how to improve your neighborhood essay

My Neighborhood Essay

500 words my neighborhood essay.

As humans , all of us live in a society are bound to a neighbourhood. It is an essential place which has a great impact on our lives. So much so that it does determine where we are in life and how we are doing. It is a fact that if we are not happy in our neighbourhood, we will not live peacefully. Through my neighborhood essay, I will explain about my neighbourhood and the reasons why I love it.

All About My Neighbourhood

I live in a great neighbourhood. It is wonderful because it offers us a lot of facilities. The green park near my house makes the area much more beautiful. Similarly, the swings in the park ensure the kids get to play cheerfully all day long.

Moreover, my neighbourhood also has many other bonuses. A grocery store adjacent to the park makes sure people get all their needs fulfilled without having to go far. All my neighbours buy their things from that grocery store only.

The owner also lives in the same area so he is very cordial with everyone. The grocery store saves everyone a long trip to the market and also their time. The park in my neighbourhood remains clean at all times.

The maintenance team makes sure they clean and sanitize it from time to time. It allows my neighbours to sit and relax in the evenings and take walks in the morning. The clean and fresh air gives everyone a great experience.

Why I Love My Neighbourhood

Apart from the top-notch facilities available in my neighbourhood, we also have amazing neighbours who make our lives better. A good neighbourhood is not made of facilities only but good people as well.

I got lucky in this case because my neighbours are very sweet. They help in maintaining the peace of the area so everyone lives in harmony. I have seen very often that if there is an emergency at anyone’s place, everyone rushes to help.

Similarly, we also organize events from time to time so that the whole neighbourhood gathers and enjoy themselves. I have a lot of friends in my neighbourhood with whom I play.

Most of them are my age so we meet every evening to cycle together and play on swings. We also go to each other’s birthday parties and sing and dance. The most favourite thing about my neighbourhood is definitely the residents.

I always notice how we never let any poor person go back empty-handed. My neighbourhood also organizes a donation drive every year. In this, each family donates clothes, toys and other useful commodities for the needy.

Thus, we all live together as a large family. Even though we live in different houses, our hearts are bounded by the same love and respect for each other.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of My Neighbourhood Essay

All in all, a great neighbourhood is important to have a good life. In fact, our neighbours prove to be more helpful than our relatives sometimes. It is because they live nearby so they are most likely to offer help in emergency situations. Similarly, my neighbourhood is very clean and helpful, thereby making my life happy and content.

FAQ on My Neighborhood Essay

Question 1: What is the importance of a good neighbourhood?

Answer 1: A good neighbourhood is important because it helps in providing a safe and secure atmosphere . When people live in good neighbourhoods, they lead happy lives and spread joy around.

Question 2: Why must we keep our neighbourhood clean?

Answer 2: It is important to keep our neighbourhood clean because it will create a hygienic and serene environment. This way, everyone will be able to enjoy outdoors and it will also prevent any diseases.

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How to Make Your Neighborhood a Better Place

Last Updated: February 23, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Saul Jaeger, MS . Saul Jaeger is a Police Officer and Captain of the Mountain View, California Police Department (MVPD). Saul has over 17 years of experience as a patrol officer, field training officer, traffic officer, detective, hostage negotiator, and as the traffic unit’s sergeant and Public Information Officer for the MVPD. At the MVPD, in addition to commanding the Field Operations Division, Saul has also led the Communications Center (dispatch) and the Crisis Negotiation Team. He earned an MS in Emergency Services Management from the California State University, Long Beach in 2008 and a BS in Administration of Justice from the University of Phoenix in 2006. He also earned a Corporate Innovation LEAD Certificate from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 2018. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 53,563 times.

Creating a better neighborhood is something that many of us want to do for very obvious reasons. Living in a good neighborhood will pay dividends in terms of higher property values and a more enjoyable place to live. Ultimately, though, bettering your neighborhood is a relatively complicated endeavor. Not only do you need to take action yourself, but you’ve got to get your neighbors to act in order to create a better community. Fortunately, with some work and some thought, you’ll be on the road to making your neighborhood a better place.

Starting at Home

Paint your home (as needed).
Make necessary repairs to your home. This includes rotten wood, broken shutters, and more.
While some repairs might be expensive, basic maintenance (paint touchups and replacing wood rot) can be inexpensive if you do it yourself. [1] X Research source

Cut your grass regularly. This might mean cutting every week or two depending on the season and your region.
Remove fallen limbs, sticks, and other organic debris from your yard.
Sod or seed your yard, if you lack grass. [2] X Research source

Step 3 Avoid accumulating junk in your yard.

Don’t store your collection of classic project cars in your front yard or where your neighbors can see them. If you are serious about your fifteen project cars, put up a privacy fence to protect them and hide them from sight.
Make sure trash makes it to the curb on trash pick-up day.
Avoid storing excess furniture, Christmas decorations, your lawn mower, or other collectables on your porch.

Step 4 Don't create problems for your neighbors.

Don’t let your animals roam freely. Free ranging dogs may chase children on bikes, runners, or otherwise cause problems. Free roaming cats could kill birds, squirrels, and more.
Avoid blocking the path to your neighbor’s driveway. This could include not putting trash on the curb next to your neighbor’s driveway, or parking your car (or visitors’ cars) in certain spots.

Monitor your dog (or other pets) and make sure they don’t bark or otherwise disturb your neighbors on a continual basis.
If you have parties, make sure to limit the noise you produce and turn all music off at a reasonable hour. In many cases, eleven or midnight on the weekend is a good time to turn your music off. Nine or ten at night is a good time to turn it off on a week day.
Try not to blast the radio too loud as you’re washing your car.
Avoid sawing wood or cutting down a tree at inopportune times. Home improvement projects are best done between the hours of 10 and 5 on weekends. [3] X Research source

Building a Community

Step 1 Make friends with your neighbors.

Always smile and say hello when you see them walking by, and greet new neighbors with a pie or other gift.
Introduce yourself to new neighbors.
Introduce yourself to neighbors you’ve never had the opportunity to meet. [4] X Research source

Step 2 Organize an annual block party or barbecue.

Plan an annual party.
Ask your neighbors and others in the neighborhood to help you plan it.
Invite everyone in your neighborhood.
Organize mixers and activities for kids and everyone else.
Remember, you may need local government permission to block off a street. [5] X Research source

Arrange for your club to meet once or twice a month.
Hold fundraisers for supplies.
If your neighborhood has a homeowner's association, coordinate with them.

Step 4 Do random acts of kindness for your neighbors.

If one of your neighbors is sick, bring them soup.
If someone’s spouse has passed away, visit them and comfort them.
If you know someone is hurting financially, offer to pick up their utility bill one month.
Offer to do yard/housework for free for seniors. [6] X Research source

Troubleshooting Problems in your Neighborhood

Print out a flyer that calls for volunteers to join a crime prevention organization in your neighborhood.
Talk to your immediate neighbors and anyone else in the neighborhood you may be familiar with.
Hold weekly or monthly meetings in order to plan ways to prevent crime in your neighborhood.
Contact the local police department and ask for them to send an officer to speak at your meetings. [8] X Research source

Taking care of your neighbor’s pets or plants when they are on vacation.
Watching over your neighbor’s children or pets to make sure they are safe. [10] X Research source

Volunteer as a mentor for troubled neighborhood kids.
Pick up litter.
Join your homeowner's association. [11] X Research source

Create community through human connection and by finding common ground. "No matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and, more importantly, it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort."

Step 4 Try to mediate neighborhood disputes.

Suggesting ways to resolve conflict between neighbors who have problems.
Inviting conflicting parties to your home for coffee and a conversation. Let them know beforehand, and let them know you'll act as a mediator between the two.
That you should always be careful when putting yourself in between conflicting parties. You might be causing problems for yourself, too.

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6 Ways To Make Your Neighborhood a Better Place To Live In

Last Updated on March 1, 2024

Table of Contents

Neighborhoods are the building blocks of a city. A good one, for instance, attracts more people, and locals feel happy enough to stay for the long haul.

But being tagged a ‘bad’ one though usually means a lot of crime or dirty streets. Most people would want to see improvements in their own neighborhood, even if it’s just benches or a cleaner park. And these little things can add up.

Whether you’re a renter or a homeowner, here are a couple of ways to make your neighborhood a better place to live in:

Ways To Make Your Neighborhood a Better Place

Take care of your lawn..

It may seem like an odd suggestion, but taking care of your lawn (or the area around your home) benefits not only you but also your neighbors. It shows mindfulness and makes a good impression.

Keeping your hedges trimmed, regularly taking out the trash, and clearing your lawn ensures everything is in sight. These cleaner surroundings can help you avoid problems like pests or burglars. Taking pride in your home and the area around it is a great start to encouraging others in your community to do the same.

Make streets pedestrian-friendly.

A common problem with many neighborhoods nowadays is too many vehicles. Lots that should have been public parks are slowly being turned instead into parking areas. This promotes frequent driving – which isn’t always a good idea, especially in communities with plenty of young families.

Call up your community groups to talk about getting quality traffic safety equipment to improve crosswalks. These could be as simple as traffic signs, or as sophisticated as a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB).

Having these tools around can aid pedestrians in locating crosswalks, as well as signal drivers where pedestrians are so they could slow down.

