending on the format, you can directly speak on issues you care about.

specialist• 6 years ago

Agreed.

Just showing up has an impact. I guarantee that simply being present will change everyone's behavior. Most meetings most of the time have no audience. If you keep showing up, you'll eventually figure out what's what.

My next piece of advice is to get on your representative's calendar. Pick an issue, any issue. No matter how small. Like fixing potholes or improving a road crossing. State the problem, propose a solution, make an ask, be cordial. 5 minutes. Then do it again. You likely won't "win" at first. Tenacious wins in the long run. At some point, politicians will do what you ask, just to make you go away.

I guarantee that there's a local issue, the more local the better, that you care about, that needs your attention. Anything and everything you can imagine is on the agenda at some point during the year.

davidn204• 6 years ago

Looks like I'll need to do some research on the city government. Thanks!

dr_dshiv• 6 years ago

Be present in public areas. Plant flowers.

the-dude• 6 years ago

Or put them in your hair. Or is that dated?

blamestross2• 6 years ago

Cities are the way they are because people are desperate for work and the income to survive and they are the only visible supply.

Advocate for basic income. Specifically basic income without any local cost of living adjustment. Address the source of the problem.

A basic income without CoL adjustment fundamentally breaks the system forcing people to cram themselves into cities and compete over resources. It will result in people who decide to rely on it leaving cities and moving to lower cost of living areas (revitalizing those areas too) if cities don't serve their needs.

ed25519FUUU• 6 years ago

So, provide basic income and then magically wave a wand over anything in finite supply to keep it from inflating in price?

blamestross2• 6 years ago

Yes there will be inflation but it won't be unbounded and it won't be even everywhere. Cities will see increases faster because of higher demand, people on BI will have to move away from them. As long as BI is not locally CoL adjusted (Pinning to a National or State CoL value would be ok) supply and demand will adjust to the inflation.

r_singh• 6 years ago

That depends on where you can be most useful.

IMO: You could start a non-profit to train homeless/underprivileged people with vocational skills to get jobs, which would probably in the long run save some people from going down the wrong path...

Eric_WVGG3• 6 years ago

Would you mind linking to the list you’re referring to?

My off-the-cuff thought was, “join Transportation Alternatives and push for more bike lanes, public transit, etc.”, as I see automobiles as one of the most significant dangers to both urban areas and even the planet. But when I google "ten most dangerous cities," they seem to list places whose danger is more poverty-driven.

bpt37• 6 years ago

Automobiles (and their drivers) kill, maim, or injure significantly fewer people than intentionally aggressive individuals in major cities. For example, in 2017 there were 343 murders in Baltimore [0] (which I knew would be on the list before looking for one) vs. 38 fatalities due to car accidents [1].

Here's an example of a list: https://www.statista.com/statistics/217685/most-dangerous-ci...

These lists are based on crime rates, which to my point above, are driven by more immediate threats to life than indirect ones like the contribution of car exhaust to global warming.

[0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/baltimore-homicide-murder-rate-...

[1] http://www.city-data.com/accidents/acc-Baltimore-Maryland.ht...

sacred_numbers• 6 years ago

That's highly misleading. Overall cars kill way more people than murderers (at least double) in America. Baltimore just happens to be at the top of the list for murders per capita and apparently slightly below average for auto fatalities. For most cities there is a greater chance of dying from a car crash than from being murdered.

andor• 6 years ago

I think the point was that a street full of car traffic is much less liveable than a street full of cyclists and pedestrians.

Cars are still dangerous and noisy which leads to a stressful atmosphere. Many hide in their cars as if they were tanks, afraid of connecting with anyone outside.

What's needed instead is people coming together to form a community.

Scott_Sanderson• 6 years ago

Those are just the direct costs. Cars also make a lot of air pollution, which is the #1 killer worldwide. Enabling/enforcing sedentary life, noise pollution, crowding out streets are other indirect but large costs.

Edit: you could add in the costs of minimum parking requirements, which crowd out housing and increase housing prices.

8note4• 6 years ago

I'm not sure it's right to generalize the danger of murder to have equal chance for everyone, in the same way that it is for the danger of the car

pjc50• 6 years ago

By comparison, there were 650 murders in the entire United Kingdom of 67 million people.

Something different needs to be tried. I would suggest looking at the Violence Reduction Unit: http://www.svru.co.uk/

arnoooooo• 6 years ago

People driving instead of walking or bicycling will be in poorer health, so you'd have to account for that as well, plus the consequences of air pollution, stress from noise, etc.

davidn204• 6 years ago

Yep, those are the cities I'm referring too. I wanted to know what people can do to help poverty-stricken cities.

nine_k• 6 years ago

If you want to help some poor but able fellow, hire him / her to do some job, and pay reasonably well. Even a one-time job.

Acquring money is an obvious way to get out of poverty. But living on handouts kills morale.

mitchdoogle• 6 years ago

I think you might be in a minority of people that hear "dangerous" and then think about transportation first. My guess would be most people think of danger as violent crimes. At the same time, people are aware of other types of accidental deaths, but may view those differently because they feel they have more control over them.

klyrs• 6 years ago

Transportation and crimes are related, if indirectly. In many major cities, it's hard to get a legit job if you don't have a car, because you can't get to work reliably. Folks who live in poverty and don't have access to legit work will do something to make money, and crimes ensue.

Bikes might not be a great solution in these areas -- they're easy to steal and somewhat unreliable due to weather and other factors. And, if somebody already feels that they're taking a risk hiring a poor person... is it going to help if they're showing up sweaty? Perceptions matter on both sides of the equation -- I won't apply for a job if I don't think that I'd last a week.

Rather than focus on the impact of cars, which is a bit of a "boil the ocean" solution, it would be directly impactful to fund a local restauranteur. It makes local jobs, and makes the neighborhood more livable and walkable.

If I had a billion dollars, I'd do an incubator for small, local businesses focused on sustainability, not disruption.

Eric_WVGG3• 6 years ago

yeah, I mean, I'm definitely in the minority of what I think. My life is regularly threatened by reckless drivers, and being a strong, tall-ish white dude, I don't get messed with on the street very often.

That said, I think the numbers back up my perspective. Violent crime just isn't what it was back in the seventies, but we're still in the mindset that danger = criminals.

throwaway0a5e7• 6 years ago

A few major urban areas with high cost of ownership and good alternative options aside, a car is a self-compounding step out of poverty to most poor people and their problem with them is one of cost.

To tell these people that cars are their problem is tone deaf at best. They have a million bigger problems.

Eric_WVGG3• 6 years ago

yeah, that's why I asked

refurb4• 6 years ago

Exactly. When you're an educated, middle class white person, it's easy to say "ditch the car! just get a place near transit. makes it easy to ride downtown to your office job".

What about the poor people who can't afford to live near transit? Or have jobs nowhere near transit? A car is often a requirement for them. And sure, maybe they can take a bus with a couple transfers, but then their commute goes from 45 mins to 90 mins.

willmeyers• 6 years ago

Pick up litter around your block. Smile and wave to neighbors. Become active in and or donate to community projects. Spread a general sense of kindness and support to others near you. These are the smallest and easiest things you can do that'll have an impact on people.

uberman4• 6 years ago

I echo this. I read someplace (can't recall now where) that once people see other trash in an area they are more likely to litter there themselves. Few people want to be the first to litter in the park, but if it is full of litter then who cares right?

npteljes• 6 years ago

I think you're remembering the broken windows theory [0], is that right? The a theory that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

cpursley• 6 years ago

This is the correct answer. Lead by example, start a movement and the political solutions will follow.

deanebarker• 6 years ago

Smile and wave to neighbors.

Yes. Increase "social capital."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital

_fool• 6 years ago

I like to think of this as having a tremendous ripple effect - when I smile and thank the postman, he smiles at the next person he sees and maybe they're nice to the worker in the drive through at the restaurant, who goes home 1% less frustrated to their family.

Probably a bit overstated in that example, but if you walk around doing it consistently, I think that on average you're still making a small difference, while fighting apathy and politics of hate.

bigwavedave• 6 years ago

Social capital

Interesting, I've always used this phrase to mean "I have a certain amount of energy to spend at a social event before having to go home and recharge." Example: "I spent all my social capital visiting my wife's parents yesterday, can we move game night to tomorrow night?"

TIL the phrase already has an actual meaning- one that's different. Thank you!

omarhaneef2• 6 years ago

I know someone who has a great position at a well known financial firm. He had the cops called on him twice (he ends up taking long conference calls in his car outside).

The first time the cop was apologetic.

The second time the same cop recognizes him and says, "Dude, you have got to get to know your neighbors. Pie goes a long way."

gibolt• 6 years ago

Calls in cars are a nuisance. They are extremely loud for some reason in a way that music rarely is, piercing through a car's exterior.

impendia• 6 years ago

Wait, he was just taking phone calls in a parked car? Is there something objectionable with that?

If my neighbors called the police on me for that, my first thought wouldn't be to bake pie for them.

davidn204• 6 years ago

Love this. As the cliché goes, "be the change you want to see." Thanks!

mybandisbetter2• 6 years ago

In addition to being a quality human in these ways, I'd recommend googling "tactical urbanism." That means: do quick, low-cost interventions in your neighbourhood, like painting a mural on the street, building flower boxes, or creating a pocket park. (Should probably get permission, but for some things, just do it). This all helps attract people to the street and builds a sense of ownership, which encourages folks to make more improvements, creating self-reinforcing momentum. All this reduces local crime, both because of eyes-on-the-street and because it creates a feeling that people are paying attention and care about the place.

If you have abandoned commercial spaces, put art up in the empty windows to reduce the feeling that a place has been abandoned. If your streets feel dangerous because of traffic, work with local leaders to get approval for making low-cost changes to make it safer. For example, you can create sidewalk bumpouts using simple flower boxes. Talk to local lenders about what they can do to help local businesses get off the ground.

Be warned that if all this is successful, it risks leading to a big jump in housing prices, i.e., gentrification. Keep in mind that "gentrification" also tends to make local residents wealthier — it's not as simple as the usual picture in which locals are simply pushed out. However, it is important to start thinking now about solutions, because this will lead to some push-back. Ideally, the city or nonprofits should buy land now while property values are cheap to create housing trusts for low-income residents. This will always be a tough issue though.

There is a lot of small actions you can take locally to shift the momentum of your community. Lots of people have done it — you can do it.

