Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time

“Fragile Neighborhoods” is a book with a warning: American society is unraveling. But it offers a way out. We can undo much of the damage, the book says, if we create more resilient neighborhoods. And the secret to resilience is creating places that connect people and encourage cooperation among neighbors. One of the book’s examples is the turnaround of the East Lake neighborhood in Atlanta.

Seth D. Kaplan is a consultant who has worked with politically and socially troubled nations, which he calls “fragile states.” This is his first book about fragile places in the U.S.

The big ideas for Urban Atlanta:

• We can make fragile neighborhoods more connected and resilient, and we need to do so.
• East Lake gives us the model for turning vicious cycles that feed crime, fear, flight, school failure and despair into virtuous cycles that create safety, pride, school success and hope. It is not easy but it can be done.
• Many things must work together to reverse vicious cycles, from new forms of housing and business investment to the collaboration of nonprofit institutions and schools. The payoff, as we saw in East Lake, is ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods that take pride in their progress and attract new residents.
• You must have neighborhood leadership as well as outside help. As success grows, neighborhood leadership will multiply.
• It helps if you can begin with a large tract of land under public or private ownership. It is hard to reverse a vicious cycle one house at a time. It is much easier if you can start with an area large enough to create the assets that make neighborhoods strong.