Plant trees.

Believe it or not, a sidewalk lined with trees can help drivers ease up on their speed, according to a 2012 study. Aside from that great benefit, people would certainly love to see more green on their roads.

Trees provide shade during summer and make neighborhoods more beautiful all year round.

Another project to get you and your neighbors busy could be a community orchard. In order to discourage driving, you could turn old, empty lots into small gardens (before they can become parking lots).

Meet up with similar-minded folks and talk about your idea. Not only will this project beautify your streets, but it’s also an awesome activity to be enjoyed by everyone on your block.

Encourage safe school zones.

You can help make walking to school safe and fun again for kids in your community. For busier neighborhoods, for instance, Programmable Time Clocks can be installed together with an RRFB.

It can then be programmed to turn on when kids are about to go to school and during the time when they are about to go home. Such equipment makes crosswalks more visible for drivers so it’s easier for them to yield immediately to pedestrians, such as school children.

For smaller neighborhoods, speed bumps are also a good way to encourage safety in school zones. Make sure intersections have proper warning signs, too. If it’s applicable, a volunteer crosswalk guard can ensure kids get to and from school safely.

Reinvent open spaces.

An end can be a new beginning. As mentioned, spaces can be transformed into something worthwhile with a bit of imagination and a lot of elbow grease.

If you have an alleyway that stretches into a couple of blocks, for instance, you can put up lights to make it less depressing and to discourage suspicious activities.

Bright, vivid paints can spice up the place. Foreclosed properties can be turned into public libraries, co-working spaces, or daycare centers.

Call up local artists as well as other skilled workers. Brainstorm all kinds of ideas to transform what was once an eyesore into something delightful.

Approach your local council for help or even for funding. Similar initiatives are not only fun, but they’re also a great avenue to get to know the people in your area.

Know your neighbors.

This is the easiest – and should be the first step – in ensuring your neighborhood becomes a nice place to be in. Welcome new people into your area with a thoughtful gift, or just a warm hello.

Make sure you greet people you pass by. Attend block parties and other events. Help organize a neighborhood crime watch. Visit the playground and make small talk. These activities aid in strengthening bonds and developing friendships.

After all, it’s easier to look out for one another if you’ve forged a bond with them, rather than if you felt that they were complete strangers. Plus, this also lets you in on any suspicious behavior or helps you identify people who are not living in your neighborhood (but hang out there for some reason).

Never underestimate the power of small changes. Whether you decide to simply install road signs or go for a huge orchard project, bringing the local community closer is always a good thing in the end.

Posted by: Igor Ovsyannnykov

Igor is an SEO specialist, designer, photographer, writer and music producer. He believes that knowledge can change the world and be used to inspire and empower young people to build the life of their dreams. When he is not writing in his favorite coffee shop, Igor spends most of his time reading books, taking photos, producing house music, and learning about cinematography. He is a sucker for good coffee, Indian food, and video games.

I wanted to make my community safer and more neighborly. The advice I got surprised me.

USA - 2008 Presidential Election - Swing States - Ohio

When I moved into a densely populated urban neighborhood south of Louisville, Kentucky with my husband a few years ago we noticed two things right away. We experienced more crime than in the neighborhood we'd moved from. And in no time we knew a large swathe of our neighbors, versus the sole couple we knew on our old block.

In conversation with neighbors one night, a friend from the next block made a passing comment. “You have a responsibility to the neighborhood when you live somewhere like this,” she said. Unlike in the suburbs where you can come home, close your garage door, and be done with the world outside, here we all look out for each other — and we care, passionately, about what happens in our neighborhood.

And that's key to reducing crime, according to University of Michigan professor Marc A. Zimmerman, Ph.D., who wrote “ Want to fight crime? Plant some flowers with your neighbor ” based on his work with the University of Michigan School of Public Health Youth Violence Prevention Center.

Eager to learn how people like my neighbors and I could battle a recent spate of crime in our community, I reached out to Zimmerman for insights into his research that anyone looking to prevent crime in their neighborhood could learn from. And I spoke with Major Joshua Judah, Commander of my neighborhood's police division .

Hit the streets After a big move, running helped me learn to love where I live

Zimmerman says busy streets = safer streets.

While there's no easy answer of course, a lot of what Zimmerman had to share boiled down to one concept: creating busy streets. Why busy?

“I grew up going to New York City,” Zimmerman said. “I always want to walk on the busy street — I might get pickpocketed, but probably not beaten up or stabbed.”

He was looking for a counterpart to what the broken windows theory had become, he said, by asking: “What builds a neighborhood back up?”

Busy streets flips the logic of the broken windows theory — a controversial criminological approach to public safety — on its head, Zimmerman wrote. Broken windows defenders see urban disorder in U.S. cities — graffiti, litter, actual broken windows and the like — as a catalyst of antisocial behavior. So they direct police to crack down on minor offenses like vandalism, turnstile jumping and public drinking.

With an emphasis on looking at positive approaches like empowerment and engaging youth rather than 'fixing them,' we looked at busy streets, which is 'if we build it they will come,'” he said.

The best of These are the 10 best places to live in the U.S. in 2019

Green spaces can make a difference.

“What happens if we start creating nice green spaces?” he went on. “Does greening make a difference?”

In a word? Yes. “I feel more confident in this than almost anything else I've done in my research,” he said.

Zimmerman took that research to Flint, Michigan, a city known for crime and blight long before the water crisis (and hometown for my husband's family), where he documented the process of neighborhood engagement and its results on crime.

The project involved a group of residents along with businesses and colleges called the University Avenue Corridor Coalition who tackled a three-mile stretch of central Flint with regular neighborhood cleanup days.

The coalition grew from a group of residents and stakeholders who attended a workshop on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, reported the local online magazine Flintside , aided by some large grants.

“What they did is say 'we're going to take control of this area,'” said Zimmerman. "[That included] gems of Flint in its heyday that had gone into disrepair and were run down. They cleaned up the median, they put lighting up, made a bike path, they extended beyond this street. Taking over an empty park , they put sidewalks in and made it more inviting.”

One big success for the group and neighborhood was replacing a corner liquor store with a sandwich shop, Zimmerman said. For anyone who lives in a place where you can walk to get groceries or food anytime, putting in a Jimmy John's may not seem like much. But this liquor store had been called a “Stab 'n’ Grab” because of the frequent fights breaking out, he said, and this was a part of town with almost nowhere to go eat. Once there was a place to go, “people started coming during the day, and at night wasn't as much of a hangout. Businesses across the street were inspired to fix up their places.”

The result of these efforts? “According to the coalition’s latest report , assaults decreased 54 percent, robberies 83 percent and burglaries 76 percent between 2013 and 2018,” Zimmerman wrote.

“It’s also meant seeing the neighborhood come alive with food trucks, bike patrols and neighborhood cleanup days — all of which have increased quality of life and safety along the avenue,” Flintside reported.

It can be as simple as the length of the grass

So can something as simple as making an unkempt neighborhood prettier reduce crime? Zimmerman has been studying just that.

He's working on a paper now that looks at three conditions: a vacant lot that's not mowed, one that's mowed by a professional, and one where a neighborhood group takes care of it with mowing or a pocket park.

“What we found was with the professional mowers over time the crime went down,” he said. But it went down even more when community members were taking care of it. (Meanwhile when the lot wasn't tended to, crime actually increased a little.)

Why does that matter? “It isn't that the grass is lower,” he said. “It's that people are paying attention and people care about the place.”

Major Joshua Judah of Louisville's police department echoed that sentiment. He spoke with me following a recent safety meeting my neighborhood called following a daylight rolling gun battle that left historic homes riddled with bullet holes.

“[In] communities that have a high level of social organization ... you have low levels of crime,” Major Judah said. And not just when it comes to group clean-up days like those our neighborhood association holds a few times a year. “Where people are hanging out on the front porch and walking to say hi to a neighbor … A predatory criminal notices when they're being watched. They go after the easiest target and don't want to be apprehended.”

“If you start taking back parts of a city,” Zimmerman said, “showing people in the neighborhood and in the city that there's somebody here paying attention and they care about the place, that is sending a message to all sorts of people.”

Showing people in the neighborhood and in the city that there's somebody here paying attention and they care about the place, that is sending a message to all sorts of people.

Marc A. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

But, wait, isn't this just gentrification?

When we're talking about neighborhood change and beautifying, “a criticism that often comes up is gentrifying,” Zimmerman said.

“There's a big debate about this and I get it,” he said. “A lot of times there are neighborhoods, typically lower income, often people of color, and it's often displacement. What we're talking about is nothing close to that.”

Working toward busy streets through clean up and beautification, “it's very community engaged,” Zimmerman said. “To me [gentrification] is when developers come in and displace people and people don't have a voice. This greening work is much more localized. It's a [vacant] lot here, an abandoned home here. It's not development per se, it's community owned and community defined and community engaged.”

Now, “if the local efforts start to change a community to make it more desirable, that could attract developers and that could create a negative situation of gentrification,” he said. “What I say to that is to make sure community voices are heard. Make sure development is respectful of the history and who lives there. There are all sorts of things you can do to bring back a community that aren't gentrification. Who wants to live in a place where families [live in fear] — I hear this in Flint, 'when I hear gunshots I send my kids into the bathroom to lay down in the tub,'” he said. “We have to do better than this.”