Source: I'm an urban planner.

mybandisbetter2• 6 years ago

I could give you my email address if you would like to discuss further. There is lots of good research on all of this.

georgeoliver• 6 years ago

Keep in mind that "gentrification" also tends to make local residents wealthier — it's not as simple as the usual picture in which locals are simply pushed out.

I'm genuinely curious to see your sources on this -- isn't displacement of original residents the primary definition of gentrification?

omosubi2• 6 years ago

Is there any evidence that putting art in empty windows actually helps? i see that a lot and I always find it kind of beseeching. Similarly my neighborhood has been putting up murals as an attempt to spur business development and it feels like I'm being sold on the neighborhood all the time.

here's a particularly egregious example: https://doc-0s-ak-mymaps.googleusercontent.com/untrusted/hos...

It's frustrating that graffiti is seen so negatively. of course I'm against vandalism and it certainly doesn't belong on building facades but I'd take a wall of mediocre graffiti that's constantly refreshed over a business development funded mural any day. at least graffiti is honest

sevensor• 6 years ago

Get involved in local politics. Observe council meetings and school board meetings and committee meetings. Whatever is public. This stuff can be boring; you'll observe pointless personality clashes and interminable dumb arguments, but at the same time, this is where important decisions that affect your community get made. Once you understand the issues, you can work to influence policy in the direction that you think is best for your city. You can do this by offering comments during public comment sessions, organizing a group of like-minded people, or even running for office yourself.

It's a big time committment, but this is how change happens. We like to malign our political system, but it's set up for you to participate, and that's something we should cherish.

wincy• 6 years ago

My friend got involved in local politics and suddenly found herself moving out of the district because her landlord got a call informing him he hadn’t acquired the proper license to rent to her. There’s a lot of “soft” corruption, suddenly enforcing laws that never get enforced, and it’s really shitty, and any little thing in your past will come under scrutiny.

She was running against the incumbent and they pulled up whatever dirt they could to get her to move out of the district.

throwaway0a5e7• 6 years ago

At least she presumably took her life lesson about government to the next district. Unfortunate that her landlord had to deal with the headache though.

Jackim• 6 years ago

I'd recommend reading some of Jane Jacob's work, specifically The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It illustrates the ideas of street life and what makes great places.

As for a direct idea, I'd try to get to know your neighbours, walk in your neighbourhood as often as possible, and support your local businesses.

AirMax982• 6 years ago

Also immediately thought of Jane Jacobs when I read this post, particularly the concept of "eyes on the street".

alex_duf• 6 years ago

My completely uneducated guesses would be

- campaign for whatever local government you deem aligns with your value if they aren't controlling your area

- create value and employment

Easier said than done, I'm doing none of these

hprotagonist• 6 years ago

"community organizer" is not a bad word. It means that you should walk into your local YMCA, public library, boys and girls club, food pantry, homeless shelter, religious center, etc. of your choosing, find someone who looks like they're too busy and thus must be in charge, and say "Hi, I'm Bob. I have Mondays free for the foreseeable future. What do you need?"

Then, pay attention, show up every Monday promptly on time, and see where you wind up.

vharuck• 6 years ago

If you join a volunteering group, you should decide after a couple meetings if it's worth staying with that group or finding another. It's not just whether you agree with their mission but also their social dynamics.

There's no "best setup" here; it's whatever you'd enjoy most. It's hard to help people if you're unhappy doing it. You may prefer a "show up, help, leave" deal, or something more like a social club that meets over drinks to plan events and chat about life. So don't feel discouraged if your first group doesn't feel right.

munificent• 6 years ago

I want to emphasize how important this point is.

With work—stuff that you're paid to do—everyone on the team has some shared incentives that can help foster alignment and consensus. Everyone wants stuff to get done because you and your team are in 100% agreement about wanting those paychecks to keep coming. Even with that, there is often drama and office politics.

With community organization, hobbies, etc. everyone is in it for the instrinsic rewards, and those vary widely among people. Some will be in it to meet new friends, others like seeing a neighborhood visibly look better. Some like the sense of power, others the sense of belonging.

It is really easy to end up in a group whose personalities and goals are too different to work together effectively, through no real fault of any individual. Like any relationship, you may have to try a few before something gels.

fennecfoxen2• 6 years ago

Poor and dangerous cities usually suffer from a lack of institutional capital.

Historically the answer would be: go to church. More likely you’re not religious, so go to a similar regular event that places you in touch with your neighbors in the city. Join a committee or a choir or a volunteer group or arts group or the like that serves the community.

Do not join an organization dedicated solely to political advancement of its preferred party, at least not as a substitute for this. It is at serious risk of being more about power and less about helping, particularly in a bottom-ten city, and will be an inferior way to gain social capital and trust. If you do join one later you can use your connections to the community to make power more accountable to the community.

TimTheTinker• 6 years ago

Poor and dangerous cities usually suffer from a lack of institutional capital.

It's also worth noting that philanthropy has the biggest long-lasting positive impact when funds move into and through local centers of institutional capital.

Building the institutional capital is the hard part. No amount of money thrown at a problem will fix it in the long term without the local institutional capital, and a shared and transmittable wordview that keeps it alive across generations. Churches were indeed the historical local institution that endured across generations in the United States for many generations past, but those also fed into non-parochial committees that would tackle local projects.

I'm generalizing primarily from knowledge of the history of my own city. It's the most beautiful city for miles around. It had many churches in its early history (there's still a single block with 5 historic church buildings and a YWCA), and also had rich benefactors starting about 110 years ago who formed committees and built a lot of beautiful things here, including a beautiful Moorish architecture library, a series of beautiful parks, and a 2500-seat amphitheater which still hosts a free concert/show series every summer.

sto_hristo• 6 years ago

Put on a sexy spandex suit and go kick some ass at night XD

hackeraccount• 6 years ago

underrated answer.

marwan-nwh• 6 years ago

Love this one :)

indigochill• 6 years ago

Somehow Gotham never gets better, though...

chrsw2• 6 years ago

Personally I feel like if I want to try to make even a small impact on the world around me I'd have to make a profound impact on my own life. And I've never been prepared to do this. I could be wrong though.

_bfhp• 6 years ago

Have you read "Wherever You Go, There You Are"?

chrsw2• 6 years ago

Never heard of it. Just looked it up. Looks interesting. Thanks.

chadlavi• 6 years ago

Pay your taxes. Vote for the interests of the working poor. Volunteer with organizations that improve the material conditions of unhoused people in your area.

Taikonerd• 6 years ago

Strong Towns talks a lot about this: https://www.strongtowns.org/

They have a philosophy that centers on "small bets" (trying things that aren't disasters if they don't work) and economic rejuvenation.

cyrialize• 6 years ago

I've recently gotten interested in repairing technology. I bought the recommended tools from iFixit and I've been using them to fix up my wife's MBP Mid-2012 Unibody (one of the best laptops to fiddle with in my opinion).

Due to all of this I realized that I have just enough knowledge to help others with their computers - or at least I have the right tools. Once I'm more confident, I'm planning on starting a Repair Cafe[1] in my city.

Repair is daunting for a lot of people - but it doesn't have to be. I hope to use the Repair Cafe as a way to improve the longevity of people's technology (saving them money) as well as teaching people the skills and knowledge they need to fix things on their own.

With even more reliance on technology these days - especially due to COVID - repair is a great way to help struggling families save money.

[1] https://repaircafe.org/en/

f_allwein• 6 years ago

What about working with local youth to help them develop their skills? There's this cool initiative in the UK - maybe similar things exist in the US?

https://speakoutchallenge.com/

awinder• 6 years ago

Become mindful of local-independent shopping options. Putting dollars into the places in your community where it will stay in your community is one of the better options that is well-controllable by individuals.

_wp3r2• 6 years ago

Actively participate in government budgeting meetings, and attempt to prevent staffing creep. Bloat/bureaucracy will kill any community ownership that inhabitants might have.

Ensure that employees that are not performing are being fired. Speak in meeting about the need to adhere to performance reviews with metrics. If you do not keep our city departments heads in check they will break your city, because their job depends on it. Remove any pension plan for government employees, all they do is encourage stagnation, change them to 401k or TSP style programs.

Any nonprofit is mostly a band aid, while small wins can be rewarding they are more or less pointless in the long run.

The only way to improve the Top 10 cities is personal ownership change among the minority of the population that mostly just doesn't give a shit about anyone else. Litter is probably the easiest indicator of the give a shit factor. Everything else you do that does not directly impact community ownership is just lipstick on a pig.

The easiest way to fix community ownership is move people out of big cities and into cities with more direct social pressure to have ownership/not be a dirt bag.

The harder way is to reduce bureaucracy and blockers for small business and citizens. Not income taxes, but all the hidden taxes that hit small businesses, tap fees, permit fees, occupation tax, inspection fees, sewer tap fees, storm water fees, employee fees, inventory taxes, the list goes on and on and on and on. The impact of these taxes are amplified by the timelines, which are regularly measured in years, which almost no startup or small business entrepreneur can tolerate capital wise. These barrier fees and artificially long timelines are most prevalent in big cities, and make it nearly impossible for anyone other than large national brands to navigate/afford. Those national brands just remove revenue from the community, which encourages these small governments to keep passing more and more upfront fees/taxes and the cycle repeats until there are nearly no local small business owners left. (Tenant/renter small businesses are generally the only ones that remain after about 20-30 years of this cycle. ie convenience stores and restaurants)

Working for John/Sally your neighbor will fundamentally change your world view of your community. If citizens do not personally see their community being successful they will simple check out of social/civic give a shit process.

Working for HR also changes your world view and the result is not positive.

The people that will drive change in a community are the small business owners and workers not the bureaucrats/politicians that have never done anything in there life except talk about how growing the budget will solve "insert random issue" problem.

amanaplanacanal4• 6 years ago

How do you implement that “easiest way” you mention? That sounds more like the hardest way.

_wp3r2• 6 years ago

Those programs have existed for awhile(Federally run), easiest in terms of faster and higher efficacy, but low adoption rates make them difficult, they also only encourage the individual/family to socially participate.

The side effect is those that don't leave are/become generally even more anti-community, so generally makes the situation in urban centers get worse over time. Unless you remove some critical mass of people quickly.

nine_zeros• 6 years ago

The best thing you can do is mentor youth and encourage them to seek education and employment in a rising or at least mid-level city.

