Taxonomy of Neighborhoods

It is true that we are sheltered by the roofs of our houses. But is also true that we are nurtured by the communities that surround us and cradled by the neighborhoods where we live.

czb was founded to help neighborhoods be intentional about becoming and staying healthy. Neighborhoods need not be perfect to be healthy. But they must be healthy in order to adequately nurture their residents and the institutions we as people form.

Healthy neighborhoods are as dynamic as others. But whereas distressed neighborhoods lack the capacity to manage the changes that accompany the forces all neighborhoods are exposed to, healthy neighborhoods are buoyant in rough seas. Healthy neighborhoods grow their strengths and become stronger. Healthy neighborhoods compete successfully for scarce investments.

Intervening in the life of a neighborhood to make it healthier begins with accurate diagnostic work. We must know what is working and what is not. We need to know who is moving in and who is moving out. And why. We must know how the physical condition of the stocks in a neighborhood and the capacity of residents and institutions to manage change intersect to determine market strength and image. Knowing how strong or weak a neighborhood may be in any of these and other categories helps us begin to establish a direction a neighborhood needs to go in, the steps it needs to take to make itself more competitive, and the nature of the hard work of adaptation it invariably must undertake.

From a baseline understanding of where a neighborhood’s strengths and weaknesses are in the competitive context, it becomes possible to intervene at the right moments in the right ways so as to be intentional about ensuring the neighborhood becomes a neighborhood of choice.

We can develop strategies based not on activities but on outcomes. We can begin to measure the change we have intervened to provoke. We can grow demand in soft neighborhoods, manage it in transitional neighborhoods, and preserve and expand supply in healthy neighborhoods.

It all starts with a sound diagnosis. It invariably requires adaptation and change. And adaptation has a price and casualties. Marching forward towards an achievable good sometimes requires us to turn away from the promise of a Utopian perfect. It is possible to create a healthy neighborhood out of distress; czb helps communities aspiring to become neighborhoods of choice achieve this outcome.