Start with your own front door

Making a safer place to live can start at your own front (or back) door, literally. In addition to joining forces with neighbors, residents can take steps at home, too, Major Judah said. We're talking basics, but it takes everyone doing it.

“If at night every porch light is lit up you've got a well-lit street, whether you have street lights or not,” he said. “I have a floodlight out my back door and I have a pretty bright porch light and every single night I leave them on all night (I use LED). If everybody on the block does that particularly in a true urban neighborhood, that street's lit up. It makes less shadows for people to hang out.”

Have (and use!) quality locks, Major Judah said, and camera systems are also helpful, especially “the ones where you can actually see there's a camera, and even putting a sign out that says this house has an alarm and you're being videoed.” (We ponied up for Nest cameras after I spoke with the commander.)

The idea is that the opportunity for crime isn't at your house, nor at your neighbors', he said. “Sometimes that offender becomes less motivated to commit that crime and may not [even do it at all].”

When there is a concerted crime prevention in one neighborhood you have a diffusion of benefits into other areas.

While people are often concerned about pushing crime on down to the next neighborhood, “research doesn't support that,” he said. “It supports when there is a concerted crime prevention in one neighborhood you have a diffusion of benefits into other areas.”

“Criminals operate in areas they feel comfortable and know well,” he explained. “Think of a teenage kid breaking into cars — they know the escape route, they know where police will come from. If they can't operate there they have to be really motivated to go to another neighborhood where they don't have that information. Oftentimes they will do something else — or nothing.”

Doing nothing may be an option for them. But like my neighbor said, living in an urban community comes with responsibilities. Doing nothing isn't an option for us.

10 Proven Strategies To Enhance Your Neighborhood And Create A Better Community

Improving Your Neighborhood can be a daunting task, but it is also one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself and your community. There’s nothing like looking out of your window and seeing a clean, safe, and thriving environment around you. But where do you begin? Some may believe that improving a neighborhood requires a lot of time, money, and resources.

However, that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, it only takes a few simple changes and a collective effort to start making a significant, positive impact. Think of it like this: improving your neighborhood is like giving your home a much-needed makeover.

You wouldn’t let your house fall apart, would you? You would fix whatever needed repairing, clean up any mess, and beautify your living space. The same concept applies to your neighborhood. You want to clean up the sidewalks, plant some flowers, and maybe even start a community garden.

You want to add public art projects, organize events, and encourage your neighbors to be more involved. At first, it may seem overwhelming, but it’s crucial to remember that you’re not alone. There are many community-focused organizations, nonprofits, and other groups available to help you get started.

You can also connect with your local government officials to learn what resources are available to you. Such resources could include grants, loans, and other funding sources to help bring your vision to life. Remember, improving your neighborhood doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it a one-person job.

It requires everyone to pitch in and be willing to work together, but the rewards are abundant. You’ll be proud to show off your newly revived neighborhood, and the community will be healthier, safer, and happier place to live.

Table of Contents

Get to Know Your Neighbors

Improving your neighborhood starts with getting to know your neighbors. One way to do this is by organizing a community event such as a block party or cookout. This provides an opportunity for everyone to mingle and get acquainted.

Another option is to join a neighborhood association or Nextdoor online community to stay connected and informed about local events and issues. Additionally, consider reaching out to individuals directly by volunteering to help with yard work or offering to help with a task. Small gestures like this can spark conversations and develop relationships.

By building a stronger community, you can create a safer, more welcoming environment to live in. So, take the initiative and start reaching out to your neighbors today!

Organize Community Events

Organizing community events is a great way to get to know your neighbors and build a sense of community. By creating a space for people to gather and connect, you can facilitate meaningful relationships between individuals who may have never met otherwise. Whether you’re planning a block party, a potluck dinner, or a charity fundraiser, there are endless options for organizing community events that can benefit your neighborhood and bring people together.

When planning an event, be sure to focus on inclusivity and accessibility, anticipating the needs and preferences of all attendees. With a little bit of effort, initiative, and creativity, you can create a vibrant and connected community that supports one another and thrives together.

Start a Neighborhood Watch Program

Starting a neighborhood watch program is a great way to get to know your neighbors. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to live next door to someone for years and never really interact with them. However, a neighborhood watch program can bring residents together and foster a sense of community.

By working with your neighbors to watch for suspicious activity, you’ll not only be keeping each other’s properties safe, but you’ll also be building relationships. Knowing your neighbors can be especially valuable in emergencies, when you need help or when they need your help. Plus, in a world that’s becoming increasingly disconnected, it’s nice to know that you’re part of a community that’s looking out for one another.

So, take the initiative and start a neighborhood watch program. You may be surprised at how many of your neighbors are willing to get involved.

Make Your Community Safe

Improving your neighborhood’s safety can seem like a daunting task, but there are simple steps you can take to make your community a safer place. One way to do this is by getting to know your neighbors. Introducing yourself to your neighbors and creating a sense of community can improve the overall atmosphere and make it easier to look out for each other.

Another important step is to report any suspicious activity or items immediately to your local law enforcement to prevent potential threats. Additionally, establishing a Neighborhood Watch program can help deter crime and provide a sense of security for everyone. By taking these small steps and working together as a community, you can make your neighborhood a safer and more enjoyable place to live.

Target Crime Hotspots

As we strive to make our communities safer, one crucial step is to identify and target crime hotspots. These are areas where criminal activities are more prevalent, be it drug-related crimes, thefts, or violent crimes. Mapping out such hotspots can help law enforcement agencies direct their efforts and resources towards these areas, resulting in a more effective approach to crime prevention.

By targeting these specific areas, police can increase their visibility and patrols, making criminals think twice before committing a crime. Additionally, community members should also remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity in these areas promptly. Together, we can make our communities safer and free from crime.

Install Security Cameras

Installing security cameras in your community is an effective way to make it safe and secure. Not only do these cameras deter criminals from committing crimes in the area, but they also capture valuable footage that can be used to identify and prosecute offenders. In today’s world, where crime rates are steadily rising, it’s crucial to take active measures to ensure the safety of our neighborhoods and communities.

By installing security cameras, we can be proactive in preventing crimes, as well as keeping an eye on the activities in the area. Moreover, the installation of these cameras not only helps to prevent crimes but also helps to reduce the fear of crime in the community. With the effective use of security cameras, we can create a safe and secure community where residents can live without the apprehension of being victimized.

So, if you’re looking to make your community safer, installing security cameras is a no-brainer!

Implement Safe Streets Policies

Safe Streets Policies When it comes to creating safe communities, implementing safe streets policies is crucial. These policies are designed to reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities on the roads, making them safer for everyone. Some common safe streets policies include reducing speed limits, increasing crosswalks and bike lanes, and implementing traffic calming measures.

These improvements not only reduce the risk of accidents but also encourage more people to walk, bike, or use public transportation instead of driving alone. So not only are we creating safer streets, but we are also reducing congestion and improving air quality. By implementing safe streets policies, we can make our communities safer and healthier for all.

Keep Your Neighborhood Clean

Improving your local area is not just about keeping your own home and property clean, but about working together as a community to keep the neighborhood free of litter and debris. One of the easiest and most effective things you can do to improve your neighborhood is to keep it clean. This means picking up trash as you walk around your streets, reporting any illegal dumping or fly-tipping, and encouraging others to do the same.

When you take care of your immediate surroundings, you are showing pride in your community and setting an example for others. By working together and taking responsibility for our collective environment, we can create a cleaner, safer, and more beautiful neighborhood that everyone can enjoy. So, the next time you take a walk around your block, take a trash bag with you and help keep your neighborhood clean and litter-free.

Remember, small actions can have a big impact, and by doing our part, we can make a positive difference.

Organize Litter Pick-Ups

Keeping our neighborhoods clean is not only an important responsibility that we should all share, but it also has many benefits for both the environment and our health. One great way to keep our neighborhoods clean is by organizing litter pick-ups. This is a fun and rewarding activity that can also bring the community together.

To get started, find a group of people who are willing to help and set a date and time for the litter pick-up. Make sure to have a plan in place for how to dispose of the litter properly, and provide all the necessary equipment such as gloves, trash bags, and safety vests. You can also promote the event by creating flyers and sharing it on social media.

By organizing litter pick-ups, we can make a positive impact on our neighborhoods and inspire others to do the same.

Encourage Recycling

As responsible citizens, it’s your duty to keep your neighborhood clean and safe. One of the simplest ways to achieve this is by recycling. Encouraging recycling in your community can yield immense benefits, not only for your environment but also for the economy.

Recycling helps to reduce waste, conserve resources, and decrease pollution. Moreover, recycling can create jobs and boost local economies by providing raw materials for new products. Therefore, it’s essential to start small by educating your neighbors about the importance of recycling and providing them with convenient means of disposal.

You can also volunteer with local organizations to organize recycling awareness campaigns and activities that can bring your community together while also doing good. With regular recycling, you can keep your neighborhood clean, beautiful, and sustainable for generations to come. So why not take the initiative to start recycling today?