The long term trend is urbanization and clusterization of industries and homes. This means a lot of old cities and rural areas which were built around one factory will not grow back up. This is just reality.

The youth have a lot of their life still left. The sooner they invest their lives in rising cities, the better.

burlesona4• 6 years ago

The single best thing you can do is pick a neighborhood - not the whole city - and invest deeply.

Get to know everyone in the neighborhood and understand what they want and need, then try to find ways to bring that.

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.

Here’s an example of how folks in Memphis, TN did this Over time: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/5/21/this-is-what-w...

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.

Retric3• 6 years ago

I mean this in the most objective way possible.

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.

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.

musingsole• 6 years ago

By being cognizant of these effects, you can probably accomplish both at once. Improve your community with an eye towards projects that empower the residents -- even if they were to move away. Things like financial education/mentoring or around-the-house handyman type skills sharing.

tedsanders• 6 years ago

I think your concern is valid but unfounded. This is fortunate - otherwise the way to help the poor would be to vandalize their neighborhoods, which is a strange conclusion.

It's true that increasing quality of a neighborhood will increase its housing price. This will have disparate impact: (1) it will help people who enjoy higher quality, but (2) it will hurt people who would prefer low quality and lower price. However, I think it's important to remember that the stock of people and housing are mostly fixed. If you raise the quality of one neighborhood so that more people bid to move in, then at the same time there must be other unobserved neighborhoods where prices fall. Therefore there is also a third effect of making a neighborhood nicer: (3) it can lower prices in other neighborhoods.

One way I like to visualize it is as a supply curve - if you move some neighborhoods up in the desirability ranking, then by conservation of rank, others necessarily fall in rank.

The argument I sketched above isn't a proof, obviously. There are edge cases where higher quality induces more people to own multiple homes or to live with fewer roommates, and nuances where heterogeneous preference for locations may make it harder on someone who needs to commute to their job and really would be better served by a cheap neighborhood, but for the most part I think it's reasonable that making neighborhoods nice is an overall positive good for the world.

James_Henry4• 6 years ago

If it is more desirable, then you build more housing, it should be as simple as that. If you build enough housing, rents won't rise.

mikesabat2• 6 years ago

Also in a very objective way, I don't understand this reasoning. I've never brought up the question before and hoping that HN can explain it in a logical way that I might understand.

Let'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.

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.

The part of the community that don't own eventually see their costs rise. At some point they can'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.

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.

Can someone explain what this description misses and where the harm comes from?

beat• 6 years ago

This is the gentrification problem. Make the community more desirable, and you make it increasingly more expensive for the existing residents. It's hard to balance these things.

In the case of Minneapolis, the city committed to a plan (Minneapolis2040) to increase housing density. And a lot of that new apartment/condo construction (mostly on unused or old industrial land) is necessarily out of financial reach for average residents. But the increased supply helps protect the prices for the existing houses and older apartments, whether privately owned or rentals.

It's not perfect, it's arguably not even good, but it's a tradeoff most Minneapolis residents can live with.

throwaway17772• 6 years ago

Now you know why people support rent control despite it being repeatedly shown to have negative economic impact.

908B64B197• 6 years ago

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it when starting a project.

That's like worrying the infrastructure won't scale when you barely have enough users to keep the one server you rent busy.

dionidium2• 6 years ago

This comes up a lot in progressive urbanist circles. My favorite example was something Matthew Yglesias mentioned once on the Weeds about how some progressives opposed planting trees in D.C. because trees raise property values.

I think this is a total non-starter. Trees are good, not bad. Good things are good, not bad.

It is good to do good things. If doing good things reveals something bad, then we should work on fixing that bad thing, not on avoiding the good things that uncovered the bad thing.

We want a politics where poor people can live in neighborhoods with trees, not a politics that says trees are bad because they make neighborhoods too desirable.

205guy2• 6 years ago

There were 2 replies that I want to summarize together: empowering the current residents as part of the renewal, and rent control.

I think as part of the urban improvement is to work with the renters and landlords to let the renters capture some of the rising value, either through some sort of equity rent-to-own, or creative financing that lets the renters find other housing within the neighborhood. Maybe some sort of buy-out conversion from private landlords to private-benefit-corporation landlord (as opposed to public housing).

The alternative is localized rent control, that makes sure that the landlords don't capture the rising value of the neighborhood that is being added by the residents and their work. You also need some limits on redevelopment, so the landlord doesn't just replace the building with something more upscale and manage to replace the tenants as part of that. Maybe allow refurbishing and some new units in exchange for current residents getting rent control.

dec0dedab0de• 6 years ago

for a year I lived in a city on a nice block that was near some not so nice blocks. One thing we had that the other blocks did not, was an old lady with a bunch of brooms that knocked on everyones door once a month and made us all sweep. It really made a difference.

yobert• 6 years ago

This is so great. Old ladies that will not be argued with should never be underestimated.

ticviking• 6 years ago

Every community needs a tough old biddy like that.

There's a reason that the single word I know in the most languages is "Grandmother".

If yours doesn't have that, then... be the Bubbie your Bubbie would insist is needed or something to that effect

bserge3• 6 years ago

If you do all that, it would make a lot of sense to then run for mayor or at least some local government position.

bko• 6 years ago

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.

I don't think you need a network to begin cleaning up dirty corners.

Just pick up garbage you see on the street when you walk around. It has an immediate impact, is easy and doesn't cost anything. Other people may see it and may begin doing that as well. I'm surprised more people don't do.

If you want, you can make a facebook group telling people you're going to be picking up garbage at a certain time, if anyone would like to join.

Garbage on the street has a very negative externality as people are less mindful of tossing garbage if there is already garbage on the street. It also strips people of dignity about where they live and can have other negative side-effects to the neighborhood or even promote lawlessness.

mikesabat2• 6 years ago

True that picking up trash is a direct action that doesn't take many resources. (reminds me to go sweep the alley after hitting reply).

Cleaning up the trash on a block might be the most direct first action that anyone can take.

I think the poster was also using this as a metaphor.

burlesona4• 6 years ago

This is a fair point, but FWIW I worded this the way I did because I think the network of neighbors is ultimately more important than the physical work, and should have top priority.

But you’re right that you can start by picking up trash, and in fact that can be a good mechanism to meet the neighbors and build the network, depending on how you approach it.

bluntfang2• 6 years ago

I think it's important to know the people who's corner you're trying to clean, lest you been perceived in a way you didn't intend. I'm not saying you should ask permission, per se, but some people find it offensive when outsiders come in and try to fix problems without context.

PopeDotNinja• 6 years ago

Just put a Buddha statue on the corner!

https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-19/how-buddhist-shrine-t...

peterwoerner2• 6 years ago

Sure but the network is the thing which gives you leverage to do more than what you can do by yourself.

matheusmoreira• 6 years ago

doesn't cost anything

It costs time.

spodek3• 6 years ago

I recently passed day 1,300 of picking up at least one piece of trash per day. It's not my only civic contribution, but it's deeply rewarding. I've also switched from jogging to plogging.

Some results:

It's gotten me on TV a couple times.

It's led to working with my city councilman, whose team recently started organizing group pickups.

Someone considering a Senate run contacted me for advice on sustainability.

I'm working with a few corporations to organize nationwide pickup events -- mainly fitness places you'd probably know the names of.

As a regular in my local park, the drug dealers there have become friendly with me, leading to long conversations about life.

I'm friends with entrepreneurs in the field.

People often thank me and we talk.

It reinforces my diet. I avoid packaged food, which I find increasingly disgusting, largely for what the packaging does to the world and the entitlement, willful ignorance, and salt/sugar/fat/convenience addiction does to our culture.

Most of all, I feel connected to my community.

On the downside, my view of human nature can get dark when I consider how much people pollute.

elil17• 6 years ago

I think the network is less of a means and more of an ends. When people have relationships in their community, they have access to support (e.g. someone to make sure their home isn't broken into while they're away or financial support in an emergency) - that's way more important for a city than clean sidewalks.

lostsoul8282• 6 years ago

I agree! We tend to think of things on a grand scale beacuse that's what we see in the media but the truth is there is more visible impact on a local level as you can impact day to day much better.

Great site and thanks for sharing!

diegoholiveira• 6 years ago

Great advice.

I would complement saying that you should look for charities in or around your neighbourhood instead of giving to charities that doesn't affect the place you live directly (but if you super rich, do both).

fudged713• 6 years ago

You should listen to the NYT podcast “Nice White Parents”.

Neighbourhood improvement with good intentions can cause systemic problems in a community

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-paren...

MagnumOpus• 6 years ago

Can you summarise? Listening for five hours of chit-chat seems to be excessive to.find out about what might be an anecdote that is not generalisable.

newguy1234• 6 years ago

This personally saved my house during the recent CA wildfires. We have community events where we cut down brush behind the community. The fires burned up to the area where we stopped cutting the brush and it allowed for enough buffer to basically have the firefighters suppress it!

atwebb• 6 years ago

Thanks for linking that article, I'm not sure if you're native to the area but there have been a lot of good changes in a city that needs them. It feels more community oriented than investment/cash driven from some other cities I've seen but that may be the lens I choose to put on it.

playingchanges• 6 years ago

This is great advice but wanted to emphasize if you’re looking to make a huge impact with pretty much no money just grab some trash bags and pick a block in need.

Trash in the street is one of the biggest problems you’ll see in neglected low income neighborhoods and it just feels so much different when the street gets cleaned up.

205guy2• 6 years ago

I want to second that and add: grab a few tools and do some basic landscaping. Remove weeds and cut grass that is growing over curbs and sidewalks. Make it look tidy again.

recursive4• 6 years ago

I second this.

I spent 3-4 hours per day sitting on a park-bench in NYC reading, playing guitar, and writing between Jan-June of this year (and before you ask, I work a 9am to 5am). If you keep a friendly disposition and are welcoming by saying hello when people take notice of you, they will open up quickly – I must note with full sincerity and severity that this assumes you listen and ask thoughtful questions; people are quick to sense when someone is not genuinely and empathetically interested in them.

I've made friends with musicians (and had some great impromptu jam sessions), homeless people, CEOs, software engineers, mentally ill, folks addicted to hard drugs, guys formerly homeless, people who were in prison for a decade and trying to get by and reconnect with their kids, students, tourists, professionals, hourly-workers, and everyone in-between.

