just thinking

        Hi again, Romaine! 
        That was a thoughful comment.  To quote you:
       "Whenever a neighborhood gets gentrified (as my own where I live now has been) I always wonder where the original occupants moved to. What is the first step to turn around a neighborhood? Does it start with a new coat of paint and a plant in the front yard? I wonder how long it takes to change a street and then a neighborhood."
        I've also wondered where people go when they leave their upwardly changing  neighborhood.  Other things I've wondered about:
         What makes a neighborhood go "downhill"?  Is it lack of money?  Or lack of caring?  Or both?                    Even if a neighborhood is "poor",  could its streets  not be kept clean and safe? 
        And wouldn't any neighborhood with clean, safe streets be a good neighborhood, no matter the economic status of the neighbors and the state of the houses?
         Or is it in reality the state of the houses that determines the state of the neighborhood?                          So, then would a new coat of paint and a plant in every yard make a difference even if the people living in the houses remained the same? 
        What if you took all the rich people and put them in the poor people's houses and then took all the poor people and put them in the rich people's houses, would the neighborhoods change? (I've actually thought about this one quite a bit)
        Just thinking is all.