Upgrade Your Neighborhood Infrastructure

Improving your neighborhood can seem like a daunting task, but there are many small steps you can take to start making a difference. One important aspect is upgrading the infrastructure in your community. This can include improving the roads, sidewalks, and street lighting, as well as adding bike lanes and public transportation options.

By doing so, you can improve the safety, accessibility, and convenience of your neighborhood for all residents. Not only will this increase property value, but it can also contribute to a sense of community pride and encourage more outdoor activity. So, consider attending neighborhood council meetings or reaching out to local officials to discuss potential infrastructure improvements.

With everyone working together, your community can thrive and become an even better place to live.

Improving your neighborhood is no easy feat, but it all starts with small steps. Lend a helping hand to your neighbors, pick up trash, and spruce up your yard. Plan community events and engage in local politics.

Remember, a strong neighborhood is built on the foundation of trust, unity, and a shared love for the place you call home. So get out there, make some friends, and let’s create a neighborhood worth being proud of!”

What are some ways to improve my neighborhood’s safety? Joining or starting a neighborhood watch program, installing security cameras, and getting to know your neighbors are all ways to improve safety in your neighborhood.

How can I make my neighborhood more environmentally friendly? Encouraging residents to recycle, organizing community clean-up events, and advocating for green space development are all ways to make your neighborhood more environmentally friendly.

What are some ways to promote community engagement in my neighborhood? Hosting neighborhood events and block parties, starting a community garden, and collaborating with local businesses are all ways to encourage community engagement in your neighborhood.

How can I improve the overall aesthetic of my neighborhood? Organizing neighborhood beautification projects, implementing strict landscaping guidelines, and painting or renovating run-down buildings are all ways to improve the aesthetic of your neighborhood.

What can I do to reduce noise pollution in my neighborhood? Enforcing noise ordinances, encouraging respectful behavior, and planting trees and shrubs as natural sound barriers are all ways to reduce noise pollution in your neighborhood.

Local Highlights

10 small ways you can improve your neighborhood

Christina Yoh
Posted on June 26, 2019
Updated on June 30, 2022

Besides taking out the trash and being neighborly, there’s a lot more effort that each of us can put in to make our neighborhood a better place to live, areas safer, and our local community more welcoming.

Get your community together, and head these 10 small ways to make a big impact and improve your neighborhood.

1. Start a neighborhood library or book exchange

Nonprofit organizations such as Little Free Libraries movement have started efforts to create a free, book exchange program in neighborhoods and local areas. Join the literacy project by starting one in your community with a makeshift shelf. Anyone that donates a book — of any genre, from children’s’ books to novels and biographies — can take one from the collection. It’s a good way to expand your literary explorations while sharing the opportunity with those around you.

2. Plant a street tree or start a local garden

The urban landscape could always use more trees and lush greenery. After doing some research on the rules and laws (tree planting permits are a thing!) in your neighborhood, roll up your sleeves and get digging with your neighbors. Make good use of the unkempt patches of untended land around your streets by filling them with plants and flowers. This is a great community event where kids and adults alike can contribute.

3. Partake in a community art project

Another community project that would be popular among all age groups (children, teens, young adults, and elderly) is an art project. Public art can liven up entire streets, foster creativity in kids, and establish the current history of the neighborhood.

Several cities have undertaken such projects, including Philadelphia’s restoration initiative Mural Arts Program , which turned the city into a street art mecca, and Denver’s Crush Walls , an annual festival that revives the street walls of the former industrial neighborhoods.

4. Transform your porch

Your home isn’t just a place for you to live in. It’s also a part of the neighborhood aesthetic, from your stoop to your porch. Make the space around your home more welcoming with just a few finishing touches. Plants, pots, and accessories can make a huge difference in the mood of the streets.

5. Volunteer

Volunteering isn’t just a good way to give back to your community , but it’s also a valuable opportunity to build social networks and meet friends who share similar values. Get on VolunteerMatch and find areas of interest, whether it’s helping children and youth with their homework or taking care of rescue dogs at a shelter. Pitch in and make your neighborhood and city a better place.

6. Contribute to the Citizen app

If you live in its operating areas, then use the Citizen app and make your neighborhood a safer place to live. This neighborhood watch program provides real-time 911 alerts and sends notifications of any events around your area. Transparency and technology play a vital role in community policing and neighborhood safety, so join the movement in keeping the community safe and informed.

7. Shop at local businesses

Easy enough: take a look around your home and find local businesses to support. Not only do they provide the community with job opportunities, but they also reduce transportation cost and carbon emissions and invest in projects that improve the local community. Farmer’s markets are a great start, but try to patronize local coffee shops, restaurants, gift shops, gyms, bike shops, and even hardware stores.

8. Organize a block party

A fun way to get the community together to celebrate and meet each other is to organize a block party. Invite everyone! Pick a nice day, get the grills out, provide a face paint artist or musician, and get out on the streets. If you live at Common, you can request funding for all the necessities and make some great memories with your community.

9. Talk to your neighbors

Sounds simple, but we don’t do it enough! Getting to know your neighbors , and you’ll find that you have access to more resources, information, and help. A neighborhood becomes a community when everyone is looking out for each other, and that can only happen if you talk!

10. Live at Common

Common’s communal living means you will have a welcoming community from the day you move in. You, your suitemates, or your neighbors can undertake any of the above ideas to improve the neighborhood, and spread the love in your community in all major US cities .

Our buildings are located in neighborhoods with strong, friendly communities that are perfect places to create your life in the city. Take a free tour today.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Common (@hi.common) on Apr 8, 2019 at 9:33am PDT

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Whether you’re a college freshman leaving home for the first time or a grad student returning to campus for your final semester, locking down UC Berkeley off-campus housing is a must. But if you’re new to Berkeley or you’ve never lived outside of the UC Berkeley campus before, finding a rental home can be intimidating. […]

4 Tips For Apartment Hunting in DC

Finding housing in DC (or any major city) can be intimidating. With so many neighborhoods and homes to choose from, newcomers to the District might not know where to start. If you’re not sure how to find an apartment in DC, this guide is for you. We’ll break down four key tips that will help […]

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COMMONS MAGAZINE

Posted August 16, 2012

16 Ways to Make Your Neighborhood Safer, Greener & Fun

From Italy to Luckenbach, Texas, practical ideas for improving your hometown

The ideas below are from the Great Neighborhood Book , a collaboration between OTC Senior Fellow Jay Walljasper and Project for Public Spaces . Walljasper is a Minneapolis-based speaker and consultant about how to strengthen communities. PPS is a New York-based group that for 35 years has helped people around the world improve their communities.

SEATTLE , WASHINGTON 1) Dare to Dream

Your imagination is the most important resource in transforming your neighborhood

FROM THE SOUTHEAST SIDE OF SEATTLE comes uplifting evidence for the important roles that a clear community vision and a vivid sense of imagination play in improving neighborhood life. The Columbia City district was founded in the 1890s as a new suburb around a rail station and was later absorbed into fast-growing Seattle. Although rundown, the neighborhood had a distinctive historic character which boosted community-led efforts in the 1990s to revitalize the area. But one half-block stretch of its downtown proved stubbornly resistant to change. Even while substantial improvements were being made throughout this working-class and ethnic community, merchants could not be persuaded to open up businesses in these particular buildings. The shop windows remained boarded up, giving the neighborhood a blighted look despite all the progress.

“The buildings had been empty for twenty years,” notes Jim Diers, a local resident who at the time headed up Seattle’s innovative Department of Neighborhoods. Finally at one local meeting, he recounts in his compelling book Neighborhood Power, “someone suggested that if the community couldn’t attract real businesses, they could at least pretend.”

And that’s exactly what Columbia City residents did. Working with artists from the Southeast Seattle Arts Council they painted the communities’ dreams upon the plywood covering the windows: an ice cream parlor, a toy store, a dance studio, a bookshop, and a hat shop.

“The murals looked so realistic that passing motorists sometimes stopped to shop,” Diers writes. “The murals also captured the imagination of a developer and several business owners. Within a year, everyone of the murals had to be removed because real businesses wanted to locate there.”

COLUMBIA CITY SAW ITS DREAMS COME TRUE in the form of a new Italian deli, a brewpub and a cooperative art gallery, which itself grew out of a town meeting in which local where local residents offered visions for the neighborhood.

Resources: Neighborhood Power: Building Community the Seattle Way by Jim Diers (University of Washington Press)

ITALY 2) Take the Time to Enjoy Your Surroundings

Slowing Down is the first step to a great neighborhood—otherwise you’re too busy to enjoy it

YOU CAN LIVE in the greatest neighborhood in the universe but if you can’t take the time to stop in the cozy corner coffee shop, wander over to farmer’s market on Saturday morning, chat for a minute with your neighbor in front of the grocery store then you might as well live on the dark side of the moon. And chances are, if too many people in your neighborhood have the same busy schedule, then things won’t stay great for too long.

MAKING THE TIME to appreciate all that’s going on all around each day is one of the best investments you can make. Think twice about signing up for another class across town. You could learn quite a bit more exploring around your home each evening. Trade the treadmill and stationary bicycle for a sidewalk and bike ride. Cancel your cable bill and spend the savings at local diners and taverns, where you’ll get more important news, far more interesting stories and even more opinionated sports coverage. Whole new worlds will open up and you’ll feel more relaxed to boot.