Now if you live in an area with a low-density of foot traffic this will not work and I do not have first-hand advice besides, perhaps, move to a more densely populated area. That you asked this question speaks to what you're looking for in this life.

AirMax982• 6 years ago

If you have the means to do so and live in the right climate — winter is approaching — plant a garden. It doesn't have to be anything large, I personally keep about 20-30 potted plants outside my door during the spring and summer.

This will do two things: A) Get you out on the block as you tend to your plants, where you can now serve as eyes on the street. B) Serve as a visual testament to people passing through your neighborhood that this is a place where people care about.

jessecurry• 6 years ago

Elect socially liberal, fiscally conservative leadership.

leesec• 6 years ago

Two choices really:

Either you put in your own effort as an organizer/leader/etc...

Or you put in effort to make money and donate it to the causes.

ggreer• 6 years ago

Every broken city is broken in its own way. Heck, every neighborhood is broken in its own way. Unless you're more specific about what is going on, the advice you'll get here will be not be effective.

gitgud• 6 years ago

"What is the micro thing I can do today, that can have a chance of a macro change tomorrow?"

You could to a small thing, making your home exterior look presentable. By cleaning/improving the outside of your home, you have a positive impact on the rest of the community. After that, you can try helping neighbours improve their homes and the area will slowly improve...

This is related to the [1] Broken Window Theory.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory#:~:text=....

pleasedodisturb• 6 years ago

Last time I encountered mentions of [1] was in "Humankind" by Bregman, and there he says it was not really "scientific" experiment, stretched some facts.

https://www.ft.com/content/63803e14-95d9-11ea-af4b-499244625...

mcculley• 6 years ago

A small thing: Take responsibility for your neighborhood. I like to run in the park next door to my home (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Eola_Park). When someone discards a spent cigarette onto the ground around me, I pick it up, give it back to them, and point them to the nearest wastebasket.

skrtskrt3• 6 years ago

Fight for just housing/zoning policies and against NIMBYism

Join orgs supporting the homeless and fighting against the criminalization of homelessness.

Buy from locally-owned businesses that treat their employees well. Not the gentrifying upscale cafes and restaurants and boutiques

VLM• 6 years ago

That stuff is nice, but in the context of OPs original request, how would any of that lower the rape rate in OPs city? Or the murder rate?

mc10• 6 years ago

Improving the quality of life for a significant proportion of the population can have major effects on violent crime. A great example is Medellín, Columbia: see this reddit post[1] for a good summary.

[1] https://np.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/ib6eh2/a_tale_of... (I would turn off subreddit style for now)

mcv• 6 years ago

I think the idea is that people are less likely to rape and murder each other in a city that is well-run, where people know each other, and nobody is in a desperate situation where they feel they have nothing left to lose.

I think there are two big factors that drive people to crime: desperation and lack of accountability. Lack of accountability can also come from the anonymity that comes with different demographics not knowing each other. Desperation can come from poverty or extreme social inequality.

cj• 6 years ago

My guess is that violence rates increase in areas without much economic opportunity (which also incentivizes illegal means of supporting oneself financially). If that’s the case, this seems like a sensible suggestion from the GP:

Buy from locally-owned businesses that treat their employees well.

Similarly, is the rate of violence connected with the affordability / availability of decent housing?

If so, zoning / affordable housing initiatives as suggested by the GP may be relevant.

cactus2093• 6 years ago

Fight for just housing/zoning policies and against NIMBYism

With you on that one. But this is a problem of successful, growing cities and it sounds like OP is in a city in the opposite situation that is lacking in economic opportunities.

Join orgs supporting the homeless and fighting against the criminalization of homelessness.

When most people complain about homelessness, they're talking about the homeless on the streets, and particularly the ones on drugs who accost the people walking by. Criminalization of homelessness might be bad for moral reasons, but letting an unlimited number of homeless people live on streets indefinitely is exactly the opposite of what almost everybody wants. We need to focus on getting them off the streets into shelters and housing, and then everybody wins because they are also not being arrested anymore. Just focusing on the "criminalization" aspect and ignoring everything else is just making the problem worse in other ways.

Buy from locally-owned businesses that treat their employees well. Not the gentrifying upscale cafes and restaurants and boutiques

This one is where you've really lost me.... who do you think provides good paying jobs and can afford to treat their employees well? Businesses that are making money, such as upscale cafes and restaurants and boutiques. These are also often locally-owned.

uberman4• 6 years ago

I have to concur.

In general, gentrification is the clearest path to improving neighborhoods that have probably suffered as a result of "NIMBYism" elsewhere in a city.

Being opposed to gentrification is a form of "NIMBYism". Gentrification is not the enemy of affordable housing.

skrtskrt3• 6 years ago

Where I live these upscale cafes and restaurants are owned by extremely wealthy restaurant ownership groups. Their attempts to seem local are little more than virtue signaling, and the money backing them has crushed whole city blocks of small local businesses in favor of their sterilized Instagram-aesthetic places where the food is 2x the price for half the flavor.

alexashka• 6 years ago

I live in a "Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S." What can I do to help?

Nothing.

I don't want to do that, I want to uplift if I can.

You can't uplift a skyscraper.

What is the micro thing I can do today, that can have a chance of a macro change tomorrow?

Change happens when pragmatic, intelligent people want change to happen.

Disaster happens when idealistic, dumb people want change to happen.

seltzered_• 6 years ago

Find ways to have mutual learning [1] with your community. One pathway (I've been thinking about a lot) might be through starting a community garden.

[1] Nora Bateson touching on this: https://youtu.be/AEYkRFnRn5Q?t=1493

rv-de2• 6 years ago

In line with the broken-window-theory you could call the respective department to collect randomly deposited trash and bulk garbage or report broken infrastructure.

Also calling the police to report antisocial behavior like cars intentionally causing noise by means of illegal manipulations, excessive partying, etc.

throwaway0a5e7• 6 years ago

Breaking out the bylaw book and getting the police on speed dial is fundamentally the wrong way to deal with visible poverty. A litany of $20-$200 fines is a net negative to the neighborhood no matter how you distribute them.

rv-de2• 6 years ago

I refer to "antisocial behavior" - not "poverty".

ianai• 6 years ago

Cory Booker as a city councilman did this in miniature. His book describes it. At one point he made his office the parking lot outside a troubled projects building - lots of crime and trafficking were reported there and he wanted to help. So while his office was there (under tents) crime was greatly diminished from the area. It’s at least an example like you’re looking to do.

If you had some money, I’d maybe look into building a multigenerational center.

The residents of Detroit have also done some things you could mimic. In the fallout of the 2007-8 Great Recession, the entire city saw huge desertion. The people who stayed saw the city becoming a ghost city all around them. There are probably things and ideas there to help you in your quest.

If I had infinite money though, I’d even consider doing seemingly hard to politically envision things like employing the locals en masse. Preferably it’d be in things like long term investment. Maybe you could bootstrap some local industry with long term sustainability. Simply giving people work that pays better than crime will get crime off the streets in large part.

One way of this would be to make a societal dormitory of sorts. Basically a large building where people can get just enough of a space to themselves to have a place to be. Have a cafeteria so you can benefit from economies of scale. Have things like a laundromat and garden for giving people things to do, further economies of scale, and healthy options. Give them maybe 20-100/week to figure themselves out. Have in house therapists, etc.

throwaway0a5e7• 6 years ago

So while his office was there (under tents) crime was greatly diminished from the area. It’s at least an example like you’re looking to do.

Having a politician who has the police at his beck and call set up shop there seems like it just displaces the problem instead of solving it but I guess if you scope your goal to the neighborhood it does solve it.

amanaplanacanal4• 6 years ago

There are plenty of people working on the big issues. Adding your voice is unlikely to make much of a difference. Fix the things you can.

justin66• 6 years ago

Having a politician physically present who isn't going to call the police frivolously, and has reduction of police brutality as part of his stated agenda, might very well have more positive knock-on effects for a neighborhood than simply displacing crime to a different place.

InitialLastName• 6 years ago

Let Cory Booker's commitment to the politically salient photo op never waver.

wyc• 6 years ago

If you're interested in helping New York City, you can volunteer your technical skills to solve meaningful problems there! It won't be the latest whiz-bang 5G Blockchain AI tech stack, but you'll have a shot at making a real difference. As cities further adopt open source approaches to technology infrastructure, these improvements will also benefit other cities.

https://www.usdigitalresponse.org/nycx-innovation-fellows/

Please DM me on Twitter (in my HN profile) if you have questions. I can help to answer or find someone who can.

urbanconstants• 6 years ago

I was thinking of launching a kickstarter campaign to bootstrap a city-wide mesh network in my city. The idea would be to have a text-based communication network that works in emergencies, is censorship-resistant and encrypted. I could collect money for X nodes to cover the whole city by approaching cafes, bars, libraries or universities and asking them to contribute by setting up a node for them. If successful, maybe other cities would follow the example and the citizens of each would bootstrap their own networks.

thimkerbell3• 6 years ago

What cities have mesh networks that are working well?

airkumar• 6 years ago

In addition to the many great answers here: consider putting on performances, whether you organize them or perform. Make art, and leave it in unexpected places. Sell some homemade food outside your house once in a while. Add a little surprise and delight into people's lives. It's contagious. And everyone needs joy, entertainment, and even some good-weirdness in their lives; it's not just for those with disposable income and spare time.

fudged713• 6 years ago

Random anonymous acts of kindness (like paying for coffee for the person after you) can uplift a whole community. And it spreads faster these days with digital community groups (people saying thank you to strangers). In fact those messages could even be positive propaganda

1123581321• 6 years ago

If you’re by chance in Rockford, move to an old house in Midtown, Broadway or the northwest side and fix it up. The city is intent on gentrifying downtown and near east side, but the big reductions in violent and sexual crime are happening from individuals and small non-profits pouring love and attention into other areas.

This is actually similar to the police department’s strategy with the resident officer program—-they’re choosing similar areas and quality of homes.

mmoche• 6 years ago

Spend time with your neighbors and local businesses. That goes a long way. Learn more about what works well in the city, and what doesn't. Consider serving in a volunteer capacity with various organizations like local neighborhood councils or schools. Most importantly, if you can devote time, money, or both to local schools, you will make the biggest impact there.

Have kids? Send your kids to the local public school. That is an enormous difference maker. Don't push for dumb things (e.g. Latin), but be an effective advocate for students whose parents might be unable to get involved, and contribute time and energy to improving resources across the board.

tsjq• 6 years ago

That school thing reminded me of the podcast series "nice white parents" :)

exabrial• 6 years ago

Volunteer! Encourage others to do the same!

One thing I'm doing that's actually having a significant impact is helping out build local mountain biking and hiking trails. This has downstream effects as it gives kids something to do that's healthy and positive.

I have other friends that volunteer in churches and various ministries playing music which also has downstream effects.

Remember the line for the homeless shelter is very long out front, but the door on the backside of the building where volunteers enter never has a line.

fersho311• 6 years ago

Am I insane for thinking permaculture? Get out of the city lifestyle mindset and turn more people into rob greenfield style mindset. Everybody’s already thinking it, people are starting to do it, and it could just be the next big thing that does wonders for people happiness and healing the environment.

kingsloi2• 6 years ago

I haven't officially "launched" it yet as I still have a lot more to do, but I've been working on a community website to track air quality & industry in my community, as I live in Gary, IN, nestled in the the middle of some mega polluters.

My neighbours and I got sick 2 years ago from some foul smell in the air and we ended up buying a PurpleAir monitor, and then I just tried to track everything pollution-related I could.

Of course, I'm the one who runs the monitor, website, etc, vested time, effort, money highlighting the issue of pollution, and on 8th September this year, my daughter was born with congenital heart disease, whose condition is made worse by pollution. Go figure.

https://millerbeach.community https://github.com/kingsloi/community-airmonitor

kingsloi2• 6 years ago

I didn't read the post sorry, just the title. I didn't see it was related to crime, I thought you were asking generally speaking. I can't talk about decreasing crime as Gary has a pretty bad reputation for it, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a correlation between greenery (nature, trees, plants, flowers, etc) and crime, even if there wasn't any, I know being surrounded by nature is good for us/mental wellbeing.

aaron695• 6 years ago

You were right first time, they were just asking in general.

Your answer is one of better ones here. It's a good Micro that can lead to a Macro.

susiecambria4• 6 years ago

As a public policy and budget wonk, advocate, lobbyist, and five-year veteran of city government (Washington, DC), as well as a social worker by training, I LOVE the question and am stoked 1) by the responses and 2) by the number of responses.

I am a firm believer in doing something. As others have said, get informed, get connected, and then get and stay active. This can be personal stuff or political stuff. It all needs doing. Play to your strengths.

And I would document even if it's just for you. What you did and why you did it. What worked, what didn't. It's good to have a contemporaneous written record.

dmofp3• 6 years ago

I really liked this. I struggle with the same question as OP so very interested.

What do you think stops people from doing something? Is it lack of information? Learned helplessness? What would help most in that moment when we think "I need to do something"?

susiecambria4• 6 years ago

All of what you wrote, unfortunately. But this problem can be solved.

If you believe in helping people, I believe you should model voluntarism for your kids, nieces, nephews, older relatives, neighbors, etc. You don't have to do in a way that says aren't I great I volunteer. It can be something like sharing starting with holidays and then expanding to non-holidays. Perhaps encourage a smaller holiday fete at work and direct the resources to something like gifts for a shelter, Toys for Tots, shoe box gifts for homeless shelters, etc. My grandkids, for example, learn about helping others at Christmas buy picking out a toy and donating it to Toys for Tots. This is a super important life lesson and it's reinstilled frequently.

Or, there's the volleyball team. I was new in a job and pulled together a volleyball team to play in a tournament sponsored by an org I volunteered for. We had t-shirts and folks raised money. And it was fun! The team members and board members bonded in an important way on something that was bigger than us and our "issue." While the tournament sponsor did not get more volunteers out of our team, they appreciated that I was more committed and that they got new donors.

There are so many things that prevent people from volunteering/giving/helping. Very often, people will help, they just need to be asked or encouraged. People don't know where to look for ways to participate in some civic something. https://longevity.stanford.edu/three-reasons-why-people-dont... provides details I can't.

Interested individuals should still volunteer/help/do something even if others don't.

fudged713• 6 years ago

This advice is so vague. Are there frameworks or best practices? What resources could help? Or is it purely incremental and case-by-case?

SamWhited4• 6 years ago

Sometimes encouragement and positivity help too, not every answer has to have specifics and detailed plans :)

susiecambria4• 6 years ago

Not the reaction I expected, but a valid one!

Here goes:

There are best practices on the organizational side. I'd have to do some research to determine nonprofit and civic organizational adoption. My gut is that at least in the US, best practices adoption for volunteer engagement/management is not widespread. In my own experience, very few of the organizations I've worked with or know even kinda well have the capacity (and/or interest) in implementing best practices. And I would assume that informal neighborhood groups are not adopting them.

From the perspective of an individual, there are resources for identifying volunteer opportunities, though this various by jurisdiction. Some places have active and robust volunteer referral systems while others have lots of active civic groups (think Jaycees, Junior League) that are central to life in that place. Other places have nonprofits and people volunteer there.

What resources could help? Good question. I think that depends on what 1) people want and 2) organizations want.

In my experience, many people who volunteer approach their voluntarism as "take what I give you." Meaning, "I will give what I give, when I decide to give it, how I decide to give it and I'll do it the way I see fit." In some cases, this might work for an organization. I've seen it be accepted by organizations because the organization does not have time (more likely has not made time) to develop a volunteer program with job descriptions, intake, and every other important element needed. If an organization were to develop a volunteer program, a bunch of resources are needed including staff.

Back to my original comments for a sec. Getting involved is kind of like the wild wild west. Jump in an do something, there's little organization or governance, particularly on the street-level stuff of trash pick-up, etc.

Here's an example: When I worked for then-Mayor Vince Gray, there was one winter that was colder than usual. VCG wanted more than the helping the homeless during hypothermia season status quo. So leadership and staff got together to develop the city's cold emergency plan. Basically, anyone without shelter was encouraged to get on a bus or go into a non-shelter on the coldest nights. We fed people, gave them stuff (dry clothing, etc.) and caseworkers were available to help if people wanted.

At something like 2a on one of the first days of this plan, I was doing a site visit to a bus. (Did the staff need food, water, etc.) It was dark out, save for the bright street lights that made the snow-covered everything sparkle. All of a sudden, there's singing and laughter. A small group of 20-somethings came in happy as could be carrying cups of hot chocolate, boxes of donuts, hot pretzels, and more. They handed the food out, chatted for a few, and then took off for the next bus. This merry band of do-gooders made me smile. They made many on the bus smile. They came out in the wicked cold to make sure that people who were homeless had warm food and drink. All I know about them is that they lived around Georgetown and were in professional programs.

Stepping up, doing something can be something as simple as this.

greenwascolour• 6 years ago

I like what he is saying here [1]. Warning this channel is political. However, his views on community building is worth taking look at.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF2U6oplx8Y

OldHand2018• 6 years ago

You can invest in testing apparatus and identify areas in need of environmental remediation, and then advocate/fundraise for the remediation.

Lead exposure in children is highly correlated with crime rates, and is also negatively correlated with academic achievement.

Helping to improve chances for success is definitely a micro thing you can do that has a macro effect.

pgnas• 6 years ago

in so far as improving your city, one idea would be to start with the children. Improving their mental health and growth is vital to sustaining a healthy community. Cities all around the United states continually fluoridate their drinking water under the guise of dental health, this has been scientifically proven to be inaccurate and outdated ideologies.

Today, there is science to demonstrate that the use of Fluoride in drinking water is harmful to early development as well as during regular use.

https://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2011/02/fluoride-your-water-h...

https://www.fairwarning.org/2020/06/courtroom-battle-fluorid...

“Case No. 17–cv–02162–EMC” Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency, 291 F. Supp. 3d 1033, (N.D. Cal. 2017)

This is something you can do in your community.

tathougies• 6 years ago

You can condemn violent groups like Antifa that vandalize and destroy private property in the public right of way that makes the entire city look like a mess.

Invest in opportunity zones, and support legislation, that expands them and their incentives. Push to democratize access to these kinds of funds so that more institutional capital can be built from smaller investors.

troughway• 6 years ago

I like how some comments are painting a rise in wealth in these areas as somehow bad, but are hiding it behind the term “gentrification” and doing cartwheels to make sure the areas stay in poverty but somehow better than before.

I’ll leave the comment at that, it’s amusing enough.

amanaplanacanal4• 6 years ago

Yes it’s unfortunate. Gentrification is a big win for homeowners, and a big loss for renters. Are there strategies that allow us to improve our neighborhoods without displacing renters?

dragonwriter2• 6 years ago

Are there strategies that allow us to improve our neighborhoods without displacing renters?

Rent control; just as Prop 13 (adverse impacts in other areas aside) allows improving neighborhoods without displacing homeowners on limited incomes through property tax.

Of course, anything that prevents displacing renters will necessary produce some drag on financial incentives for local improvements. (Just as not displacing homeowners on fixed incomes does.)

James_Henry4• 6 years ago

The strategy is to make it really easy to build, then when rents rise, homeowners will sell their homes and build apartments or they will build second units in their backyards or second floors.

Another thing that would help is a land value tax (as opposed to a property value tax) which would promote the use of expensive land for more housing.

refurb4• 6 years ago

It is truly amazing to see good painted as bad. Rather than anecdotal stories the research shows that it has a net positive benefit to residents.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/study-gentrification...

0df8dkdf• 6 years ago

support local farmers and food supplies! The ones that practice organic farming (but don't need to be certified by USDA)

Guerrilla Gardening are awesome!!! If you growing stuff, why not grow food!! Check out this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZzZ_qpZ4w

Get to know your local and state politicians, sheriff. That is way more important than the election that just happened.

ajarmst• 6 years ago

Local news. An informed public is necessary for real democracy and any real chance of solving real problems. Solving problems in a city is neigh impossible if the majority of citizens are unaware of what's going on in their own community. Take a look at what Alice Dreger (now one of my heroes) is doing with a tiny budget and a few dedicated locals in East Lansing: https://rdi.org/democracy-examined/2020/8/28/citizen-journal...

disown• 6 years ago

I live in a "Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S."

Become batman. That might help.

However, this causes a brain drain and leave the city in a worse place.

The narcissistic ego. It's not "brain drain", it's jobs. You can have wonderful cities full of factory/maintenance/etc workers. I'm going to bet that a city's quality is tied to the citizens' financial security and physical security.