A NUMBER OF CITES ACROSS ITALY came to realize how importance the pace of life is in keeping their communities vital, and launched the Cittaslow movement, known internationally as theLeague of Slow Cities in 2000. Associated with the burgeoning slow food movement, more than 100 cities (in Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Greece, Switzerland, Great Britain and Canada as well as Italy) joined the network united in the belief that the good life is an unhurried experience. Proudly displaying the Slow Cities logo around town, they pledged to:

— restrain racing traffic by limiting automobiles and promoting leisurely transportation alternatives such as bikes and pedestrian zones;

— encourage businesses, schools and government to improve the quality of life by allowing people to take time off for a long midday meal;

— promoting good food by sponsoring farmers’ markets and preserving local culinary traditions;

— curtain noise pollution and visual blight by limiting car alarms, outdoor advertising and unsightly signs.

“We are not against the modern world,” explains mayor Paolo Sautrnini of the slow city of Greve in Tuscany. “We just want to protect what is good in our lives and keep our unique town character.”

Resources: “Slow Cities league”:www.cittaslow.org

PHILADELPHIA , PENNSYLVANIA 3) Stir Up a Little Hope

Any neighborhood, no matter how far down on its luck, can be lifted up by positive action

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM for struggling communities is despair as everyone—inside the community and out—loses faith that anything can change. The goal then must be to crack through that sense of hopelessness, showing that change is possible.

North Philadelphia, among all the struggling communities across the U.S. , stood out as one of the saddest. Vacant lots strewn with rubble dominated the landscape just as you see in photographs of bombed-out Berlin at the end of World War II—a testament to the economic, social and psychological devastation of local residents.

That’s when Lily Yeh entered the picture. She was an art professor at the Philadelphia School of Fine Arts, whom a friend consulted about what to do with a particularly grim stretch of abandoned lots near his dance studio. Yeh was shocked at the state of the neighborhood, and didn’t quite know where to start. But she knew something had to be done so she began cleaning up the trash, which drew the attention of local kids who wanted to know, she remembers, what “this crazy Chinese lady” was up to. Soon their parents were watching too, and Yeh realized she had some collaborators for what was to be the most important art project of her life. Soon everyone was involved in cleaning up the area, painting murals, and creating an “art park”, which the became the pride of the community.

Tweny years later, this predominantly African-American neighborhood is still poor, with 30 percent unemployment but hope is returning thanks to the Village of Arts and Humanities. That’s what the small art park in a vacant lot has grown into—a tangible symbol of renewal that encompasses 120 murals, numerous sculpture gardens, mosaics, community parks, performance spaces, basketball courts, even a tree farm. Six buildings have been rehabbed into workspaces for Village projects with local residents getting on-the-job training in the construction trades. A daycare center has been established, along with a new initiative, Shared Prosperity, to tackle economic conditions in North Philadelphia.

The neighborhood now gathers every summer for an annual theater festival, with plays written by young people drawing on their own experiences in North Philly. Several have been performed as far away as Mexico and Iceland.

The Village of Art and Humanities has changed how residents of North Philadelphia think about their home—and how everyone else does too. Philip Horn, director of the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, notes it, “changed the perception of the [wider] community from ‘there’s something wrong with these people’ to ‘ there’s nothing wrong with these people’.”

Resources: “Village of Art and Humanities”:http://villagearts.org/

DELFT , NETHERLANDS 4) Better to Ask Forgiveness Than Permission

How a Dutch neighborhood pioneered an innovation now sweeping the globe

TRAFFIC CALMING HAS SWEPT THE WORLD over the past 20 years. It’s based on the rather simple idea that cars and trucks don’t have exclusive ownership of our streets. Streets are shared public space also belonging to people on foot and bicycles, in baby strollers and wheelchairs. Reminding motorists of this fact, traffic calming uses design features such as narrowing roads or elevating crosswalks to slow traffic and assert pedestrian’s right to cross the street.

This idea has altered the literal landscape of urban life in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Germany and Australia as people move about their cities with more ease and pleasure—and it’s now taking off in other parts of the world.

THE ORIGINS OF THIS INGENIOUS IDEA CAN BE TRACED TO DELFT , NETHERLANDS , where residents of one neighborhood were fed up with cars racing along their streets, endangering children, pets and peace of mind. One evening they decided to do something about it by dragging old couches, planters and other objects out into the roadway and positioning them in such a way that cars could pass but would have to slow down. Police soon arrived on the scene and had to admit that this project, although clearly illegal, was a really good idea. Soon, the city itself was installing similar measures called woonerfs (Dutch for “living yards”) on streets plagued by unruly motorists.

One can only imagine the response of city officials if these neighbors had meekly come to city hall to propose the idea of partially blocking the streets; they would have been hooted right out of the building. But by taking direct action, they saved their neighborhood and changed the face of cities around the world.

MISSISSAUGA , ONTARIO 5) A Community Renaissance is Easier Than You Think

How Dave Marcucci’s frontyard bench transformed his suburban neighborhood

IT DOESN ’T TAKE MUCH TO START A RENAISSANCE in your neighborhood. In fact, as Dave Marcucci discovered, a simple bench can do the trick. After attending a PPS training course in 2005, Marcucci came away inspired by the idea that every neighborhood should have ten great places. He returned home to Mississauga, Ontario determined to make his house, which occupies a prime corner lot, one of the great places within his neighborhood.

Marcucci started by tearing out the fencing at the corner of his front yard. As he got to work landscaping the area and constructing a bench, he received a lot of quizzical comments. “Why don’t you build a bench for yourself in the backyard?” He would answer,” the bench is for you.”

When the bench was finished, Marcucci and his neighbors threw a street party. The bench soon became a place where everyone in the neighborhood came to sit. Older people stop to rest on it during their evening strolls. Kids sit there as they wait for the school bus in the morning. Families out for a walk use it to take a breather.

The complications that Marcucci first anticipated have not come to pass. The bench has not been vandalized, nor has it attracted negative uses. It was installed without approval from the city, but no one has demanded to see a permit. “There have been no problems!” he exclaims. “It’s worked out really well. I’ve met my neighbors, and other people I’d never met before. It’s added a really friendly atmosphere to the neighborhood. You sit on the bench, and as people walk by, they stop and talk to you!” The bench is so popular that later that fall, a homeowner around the corner from Marcucci added his own bench for the whole neighborhood to use. —By Ben Fried

BOSTON , MASSACHUSETTS 6) Reinvent the Village in the Heart of the City

The remarkable renaissance of Boston’s Dudley Street shows the promise of a lively business districts to restore a community’s spirit

IN THE 1980S, DUDLEY STREET IN BOSTON ’S HARD - HIT ROXBURY DISTRICT SEEMED AN UNLIKELY CANDIDATE TO BECOME A SYMBOL FOR URBAN RESURGENCE . It suffered from all the usual problems of inner-city neighborhoods—poverty, crime, drugs, unemployment, racial discrimination, inadequate public services, rundown houses, poor schools and redlining. On top of that it had its own unique and daunting problems. More than 20 percent of land in the neighborhood was vacant, thanks to widespread arson—a lot of it committed by landlords seeking to collect insurance money. Many of those lots became dumping grounds for truckloads of trash from garbage haulers who used the neighborhood as an illegal transfer station. With many African-American residents and immigrants from the Caribbean and Cape Verde Islands, ethnic and language divisions hindered efforts to organize the community to stand up for its interests.

But, against all these odds, Dudley Street now stands as a shining success story of how a neighborhood can turn itself around. Dudley Street itself, once blighted, is now a bustling main street sporting a Town Common, complete with a farmer’s market; the Vine Street Community Center, featuring a technology skills lab, gym, youth center, and dance studio; and locally-owned shops and restaurants.

Even though this is inner city Boston , you get a feel of one of the old-fashioned villaes New England is famous for. Instead of tidy frame homes behind white picket fences, it’s rehabbed rowhouses. In the place of a corner soda fountain stands the Ideal Sub Shop featuring a taste of the Cape Verde islands, a former Portuguese colony off the coast of Africa. Conversations may be in Spanish, Cape Verdean Creole, or the melodious rhythms of the Carribbean, rather than a gruff Yankee accent. But it still resembles the idealized America many of us long for, where kids stop off for candy at Davey’s Market after school and folks gather for summer evening concerts at the bandstand on the town common.

The Dudley Street business district is the heart of this revived community. It all began in the mid-1980s when the local Riley Foundation expressed interest in helping the neighborhood, and drafted a typical plan inviting outside experts to come in and help the poor “underprivileged” folks. But those folks would have nothing of it—if they could not run the redevelopment plans themselves, they weren’t interested. The Riley Foundation courageously agreed to fund a community-led revitalization effort, and that’s how things got rolling.

In a series of vision sessions, residents expressed their hopes of creating an urban village—a concept now in vogue among urban planners but quite unexpected from poor and immigrant people, who are supposed to care only about “practical things” like affordable housing and new jobs, not worry about frills like urban villages. “These people didn’t get their ideas from academics. What you have here are a lot of people here who grew up in the rural South and the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean,” says Gus Newport, who helped carry out the community’s vision as director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative….”They don’t want to live in tall buildings. They want to know their neighbors. They understood all by themselves that they wanted to get back to the village.”