As for what you can do? Nothing. Cities improve with capital investment/systematic top-down focus, not via individuals who watch too many marvel movies. You are not going to bring crime down, you are not going to bring jobs in, you are not going to rebuild the city.

I don't want to do that, I want to uplift if I can.

Oh my god. People need jobs/financial security. Not some virtue signaling techie from HN trying to "uplift" them.

Just live your life, who do you think you are? If naive attention-seeking idealist saved cities, all the cities in the country would be thriving. But they are not. Figure it out.

maxk42• 6 years ago

Lead by example. Clean up litter and weeds in your neighborhood. Bake treats for your neighbors, bring them by and introduce yourself. Offer to help them fix anything you notice is broken. Get involved in community watch / community policing efforts offered by your local police department. Create a safe environment in your own home and facilitate the same in your immediate community.

lbriner• 6 years ago

Get others around you to believe and hope in your neighbourhood and then as a team, you can start to dictate what you want the neighbourhood to be like. Many people are willing to help in my experience but either don't because of lethargy or fear.

For example, some people in an estate in London got together and started planting flowerbeds to make the estate look really nice. Because everyone was involved, you can imagine what happened when some people from another estate came to damage it (hint, the locals stood up for themselves and their hard work).

Work out what makes your neighbourhood "most dangerous" and target some of that. Perhaps lobby for more streetlights, clean up some areas, pool some cash to help fix up someone's house.

jl2718• 6 years ago

Honestly consider the possibility of negative impact by increasing local wealth inequality. I’m assuming that you may live in a bigger house. You may shop at more expensive stores. You may have house cleaners.

Wealth inequality generally supports a servant economy more than a self-sufficient economy. Yes, you inject cash, but you are also diverting labor towards local services instead of global industry.

I know that it sounds silly for tech yuppies to talk about global industry in these desperate places, but that’s their only way out. They have to produce; they can’t just do services for any remaining wealthy residents, and rely on the government when the last ones leave. And you have to trust them to find a way.

lcall• 6 years ago

Much important change happens one individual at a time. So I would say: 1) Honesty (with kindness). 2) Treating others the way oneself would want to be treated (the Golden Rule). 3) Be observant for anyone doing anything good & praiseworthy and encourage them ("good job at ___ing! Way to go! I like it!"). 4) find opportunities to serve, and also encourage others. One way is via https://www.justserve.org/ which lets individuals find organizations looking for local volunteers, or organizations post what they do so individuals can find them (free).

edit: 5?: While at it, be good to your family. An excellent long-term investment.

soul_grafitti• 6 years ago

There are a lot of good suggestions here. I will add recognizing that living in a city is about sharing.

I have lived in San Francisco for over twelve years and the most important thing I learned or realized is that living in a city is about sharing. I have to share with the other folks here. Walking and driving are two obvious examples. But we also share an aural space. Certainly with my neighbors but more generally too. I share the backyard with my building neighbors. I share the city services. We share the air we breath as you notice instantly walking near someone smoking. Outside of my home there is very little I can do without interaction with others around me. This is true generally but in a densely populated space, like a city, you can't avoid it. It's just the way it is.

The requirement that we share doesn't mean that everyone does so gracefully or respectfully. Myself included. Nonetheless I propose this is a fundamental personal step that contributes to better cities.

andys627• 6 years ago

Pick up trash, plant a tree, install a bike rack, comment at city council meeting (extra easy these days because they take voicemail now), volunteer to feed the homeless, install/stock a free little library.

aent• 6 years ago

Organize extracurricular activities for kids in the worst neighborhoods. Giving kids positive role models and teaching them useful skills (e.g. programming) could greatly improve things long term

trappist• 6 years ago

1) Know which problem(s) you want to help solve. A very bad city will have many of them. Many or most may share a common cause, but enumerate and analyze them in isolation before acting on that assumption.

2) For each problem in the scope of your project, identify "better" and if possible quantify it. It's too easy to delude yourself that your efforts are "working" if you haven't decided explicitly in advance what that word means.

3) For each problem, identify a cause. For a city, this will probably be a feat of economics and/or public choice theory. Both are unfortunately riddled with ideology, and you have one of those, and it will be hard to keep them separate, but if you want to help you have to find a way.

4) Many of the problems are likely to share a common cause, a single point upon which to apply pressure to bring about large scale results. Analyze and study your way here, don't let your ideological sensibilities identify it for you. Get those as far out of your way as you are able. Hint: if you think you've found someone to harm or penalize as a solution (rich people, immigrants, drug addicts...) you probably slipped up in that effort.

5) Assess realistically whether there is anything you can do to address the cause.

dgski• 6 years ago

My own project (https://plantogether.city) hopes to help make cities better from an urban planning perspective by enabling two things:

1. Giving people a voice. People don't feel a sense of belonging because they a single individual amongst thousands/millions. Being able to discuss things directly on a map with other citizens is empowering.

2. Serving as a spatial knowledge base. Allows users to collaboratively catalog the best, worst, most interesting etc. parts and elements. For example all items tagged with cycling in Waterloo (https://plantogether.city/tag/cycling?area_id=3).

Having more organized information and discussions could go a long way in improving decision making.

wj• 6 years ago

I had an idea for a similar project last year. I thought it could perform a few functions:

1. Help compile a list of local issues

2. Empower people to help fix those issues (recognizing the different people can help out in different ways on the same issue)

3. Allow groups to highlight their contributions (e.g. local Libertarian party or Lions club or whoever can highlight X number of closed issues in 2020)

This direct action platform would certainly be susceptible to trolling and abuse but it also would directly provide the answers to the OP's question.

(One other hope would be that, if this caught on, maybe political campaigns could redirect some of their ad spend to helping fix these issues as that would allow them to say, "We did this".)

centimeter2• 6 years ago

Violent crime rates are almost 100% predicted by demographic factors that you can’t control (except at the margins, e.g. by evicting problematic demographics or by voting for immigration laws that favor beneficial demographics).

throwaway17772• 6 years ago

You may be right, but people are going to downvote what they don’t want to hear unless you cite a source.

rufus_foreman• 6 years ago

This is from a Council on Criminal Justice report from September that looked at crime rates in 27 US cities:

"Homicides and aggravated assaults rose beginning in late May and June 2020. Homicide rates between June and August of 2020 increased by 53% over the same period in 2019, and aggravated assaults went up by 14%—and both increases were statistically significant."

What demographic changes from 2019 to 2020 explain an over 50% increase in homicide rates?

centimeter2• 6 years ago

Obviously severe social disequilibrium can also have an effect, but this is not relevant the vast majority of the time.

lapthorn2• 6 years ago

Cyle

lapthorn2• 6 years ago

Cycle

ngokevin• 6 years ago

Any time there is an election, volunteer. Get people to vote, canvass, post up flyers. Local elections can have the difference of a couple dozen votes.

blisterpeanuts• 6 years ago

Raise a family, own your home, pay your taxes, and work hard to get to know all your neighbors. Be politically active; get on a committee or two and get to know the local boards and elected officials.

Years ago I read of several Boomers who settled in north Boston in a rather bombed out neighborhood, invested themselves into this area and became politically active. The city was more responsive to them because of the fact that they were known and active and vocal.

Of course also support business investments and reasonable taxes & zoning regulations in your city, because without money, nothing else will succeed.

Also support your local public schools, take an active interest, get on the school committee, volunteer if possible at the school, and just be involved. Schools are vital to attracting solid families to an area to anchor it and reduce crime and negligence.

Good luck and keep in mind that it's a decades-long pursuit, not something that is solved in a month, or even a year. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

renewiltord3• 6 years ago

Don't. Get out. Get powerful. There is a threshold effect. Unless you have a non-normative path to power (organized crime or powerful family or lots of money already), don't do it.

What you're doing is the equivalent of trying to get strong by pulling a 500 lb barbell every day without moving it. It is not effective. Go somewhere where you pull the 100 lbs first and get it off the ground. Then move up. One day you will be able to pull the 500 lbs. Then you can go back and move it.

In the most dangerous places, all the barbells are 500 lbs. You will not get strong. The barbell will not move. The barbell will never move.

dkrudy• 6 years ago

Disagree. You're falling prey to savior complex, so instead you should "Get out and get powerful and come back to be a hero" Translation: Go make fuck you money and then change what you independently determine is important. You're wrong, because you'll have no idea what barbells to move when you come back, you'll just throw them around without purpose, like a meathead in a gym. Even so, not many people can move a 500lb barbell by themselves, but you get a few people around you you can trust, and 500lbs is pretty light. Much lighter if y'all can work together to break it down and take some weight off the bar before you move it, too. You go away and get powerful, make some fuck you money, sure, you can buy a few houses, or support a policy or something, be a savior. You can toss a few barbells around with ease. But if there's no buy in from others who trust and understand your motives, your effort will die. You might get your name in the record books for the barbells you threw, but there wont be lasting impact.

LMYahooTFY• 6 years ago

This seems very flawed.

For one, OP didn't provide context but it's plausible they grew up/spent a significant amount of time in this city already.

It seems pretty clear that the GP was suggesting an alternative path to gaining influence/money/power, and it's not at all a given that 'getting your name in the record books' 'won't have a lasting impact'.

renewiltord3• 6 years ago

Just to clarify since I was unclear apparently, it isn't about returning to be a hero with no clear conception of what to do. It's all about having sufficient power to overcome inertial force so that things don't revert to what they were when you die. It doesn't have to be monetary.

The peer responses of doing this as part of a community are meaningful alternatives. I don't think that technique would work for me, but that technique may well work for others.

bichiliad2• 6 years ago

I think building stronger ties with your neighbors is a great way to recruit people to help you move 500 lb barbells. You don't have to be able to lift them by yourself, and why would you want to? You'd just become a single point of failure.

Get to know your neighbors, organize with them, and do the work together to make your neighborhood better. Some reading never hurts, either. If you're in a city, I've found "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs to be really insightful.

d3ntb3ev1l• 6 years ago

What if most of your neighbors are cooking meth

vbordo• 6 years ago

Individual action can lead to collective action in any community. The trick is to distribute the weight of the barbell across a group with shared goals. There's great power in this type of organizing. Movement is certainly possible.

SamWhited4• 6 years ago

This starts from the premise that you have to do it alone. Cynicism and isolation make it impossible to change things, but if you get together with 5 neighbors I'm sure you'll be able to move the 500lbs. Start a co-op, or a neighborhood civic group and you won't have to go it alone.

thimkerbell3• 6 years ago

In one of Obama's books he gives some detail about his 'community organizer' background. In short, if I recall right: he tried hard, he learned hard lessons, he failed.

And yet, when he ran for office, the people who knew him from this effort were his base.

troydavis• 6 years ago

This is nuanced, but..

Sometimes your own personal preferences are different from what you think would be best for the city or region. When that occurs, advocate for - tell friends, vote, donate, etc. - the policy that you think is best for the city, even if it's worse for you.

Residential zoning is a ready example because split positions come up all the time. I can't count the number of times I've heard "I agree that the city needs more housing and that the current zoning doesn't make sense, but I like it the way it is."

While nobody's going to fault you for putting yourself first, if you want to help improve the city, put it before yourself.

(Of course, often someone believes that a given policy is best for the city and it's also their personal preference. In those cases, my comment doesn't apply.)

udfalkso• 6 years ago

Pick up one or two pieces of trash off the street every day as you walk around. Imagine if everyone did this how much nicer the place would look?

baxtr• 6 years ago

Finding ways to create jobs is probably a good way to help. Jobs give income, security, something to do. You can create your own culture based on your worldview and values. It’s hard to pull off though.

jelliclesfarm• 6 years ago

Create communities or have a club house of sorts for people to congregate to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for the place.

buss• 6 years ago

Get involved in local politics. Go to community meetings. Learn who has power and start building your own. These kinds of things take years.

If you don't want to do that, at least start donating to local politicians who you agree with, volunteer for them, tell your friends to vote for them. Local races are often won by dozens to hundreds of votes. You can easily swing that. And don't focus on "highest value" work. Door-to-door canvassing is more important than any code you can write.

AntiImperialist• 6 years ago

I know that this is not the answer you're expecting and you've explicitly stated that you don't want to do, but the best thing to do is to move. By staying there, you're contributing to whatever is bad there.

If the problems could be fixed by individuals, someone else with much better reach and opportunity would most likely already have done so. I'm sure the problems are much bigger than what individuals or even big groups can do to fix, mostly because of the size of the city.

By moving away, to a better one, you're draining away resources that it feeds on. At some point, the city has to fix its problems... and with most people gone, it's very much likely that the problem becomes much more manageable for individuals and small groups.

matkoniecz• 6 years ago

Report to local government issues such as potholes, misleading traffic signs, bugs in traffic signs, illegally placed advertisements...

In my city (Kraków, Poland) it leads to fixes. It is important to remember that whoever maintains infrastructure is not omniscient and such reports are likely to be useful.

This one is likely to be useful in addition to other actions given your target.

RomanPushkin• 6 years ago

I tried to improve cities, and implemented open-source alternative to Uber (PoC, simplified, but works). I spoke to multiple people, community leaders, and even cities/state government (I am in US). The train is still there. I gave up TBH, and more focused on making a big buck for myself instead of improving the world.

vladmk• 6 years ago

Calculate out the highest ROI activity on time to improve a city and share it everywhere you can including with me. Don’t listen to the other answers because they don’t know the math

reaperducer• 6 years ago

The easiest — absolutely easiest — thing you can do to improve your city is to pick up litter. Even if it's not yours. Especially if it's not yours.

I'm not talking about walking around the neighborhood with a trash bag. But just pick up one piece a day and put it where it belongs.

If everyone did that, many cities would be very different places.

chrisjarvis2• 6 years ago

As one person without large resources the highest impact thing you could do today for the type of area you are describing is to procure a firearm and start killing drug dealers.

I'm not suggesting you do this but this is without a doubt the answer to your question.

vvpan• 6 years ago

This is nonsense. Even if I take your comment in the non-literal sense "get rid of drug dealers" then decriminalization has shown to be much more effective.

chrisjarvis2• 6 years ago

Maybe I should have clarified what drugs I was referring to, not pot obviously.

Decriminalization of the drugs that destroy users lives has been show to be more effective at what?

peterwwillis• 6 years ago

The simplest thing is make friends with your neighbors. Once you have a bond with your neighborhood, you can become educated about local issues, and spread this knowledge among your community. Then the community can work collectively toward its interests.

Even if you live in a rich / sheltered community, you can still help your neighbors understand the needs of underprivileged communities and how they can help.

Finally, organize community engagement days. One day a week for you and your neighbors to clean up, attend a city council meeting, learn about current events, or vote in local elections. Or just have a mini block party for people to chat.

dylanpyle• 6 years ago

Hi there from Detroit. I'm a relatively recent transplant but my partner has been here for quite a while. Here's what I've learned from her:

- Getting involved in local politics. There are many opportunities to attend public meetings and many accessible public programs that most folks don't know about — even something as simple as requesting a speed bump to be installed on a neighborhood street with speeding problems or requesting a pickup of illegally dumped trash can make a real difference.

- Supporting local businesses, co-ops, urban farms, and folks building the future you'd like to see. Volunteering at local community organizations is a wonderful way to meet folks on the ground doing real and necessary work.

- Creating friendly dialogues with your neighbors and those around you. There's occasional violent crime around us, but the neighborhood watches out for one another. Our neighbors selflessly help each other in ways I could never imagine in SF or NYC.

- Investing in the community when and how you can. My partner bought and renovated an abandoned house in a less desirable neighborhood and has created a great small community of optimistic tenants and friends. There is a lot of unused and available land in the neighborhood and we're actively working on ways to reimagine it — for farming plots, new housing, community spaces and more.

None of these are as hard as they sound, and the impact from small actions is huge compared to wealthier areas.

esilverberg2• 6 years ago

If you live in New York City - consider joining a community board. They are the first level of civic engagement and cover everything from transportation, open streets, liquor licensing, quality of life, environmental protection, and education. My boyfriend is on our local community board and has found it very valuable, especially during covid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_boards_of_New_York_C...

Ericson2314• 6 years ago

You can get an calendar subscription of the meetings of the CBs with the new websites with:

https://cb<BOROUGH>.cityofnewyork.us/cb<NUMBER_OF_COMMUNITY_...

(HN truncates rendered URL so copy the link dst and then fill in the madlib.)

helloandyhihi• 6 years ago

- Support local journalism

- Vote in every election

- Donate generously to local nonprofits

- Liberate your mind from techie libertarianism. Problems surrounding education, job training, climate, housing, homelessness and public transportation all need massive public investments at all levels of government.

markus_zhang• 6 years ago

My idea is to go deep into the bottom and essentially start a part time job of local community leader.

Once you walk enough roads and knock enough doors you get to know everyone in the area. You can at least find comrades who are either politicians already or would be politicians so that you can team up to bring improvement to the community.

Sometimes this may danger you life if gangs control the local area so prepare to go dirty or just leave for some place at least decent enough.

tchock23• 6 years ago

Join citizen advisory boards and councils. I’ve been doing some research on these for a potential project and the average age of people on them has to be 65. Need to see more representation from younger demographics.

majorminor__2• 6 years ago

offer free education to inmates.

majorminor__2• 6 years ago

Educate inmates.

Kluny• 6 years ago

I think one of the highest ROI things you could do would be to create a free program for disadvantaged kids - just a place where they can come and exist, for free, without anyone hassling them. If they can also get enrichment activities, play sports, and get some positive mentorship, that's a bonus. But just giving them a crime-free third place would be a great start.

nikolaj• 6 years ago

Consider joining a Code for America Brigade (brigade.codeforamerica.org)!

I am a member of Open San Diego (opensandiego.org), where we work on projects in partnership with local gov and non-profits to improve election transparency, maximize policy and funding for school meals, and advocate civic history. There are lots of opportunities to get involved at a small scale, and motivated experienced tech focused people are in high demand!

labsente• 6 years ago

The only "micro" thing you can do is stop thinking that some small personal investment will magically have an outsized impact. Nothing short of a massive & collective investment of resources and time will even make a dent in American cities that have been systematically segregated and bled dry by racist capitalists for 100 years. Cities are run by monopolist developers, landlords, investors, & wage theives and we must sytematically reappropriate them through class struggle. If you really want to help the people––& not simply feel better about being a gentrifier––join or support a local tennant's union or other housing justice org, or join an org or mutual aid project whose goal is to build people power to challenge the ruling class. https://www.pslweb.org/ would be a great place to start !

snack_man• 6 years ago

Join your local facebook group and get involved. My facebook group South Silly has done a lot to stitch together South Philly over the last ~5 years. Businesses have launched, friendships and marriages have formed, etc. We also have a webseries highlighting local personalities, businesses, artists, and musicians http://southsillycam.com

bdcravens• 6 years ago

Hire.

sizzle• 6 years ago

Modesto, CA?

SamWhited4• 6 years ago

I second the people who say "get to know a neighborhood" and add "learn about the cooperative business model and use it to solve the communities needs".

There's a big food desert in south Atlanta, but a group of neighbors who were sick of not being able to buy healthy foods got together and are opening a co-op grocery for example. If the grocery does well, it builds wealth for the neighborhood (since they're all co-owners), and they fill a need that the community had to boot without some big corporate grocery coming in and refusing to stock fresh vegetables because it's not a wealthy neighborhood and they think they'll sell more packaged goods or whatever the case may be.

In another part of the city, we're trying to start a co-operative ISP because the only options are AT&T and Spectrum, both of which are garbage in my opinion and screw their customers over at every turn. Others are building community gardens, or greenspaces, etc. and when these things are built they do more than just fix the individual need, they help foster ownership which makes people less likely to litter, or smash mailboxes, or whatever problems the neighborhood has.

SamWhited4• 6 years ago

Second suggestion: be involved in local government. Go to the city council meetings, zoning and variance boards, etc. We all love to complain about the local government not having enough money, but lots of local governments end up wasting money on projects that nobody needs simply because they don't know the communities needs. They can do studies to try and figure it out, but it's a lot better if a significant portion of the community just shows up and tells them.

Yes, it's boring, and of course it can be hard if you have work and what not, but that's civic life for you and it can improve the situation drastically. If you don't want to go to every one, or have work on some days, etc. try to get a few neighbors together and just make sure you send a single representative from your neighborhood to every meeting.

EDIT: also, thank you for asking the question. It made me very happy to see someone thinking about this!

maheart• 6 years ago

A simple one, that perhaps doesn't scale (unless you open multiple gyms) is to provide a boxing/MMA/BJJ gym with good coaches.