At community meetings, residents’ dreams for Dudley Street were recorded on big sheets of paper and taped to the walls. “People Walking. People Talking. People Laughing. Saying Hello to Everyone We Meet.” was a typical comment, along with “I want affordable housing and schools with beautiful green playgrounds.”

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative was formed in 1985 to make this vision into reality, and over the past twenty years it has gradually boosted the revitalization of the Dudley Street business district and created the Town Common, as well as building new parks and playgrounds, constructing 400 new homes, rehabbing 500 others, and bringing hope and opportunity back to Roxbury in form of an urban village.

Resources: “Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative”:www.dsni.org

EBOLI , ITALY 7) Take a Stroll

The Latin custom of an evening walk is good for your health and for the vitality of your neighborhood

WE ALL KNOW THAT WALKING IS GOOD FOR US. It sheds calories, tones muscles, and clears our minds.

But taking a regular walk is also beneficial for your neighborhood. This basic human instinct—to get out of the house to see what’s going on—is the glue that holds most great communities together. The classic example are the Latin lands where an after-dinner stroll—the passegiata in Italy, the paseo in Spain and Latin America, the volta in Greece—is as much a part of the culture as sunshine or siestas. In towns and even large cities, people amble around the same set of streets each evening. The shops are usually closed so the purpose is not shopping and errands but to connect with their neighbors and enjoy their surroundings.

WRITER ADAM GOODHEART described this scene near the main square of the Italian hill town of Eboli. “I realized that I kept seeing the same people, but in different combinations. Here came a blond woman pushing a stroller. Next lap, she was arm in arm with a younger woman and the stroller was nowhere to be seen. Later, they’d been joined by an old lady who was pushing the stroller. Next, they were surrounded by men, jackets draped over their shoulders…”.

The words passegiata and paseo translate into English as promenade—and the idea translates too, according to Christopher Alexander, a former Berkeley Architecture professor who has devoted his life to scientifically studying what makes places work. In his classic book A Pattern Language, he asks, “ Is the promendade in fact a purely Latin institution? Our experiments suggest that it is not?…It seems that people, of all cultures, may have a general need for this kind of human mixing which the promenade makes possible.”

ALEXANDER LAYS OUT TWO GUIDELINES that enhance the experience and sociability of a promenade:

— The route should be approximately 1500 feet, which can easily be walked in ten minutes at a leisurely pace. People may opt for many times around—especially teenagers on the lookout for excitement or romance—but you don’t want to make the course too long for kids or elderly people.

— It’s important that there are things to see and do along the route, with no empty or dead zones of more than 150 feet. While the primary purpose of these strolls is social, people also like to have some destination: a sidewalk café, playground, bookstore, bars, the library, ice cream shop etc.

Think about what blocks in your neighborhood show promise for strolling and what improvements could be made to get people out to meet their neighbors. Walking up and down Main Street or any lively commercial district is probably the most common North American version of the promenade, although a route along a waterfront or interesting residential blocks could work just as well. Public art, welcoming businesses, benches, flowerbeds, even a vending cart could all help solidify this area as the place where people go to after dinner to see and be seen in your community.

Resources: A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

OXFORD , MISSISSIPPI HARTLAND , ENGLAND FOREST PARK , WASHINGTON 8) Be a Local Economy Hero

The old phrase “use or lose it” applies especially to neighborhood businesses

LIVING IN A NEIGHBORHOOD —even the swankest one—with no grocery, coffeeshop or other businesses is like wearing a nice new suit of clothes without shoes. It looks great, but you’ve got no place to go. Local shops, preferably within walking distance, are the soul of any community, the place where you bump into your neighbors and get that satisfying sense of belonging.

These neighborhood hang outs don’t need to be fancy or charming. Sometimes their idiosyncratic character is the best expression of your neighborhood’s true personality. A funky, messy junk shop run by lovable eccentric can be more welcome than a charming-as-can-be tea shoppe or nostalgically-correct soda fountain. Even a plain video store with good window display or a laundromat with comfy benches out front can become a kind of town square that attracts people.

In many small towns, an ice cream shop is the hot spot for teenagers, while other folks in the community wander down to the gas station to drink pop and tell stories. In a lot of African-American neighborhoods, the barber shop and beauty parlor are the social hubs. These places may not sound like your idea of an exciting time but to the people who live there, such businesses are as important as sidewalk cafes are to Parisians.

IN OXFORD , MISSISSIPPI , MANY FOLKS CREDIT A BOOKSTORE WITH HELPING HEAL THE CITY ’S PRIDE after a vicious anti-civil rights riot erupted in the 1960s. Square Books, right on the courthouse square, restored many people’s faith that this was a caring, civilized community. It also helped revive the sagging downtown.

“What tends to get lost in the argument over the future of independent stores is that the dangers posed to them by superstores and on-line sellers don’t just threaten some quaint form of distributing goods,” writes author Rob Gurwitt about Square Books in Mother Jones magazine. “They imperil the fabric of our community life. Real-life stores—their place on the street, the people they draw in, the presence they cast in the community at large—help define their neighborhoods.”

It’s no secret that local businesses almost everywhere are under siege from megamalls and big box retailers. Everyone who cares even a little about their neighborhood should make a commitment to patronize local businesses, even when bread or duct tape or CDs can be had cheaper by driving to national chain store. Vote with your pocketbook to keep your community vital. Indeed, you might even find yourself ahead economically with the money saved on gasoline and unnecessary purchases you would never have made if you hadn’t gone into the big box. And you’ll be way ahead in terms of community spirit and social enjoyment.

THANKFULLY , SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD STORES ARE BEGINNING TO FIGHT BACK WITH BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS . This is a well-proven model where local merchants work together to spruce up commercial streets by adding nice landscaping, fixing up the storefronts, improving the lighting and other amenities. They also cooperate on advertising campaigns, special neighborhood events, shared parking facilities, and other improvements.

Many merchants are banding together in an even bigger way by joining Independent Business Alliances, which draw public attention to the numerous benefits of locally owned businesses (how often do Wal-Mart and Home Depot buy uniforms for the local little league team or sponsor an art fair?) and by lobbying political officials and the media to take note of unfair economic tactics wielded by big retailers. The first IBA began in Boulder, Colorado in 1997 and within two years involved 150 local businesses. There are now IBA s in more than 20 communities—stretching from Corvallis, Oregon, to Greenville, South Carolina— and a national group, the American Independent Business Alliance, based in Missoula, Montana.

IN HARTLAND , A VILLAGE IN THE DEVON COUNTRYSIDE OF ENGLAND , a community school took over management of the Happy Pear greengrocer and market when it was about to close. It offers student a wonderful lesson in business management and sustainable economics, and means that local townspeople won’t have to drive many kilometers for fresh and organic food. This is just one example of a growing number of community initiatives to preserve and promote essential local shops. In another English village, Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire, 60 percent of residents pledged between five and five-hundred pounds ( $10-1000) to save and refurbish their general store (village shop in the British parlance), with townspeople doing most of the work. It is now community-owned with any profits going back to village itself.

IN THE SEATTLE SUBURB OF FOREST PARK , RESIDENTS RALLIED AROUND A UNIQUE , REDEVOPED MALL that was envisioned as a community center as much as a retail outlet. Third Place Commons features a superb bookstore as well as a food court featuring local restauranters and a stage for nightly music and performances. It become such a beloved local hangout that regular customers formed Friends of Third Place Commons, a non-profit group to help keep the place thriving.

Resources: “Square Books”:www.squarebooks.com “American Independent Business Alliance”:amiba.net “Friends of Third Place Commons”:www.thirdplacecommons.org

CHICAGO , ILLINOIS 9) Build on What’s Good to Make Your Community Better

Capitalizing on opportunities may be more important than solving problems

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN MANY NEIGHBORHOODS —especially low-income ones— is caused by perception more than reality. A part of town gets the reputation for being “bad”, “tough”, or “declining”, which is constantly reinforced in the media and local gossip. A negative incident happening there is widely reported as more evidence of “social breakdown”, whereas the same thing occurring in a different part of town would be thought of as “an unfortunate event” and quickly forgotten.

Making things worse, many well-intentioned efforts to help these afflicted areas wind up stigmatizing the community even more. The whole focus is on everything that’s wrong: bad schools, bad crime, bad housing, bad kids, bad economic opportunities. Even the people who live there come to feel negative about where they live and helpless to do anything to change things. It’s all just bad. Yet even in the most economically and socially challenged communities, there are a lot of good things going on—and that’s the building block to make things better.

On paper, things looked bleak for the Grand Boulevard neighborhood in Chicago. Eighty-two percent of children there lived in poverty, and unemployment was 34 percent. Yet below the surface, not visible in government statistics or a quick drive through its rundown streets, there was ample reason for hope. This African-American community of 36,000 on the city’s South Side was home to no less than 320 citizens groups working to improve life in the neighborhood.

Grand Boulevard’s residents were not just hapless victims, waiting for someone from the outside to rescue them from poverty and social ills; they were taking matters into their own hands. These groups—which ranged from church committees to senior citizen centers to mothers’ support groups—were mostly involved in the basic caretaking such as providing support for single mothers or taking in abandoned children. Yet after a number of these groups organized themselves into the Grand Boulevard Federation, they took on more complex issues such as creating jobs in the neighborhood and improving social services. They formed partnerships with government agencies, non profit organizations and businesses, such as United Parcel Service, which reserved 50 part-time jobs for Grand Boulevard residents needing to get on their feet. This has all made a difference in Grand Boulevard—both in concrete economic and social measures, but also the community’s own faith that they can solve their problems.