It's so cliche, but giving teens a physical outlet, where they can begin to understand that consistency leads to results, can sweat together, socialise and build comradery and true confidence will go a long way.

It's simple, and you might only be helping a few teens a year, but it's a good start. I've seen it transform some troubled kids (and grown ups) over the years (drug addicts, and extreme anti-social cases).

BasicObject2• 6 years ago

You could grow a food forest and teach people how to grow their own food. I'm attempting this on a small downtown property. I'm in the very early stages.

kjjw• 6 years ago

Cycle, don’t drive.

sam1r• 6 years ago

My thoughts on the subject matter as metaphor:

crawl => walk => jog => run => sprint Gotta learn to crawl before you walk [and so on..]

[crawl]- Pick a new city. Me: Houston. local/inner circle/same street/apartment complex

[walk] - meet new people at work, hang out. It's tough but still possible in really big cities such as HTX.

[jog] - Naturally you will spend more time with those that you are more attractive to. Key word. Natural. If you fake it to make it, you'll probably just end up in the wrong crowd and not realize it. Story of my life. Possibly.

[.. and so on... you'll eventually find something that ticks you off enough to do something about it. At that point, you should just go for it. Considering you've made it this far with several great quality replies on HN.]

^ Having a structure like this beforehand can inevitably point you in the right direction for what you are trying to accomplish.

I hope this message provides some value. Regardless, best of luck!

anonytrary• 6 years ago

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! This is one of the best ways you can incrementally give back to your community. It's a small step, but you will find a network of like-minded individuals and will then be in a better position to take bigger steps. It is hard to change things alone.

thimkerbell3• 6 years ago

David, what are your skills and your resources? What's best for you to do depends on what you can bring.

jhfdbkofdcho• 6 years ago

Do you live in Baltimore?

rxsel• 6 years ago

Don't litter

QuantumYeti2• 6 years ago

Maybe not a popular opinion, but: Encourage your neighbors to call the police when things happen. Call them yourself, too.

I lived in a bad neighborhood for about 20 years, and have had family living in the "same" bad neighborhood (about 10 blocks away), and the difference in crime is night and day. The main difference from what I can tell, is that nobody on my street called the cops, ever. If I didn't call, the cops/fire department wouldn't show up.

For example, we had a mentally ill meth addict wandering the streets, breaking into vacant houses, vandalizing property, etc... One day, I find him starting a fire in some brush outside our house. My neighbor's way of dealing with this? Get out the hose and put the fire out. That's it.

I called the fire department, who alerted the authorities, who detained him.

Later that day while driving around, I saw half a dozen piles of ashes where he (I assume) had set fires before wandering off to start a new one. All within a 1-2 block radius.

I honestly think I was the only one who finally called the authorities on him, because everyone else in that neighborhood is so apathetic (or maybe so suspicious of the police) that they refuse to call 911.

He could have set a house on fire and killed a family. I'm speculating, but I imagine he wouldn't have even got the first fire started in a neighborhood that is vigilant and willing to call the cops.

QuantumYeti2• 6 years ago

I was kinda hoping this comment would spur some discussion (it was late though). My opinions in this regard aren't concrete. I guess it is kinda hard/pointless to argue against anecdotal evidence. If I were to rephrase everything in my post as a question, I guess it would be: "How would you deal with a mentally ill homeless man who breaks into vacant houses, sometimes sets them on fire, and starts building 'art' around the neighborhood that people view as vandalism?"

If that is too specific of a question, we live in different worlds. Which is fine. But OP'll probably live in a similar one soonish.

Another question I would ask, is who all is involved in this decision to move to an underprovided city? Is it just you, as the sole provider? As in, no family? How long are you willing to live there? People can, and do, live in these neighborhoods for decades at a time...

But: How willing/capable are the people you love of withstanding an attack? I don't mean an attack against you ideologically, I mean physically. Can you live the rest of your life in a normal way, after you've been told to lie down next to the vehicle being stolen, with the full knowledge that you are a point on that vehicle's path of escape? Knowing they could run you over in an instant, if they felt like it. Knowing that wasn't you that experienced that, but your daughter or son?

Are you still then okay with sacrificing your own interests, and your families, for the benefit of the city?

Edit: Agh, this just turned into more anecdotal stuff. Oh well, I guess don't have much else to add. Either way, good luck OP.

DoreenMichele• 6 years ago

I live in a "Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S." What can I do to help?

Jane Jacobs is probably most famous for saying "eyes on the street" is the key to safety. To get eyes on the street: Walk more, tend to your front yard and be visibly out and about. Encourage other people to do the same.

I also recommend the book The Tipping Point.

You might be interested in joining r/CitizenPlanners on Reddit. I run it. I previously ran a Citizen Planners subforum on Cyburbia years ago.

ninenines2• 6 years ago

First of all Thank you for thinking about y/our community,

Here are few thoughts,

Mornings/evenings. Have yoga camps it need not be physical yoga, there are quite an extensive range of breathing exercises which can be done just be sitting

Local ppl upgrading is important, (young ppl learn and leave) it's important to educate the existing community, Conduct bootcamps, there is incredible content online, get together, have learnathons around them and help each other finish you don't need any expert to get things kickstarted

Evenings, identify local talent and organise cultural programs

Someone suggested buddha, go one step further have nothing, have an empty space where only rule is no one talks(teach meditation if possible but make it a knowledge not religion based as it leads to groupism)

The no talking space and cultural performance space can share the same compound, you can come up with a cool name for that, something where a milleneal can say I performed at that.

There is happiness in giving, organize volunteer activities like cleaning, planting trees etc etc

adrianN3• 6 years ago

I think the people you're reaching through such activities are not the people you actually want to reach to improve your neighborhood, or the city as a whole.

ninenines2• 6 years ago

Do you mind elaborating pls,

From happiness to spending quality time socially feeling important is basic need for any human being, pls correct me. Never been to Detroit but seen streets of SF and India so I thought I have enough sample size.

b0afc375b5• 6 years ago

This question reminded me of my favorite quote, I hope someone gets something out of this.

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”

megameter• 6 years ago

Study.

What is most common, and least helpful, in societal issues, is to look to an authority for a quick fix, presuming that protest and action from above cures all ills. But how did they get that authority?

Well, at some point they most likely researched a topic to the point where they could craft a convincing argument.

But that isn't where the matter should rest. When you want better, you have to set a benchmark for better.

And so studies are the tool - deep, rich ones, crafted around the specific scenario. This lets you convince the public and authorities, one at a time, that a certain course of action has merit. Often, officials respond well to requests to study a topic: It builds a path to legitimize action. But you have to hold your own standards high too, and not fall into partisan ways of thinking.

Sometimes you can approach with a broad message, other times you should focus on developing a small circle of people. It is not a uniform thing.

bitwize• 6 years ago

Volunteer with Kaboom! building playgrounds, or some other charity that is doing real work toward city improvement. It's an easy way to get started, you'll be doing real work that has benefits you can see, and it doesn't cost much except in time and elbow grease.

jsonbourne• 6 years ago

Well there is a startup which is exactly for this problem. Checkout https://www.bangthetable.com/engagementhq-community-software

thinkingemote• 6 years ago

Get to know your neighbours make friends with them, help them out. Build a better community that way.

Don't look at technological or political changes, change yourself.

davidn204• 6 years ago

This is going to get bury, but thank you so much for everyone's answer. I also loved the discussions that sprouted up.

santa_boy• 6 years ago

Great question. I'm biased that poverty is the root of lots of evil and danger.

Creating opportunities via employment, skills and social peace are my recommended ways of approaching the problem.

I am not sure about the scale you wish for. In my tiny world view, I would be very happy to take classes, skill workshops and collaborate with institutions to help develop employability.

welcome_dragon• 6 years ago

Vote. If people are in office for years and years with no change, vote them out. They are not helping anyone but themselves. Vote for new people with new ideas. Canvas for those people. Get involved in politics yourself. Encourage others to vote.

Sure, economics (and everything related) are probably a major factor in most of these cities, but in my opinion, politics is a huge factor as well and most likely influences politics.

Many politicians say they are going to fix problems but just throw money at things, hope for the best, and wonder why things aren't better (or play the blame game).

Also, do some beautification and encourage others to do so. Maybe start a grassroots effort to clean up a park, a street, remove graffiti, whatever. Make the world physically a better place.

Vote for lower taxes, especially for small businesses. Let people open a corner store or restaurant but give them a chance to grow.

Just my $0.02

fuzzfactor• 6 years ago

In a city where a major drawback is overcrowding, and as a person who might just be another average one in the crowd, statistically the city might be better off if you left town.

OTOH, if you have above average ambition or ability for improvement and are willing to take that kind of action, the city can become a better place to live just from sticking around and doing more of what you are strongest at in that direction.

Especially if you can motivationally leverage that ambition to grow within the crowd.

Otherwise you can't tackle the problems where one person is simply not enough.

Might be the only way improvements have ever been made in an environment which attracts a crowd to begin with.

The micro thing is to not lose the ambition and ability you have now, firm up the foundation as much as needed so you can build stronger actions than could be taken from that point otherwise.

s_gangopadhyay• 6 years ago

If the buildings on your street are still privately owned, you could convince the owners to stop renting to section 8 tenants. This is not an easy pitch since the FMR for a street that is primarily section 8 will be less than the ACH deposit you get from the HUD. If you can pull it off, in 2-4 years the values of the buildings will shoot up 50% along with the rents.

whatifchange• 6 years ago

If I were you, I would look for local resources, availability of talent and visit mayors office to come-up with a business which can provide employment. However, you will have to look for resources from which you can build a value-add product which can be sold outside from city.

mzmzmzm• 6 years ago

Get to know your neighbors, local businesses, make ties to people. Attend city council meetings or whatever similar opportunities you have to get involved in minutiae. Pick an issue you care about like education, parks, bike lanes, whatever, and approach advocacy and learning like a hobby. The more people get engaged with face-to-face networking or organizing, the more the city is empowered to change. A lot of the real or perceived random violence and intractable social problems are really predictable outcomes of racist and impoverishing policies and habits.

Simulacra• 6 years ago

Litter pickup. No one else is going out and picking up litter with a grabber and a bag unless they're in trouble or it's their job, which is rare apparently. Just go out and start cleaning. Besides becoming a volunteer fire fighter, or some other full time volunteer position, I think litter collection and disposal is something that will help the neighborhood.

Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

Related Stories