“For the last 40 or 50 years we have been looking at communities in terms of their needs,” says Jody Kretzmann, co-director of the Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University. “We have run into a brick wall with that approach.” Kretzmann and his colleague John McKnight of Northwestern, have pioneered a new approach to urban problems that starts with looking at the assets that exist in a community, rather than just what’s wrong. This empowers people, Kretzmann says, drawing on the abilities and insight of local residents to solve a neighborhood’s own problems. This does not mean, he is careful to note, that troubled neighborhoods don’t need outside help.

Any neighborhood can benefit from taking stock of their strengths. Kretzmann suggests all local revitalization project begin with an assets inventory—which can be as simple as list of what’s great about the neighborhood. Solicit the opinions of everyone, including youngsters and senior citizens, when compiling your list.

Jim Diers, a veteran activist who has held workshops throughout Seattle to help residents capitalize on the advantages of their neighborhoods, says, “The assets a neighborhood can build on range from natural features to school playground, great stores, networks, organizations, artists, and the whole range of human and financial resources, energy, creativity and ideas. Whether it’s a restaurant with especially delicious food, a gigantic cedar tree, or a longtime resident, a neighborhood treasure is something that makes us glad we live where we do.”

Resources: “Asset Based Community Development Institute”:http://www.abcdinstitute.org/

MINNEAPOLIS , MINNESOTA SEATTLE , WASHINGTON 10) Take to the Streets

The old wisdom that lively neighborhoods are safe neighborhoods is more true than ever

YOU DON ’T HAVE TO BE AN EX- LINEBACKER or hold a black belt in karate to help keep the peace in your neighborhood. Anyone out on the sidewalks deters crime and brings a measure of harmony and energy to the area. Make a special effort to greet everyone you meet with a smile and keep watch out for any signs of problems—a fresh scrawl of graffiti or unusual comings-and-goings at a residence.

Grandmothers in the Yesler Terrace public housing community in Seattle helped rid their streets of crack dealers. They set up lawn chairs every evenings at corners frequented by dealers. All they would do is knit and chat, but it was enough to drive the troublemakers away. In the nearby Garfield neighborhood the community council declared the area a drug-free zone and led marches through the community on Friday nights to show they were serious.

An effective anti-crime initiative underway in many parts of the country is organizing groups walking the beat—just like the police used to do in the days before squad cars. Indeed, some cities are bringing back cops on the beat, or on bicycles, who patrol the streets to prevent crimes rather than just answering calls once crimes have been committed. But police can’t be everywhere you need them. But citizens are coming forward to help keep the streets safe by patrolling their neighborhoods in the evenings.

NEIGHBORS GOT TOGETHER TO WALK THE STREETS in Minneapolis’s Lyndale neighborhood, which helped bring crime down 40 percent in four years. Calling themselves the Lyndale Walkers, they worked in pairs or larger groups strolling up and down the sidewalks of this diverse community that includes elegant turn-of-the-twentieth century homes and a high-rise public housing project. They rarely stopped a crime in action, and never pursued confrontations with young gang members or criminals, but did notify the local police precinct by cell phone whenever they saw something suspicious underway. They also filed reports detailing what they found on their walks, which helped police get a better overall picture of problems in the neighborhood.

Just as importantly, their simple presence on the sidewalks dampened lawless behavior and raised hope in the neighborhood. Indeed, the Lyndale neighborhood went in a short time from a place from a place prospective home-buyers avoided to one with the fastest-rising property values in the entire state.

The success of the Lyndale Walkers soon inspired similar efforts in other communities across Minneapolis affected by crime. Reverend Carly Swirtz, leader of the 11th Avenue Block Club in the low-income Phillips neighborhood, describes her experience. “We have lots of successes. One of the best advantages of a patrol is getting to know your neighbors. You can learn a lot on those strolls! We had two really big problem crack houses a couple of years ago. Many gun shots and police calls. It was due to our block club patrol and watch [group] that we finally got them out ”

Neighborhood safety is about more than crime. Luther Krueger, one of the leaders of the Lyndale Walkers, notes that even neighborhoods with quite low crime rates are forming what they call stroll patrols, “ perhaps to take the edge off the usual impression of citizen patrols being people strictly looking for crooks or crimes.”

Nolan Venkatrathnam, a patrol leader in the Stevens Square Loring Heights neighborhood, which does contend with crime problems, notes that one of their notable successes came when, “a patrol team retrieved a woman from her apartment that was filling up with smoke from a frying pan left on the stove. The women had apparently taken medication and fallen asleep and left the pan on the stove. Well the patrol got the women out and [she] was treated by medical personnel.

Resources: Neighborhood Power by Jim Diers ( 2004, University of Washington Press)

LUCKENBACH , TEXAS MONTMARTRE , PARIS GREEKTOWN , CHICAGO 11) Celebrate Your Place in the World

Evoke the spirit of your neighborhood in song, print, paint or even T-shirts

NEARLY EVERY TOURIST IN PARIS makes a pilgrimage up the hill to Montmartre. It’s difficult to reach, and quite plain compared to the grand boulevards and great landmarks for which the city is famous. Yet visitors come by the thousands to wander its few small streets, to snap photos, and to sip coffee in the cafes. Why? Because they’ve seen it in famous paintings, and now they want to see the real place.

MONTMARTRE WAS PARIS ’ ARTIST VILLAGE in the late 19th century, a low-rent haven that was home or hangout to many of the great Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters . These artists, of course, painted their surroundings, and now the whole world has a picture of this once out-of-the-way neighborhood in its mind.

It’s fun to seek out how your place in the world has been depicted by artists, writers, filmmakers or musicians. Although unlike Parisians, you’ll probably have to search beyond art museums and the best seller list. Try the library, historical society, local museums and the shelves of used bookstores, record shops, galleries and antique shops in the vicinity.

It’s even more fun to capture the essence of your home turf in a short story, blog, song, cartoon strip, theater production, photographs, stand-up comedy routine, computer game or whatever medium you most like to express yourself. Tell the neighborhood’s favorite stories, describe the local characters, offer a vivid portrait of what everyday life is like.

LIKE THE GREEK NEIGHBORHOOD OF CHICAGO IN MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING OR “LUCKENBACH, TEXAS ” IN THE CLASSIC COUNTRY SONG by Waylon Jennings, maybe you’ll make your community a little bit famous. Perhaps local officials will honor your work, as they did author Beverly Cleary. A park in northeast Portland features statues of her beloved characters Ramona, Henry, Beezus and Ribsy, who roamed the nearby streets in Cleary’s still widely-read novels for young readers. Jack Kerouac, chronicler of San Francisco’s Beat generation life in the 1950s, has an alley named for him that runs between two of his favorite San Francisco hang-outs: City Lights bookstore and the Vesuvio’s Bar.

Most likely you’ll just have the satisfaction of giving your neighbors a moment of pleasure and pride when they see your work hanging in the corner coffee shop, printed in the local newspaper, or presented at the community center. Most of us live in the kind of places that never appear on TV shows or in magazine articles, not to mention poems and paintings. That can sometimes make us feel our lives don’t matter much, especially compared to the important folks in Manhattan or Malibu, who we see depicted all the time in movies, novels and TV. It’s empowering to see that the places we know are also worthy of creative exploration.

This can even be done through something as simple as a t-shirt. Think of the many times you’ve seen people walk past advertising famous spots like “San Francisco,” “South Beach,” or “Colonial Williamsburg” on their chests. Why not do the same for your neck of the woods. Print up shirts, tote bags or bumper stickers celebrating your neighborhood. And when some asks about “Sweet Auburn”, “San Pedro”, ; “Westminster,” “Willy Street,” “Royal Oak” or “Hardwick”, tell them it’s a great place. (They are, respectively: Atlanta’s historic African-American hub; Los Angeles’s port; a leafy corner of Winnipeg along Westminster Avenue; the near east side of Madison, Wisconsin; a suburb next-door to Detroit; or lively town in Northeast Vermont).

LOUISVILLE , KENTUCKY 12) Do Nothing in Particular

Sometimes, it’s important to simply enjoy what you’ve got

“I ARISE IN THE MORING TORN between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world,” wrote the essayist E.B. White, “This makes it hard to plan the day.”

Ah, that’s the dilemma. You live in a nice place. But it could be nicer—if only the park were fixed up or the traffic slowed down, if the schools were better or the business district brighter. So what to do first? You’d like to plop down on a bench for a while, soak up the sunshine, listen to the birds sings or kid play, and just watch the world go by. But you really ought to be organizing a meeting, handing out flyers and enlisting volunteers for the big event.

Actually, it’s important to do both. Without taking time to truly savor your neighborhood, you lose touch with why you love it in the first place. Soon, all you see is what’s wrong. And that quickly diminishes your effectiveness as community advocate. No one is inspired by harried, humorless, negative leader who would really rather be doing something else.

On a strategic, as well as a personal, level it’s smart to take a long stroll every evening, linger at the sidewalk café, stop for a chat with neighbors, and just generally revel in all the great things your community offers. Otherwise, what’s the point of living there?

IN THE IRISH HILL NEIGHBORHOOD OF LOUISVILLE , KENTUCKY , THE PROFESSIONAL PORCH SITTERS UNION IS COMING TO ORDER . Crow Hollister, who founded it, explains in Orion magazine that the organization attracts hard-working activists, professionals, artists, mothers, revolutionaries, gardeners. “People like you. They work hard, volunteer in their community, sit on boards, have schedules to keep and chores that need tending.” Each meeting follows an agenda, but there is nothing written on it. Iced tea is served, followed by beer. Stories begin to flow. Andy brings up how his neighbor was visited by the windshield wiper fairy. Hillary talks about an article coming up in her self-published zine Bejeezus. Mike has got the inside scoop on how to get concrete bench tops for free. Then, Hollister reports, “ A neighbor walking her dog is enticed to join us. A lot is getting accomplished.”

The Professional Porch Sitters Union began on the porch described above in 1999 and now features chapters across the country. Hollister encourages you to start your own, keeping in mind that the organization is governed by only one rule: “Sit down a spell. That can wait.” He’d like to hear how it goes, but don’t sweat it if you don’t get around to writing him.

TORONTO , ONTARIO 13) The Power of a Public Pizza Oven

A wary neighborhood comes together to reclaim a troubled city park

JUTTA MASON , A YOUNG MOTHER IN TORONTO , FACED A DILEMMA . She lived near Dufferin Grove Park but was afraid to go there with her children because it had become a hangout for kids who were viewed as the “local toughs.” Still, she didn’t want to stay home stuck in her house. Mason debated whether to endure boredom or confront fear? She chose to overcome her fear, and in the process made a great difference in her community.

Her approach was simple. She struck up a conversation with neighbors about the park and how it could be improved. Together they started talking with the “tough” kids, who, as it turned out, also thought the park needed improving. They all worked to make the indoor skating rink in the park safer. Then they planted flower beds, resurfaced the basketball courts and renovated the playground—projects that were all based on ideas from local residents.

One of their most inspired improvements was the creation of a large Portuguese-style bread oven, which members of the neighborhood use to cook community dinners and throw pizza parties. They also constructed a fire circle, and many neighbors now cook meals over the open fire. This outdoor kitchen has become a center of social activity in the neighborhood. Dufferin Grove Park has been turned around, in large part due to the community effort launched by Mason; a new school has even been established next to the park. — By Ben Fried

SHELBURNE FALLS , MASSACHUSETTS NEW YORK , NEW YORK 14) Great Places Grow From Humble Petunia Patches

Don’t underestimate the power of small things to turnaround a neighborhood

PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES HAS DISTILLED WHAT ITS LEARNED IN 30 YEARS OF WORK in communities around the world into “11 Principles for Creating Great Places”. Most of the advice centers on practical matters like “Develop a Vision”, “The Community is the Expert” and “Form supports function,” but principle No. 9 simply states, “Start with Petunias.”

Petunias? What possibly do petunias have to do with the important business of providing your neighborhood with public places for recreation and hanging out? Well, actually quite a lot. Flowers can brighten up any place, whether it’s the dowdy Main Street in a small town, a squalid vacant lot in an urban ghetto or a dreary sidewalk near a suburban strip mall.

CIVIC GROUPS IN SHELBURNE FALLS , a small town in western Massachusetts, made the most of a bad situation by creating floral displays on a downtown bridge that had been abandoned when rail service shut down. That was in 1928, and The Bridge of Flowers has become an annual event that draws thousands of tourists and international attention to this out-of-the-way town.

But flowers do more than please the eye. They can lift a community’s spirit and provide a tangible proof that things are looking up. Flowers are a great way for a community to take that all-important first step. “In creating or changing a public space, small improvements help to garner support along the way to the end result,” writes PPS vice-president Kathleen Madden in the book How to Turn A Place Around. “They indicate visible change and show that that someone is in charge. Petunias, which are low cost and easy to plant, have an immediate visible impact. On the other hand, once planted, they must be watered and cared for. Therefore, these flowers give a clear message that someone must be looking after the place.”

In New York City volunteers plant more than 3 million daffodils bloom in parks and public places. Originally conceived to commemorate September 11, the Daffodil Project now splashes color and raises spirits at more than 1300 sites across the city, highlighting the potential for reclaiming neglected parks and other public spaces.

Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter, who studies the dynamics of change, notes that people who succeed in improving things at a corporation, organization or community, “look for avenues that will produce some short-term wins, some visible changes that are associated with their effort, within six or 12 months. This gives them credibility an discourages the cynics…Change of any magnitude tends to take time, so short-term wins are essential, and must be an integral part of the long-term strategy.”

But not all small actions leading to large results start with flowers. One exemplary project used white paint. Mulry Square was a dangerous intersection where three streets meet in New York’s Greenwich Village. Neighbors had long clamored to make the spot safer for people walking. Working with the New York City Department of Transportation and neighbors, PPS proposed an ambitious plan of traffic calming, tree plantings, and reconstructing the space to better serve pedestrians. The city balked at making such big changes so quickly, but agreed to use paint to create striped crosswalks between all the corners and to expand the space available to pedestrians. This demonstration project proved how well the proposed safety improvements worked, winning a quick commitment from the city to carry out the project..

“By experimenting with simple, visible, temporary actions like painting lines in the street, we were able to show the city how larger investments could pay off,” explains Shirley Secunda, a member of the local community board.

YOUR OWN BACKYARD 15) Save the Planet Right On Your Own Block

Local efforts are the backbone of green activism

WE GENERALLY THINK OF GREENS rallying to save rainforests, coral reefs, deserts and other faraway tracts of wilderness. But that’s just one aspect of saving the Earth. Many greens stick closer to home, working together with neighbors on important projects in their own backyard. This might well be the kind of environmentalism that appeals to you.

WE CAN ENLARGE THE USUAL DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENT to include the places that we all call home—where we live and work and play. Indeed, this kind of environmentalism would ultimately preserve both wild places and human communities since improving life in neighborhoods everywhere means that people would feel less urge to move on to new homes in sprawling subdivision carved out of forest, marsh, desert or farmland..

This would nurture a new breed of environmental activists working to make streets safe from traffic so our children can walk to school. They would lobby for sidewalks and benches and neighborhood parks and pleasant tree-lined streets. They would transform outdated shopping malls into neighborhood centers complete with housing and lively public squares, sidewalk cafes and convenient transit stops, even libraries or new schools. This way malls would become the true community institutions we always wanted them to be.

These dreams don’t sound like the stuff of a Sierra Club campaign, but why not?. All these steps will lead to more walking and less driving, a simple equation that yields large environmental benefits in terms of pollution, climate change and land use. In fact, creating more congenial human environments is one of the most effective ways to curb sprawl, reduce vehicle trips, and rein in global warming.

JONATHAN PORRITT , ONE OF ENGLAND ’S LEADING GREEN ACTIVISTS , declares “Most people think the environment is everything that happens outside our lives. Yet this is a huge philosophical error creating a false divide between us and the physical world. We need to.. acknowledge that the environment is rooted in our sense of place: our homes, our streets, our neighborhoods, our communities.”

A great opportunity now exists for the environmental movement to reach out to a broader base and new partners simply by expanding the scope of places it is willing to fight for. This expanded notion of the environment would encompass rural watersheds and town squares, coastal wetlands and neighborhood playgrounds. It’s a winning strategy to revive the movement and restore our planet. Let’s bring the environmental movement back home to inner cities and small towns and suburban neighborhoods.

You can easily become a part of this exciting, emerging movement by just looking around your own neighborhood to see what special places—parks, gathering spots, natural amenities, quiet nooks, play areas, walking routes, business centers—deserve to be protected or regenerated.

Resources: “Jonathan Porritt”:http://www.jonathonporritt.com/

ATHENS . OHIO CAMDEN , NEW JERSEY ESPANOLA , NEW MEXICO ‘ BURLINGTON , VERMONT 16) Think Globally, Eat Locally

Food grown close to home simply tastes better— and serves up other benefits for you and your community

MODERN SOCIETY HAS ENRICHED US with remarkable material advantages, but sometimes also robs us of meaning and connection in our lives. This is often apparent at the dinner table, where we sit down to food which has come from who-knows-where. The vegetables on our plates may have traveled across the country and the fruit half-way around the world, while our meat was produced at a factory farm and the microwave side dishes created in a laboratory.

Eating this sort of food each day raises serious nutritional and social issues, which are now being widely debated. But one thing we know for sure: packaged food shipped into Wal-Mart, Safeway or other supermarket chains never tastes as good or feels as satisfying as a meal from locally-grown ingredients. Whether it’s from a backyard garden, a public market, a community-supported agriculture program, or truck farmers in the area, local food nourishes our souls as well as our stomachs. And it makes a very real contribution to the vitality of our local economy.

Happily, the last few years have seen a boom in local foods, most significantly with the increasing numbers of farmers’ markets almost everywhere. Project for Public Spaces has been promoting public markets for decades, not just as a place for finding tasty food and having fun but as a surefire way to bring people together and strengthen communities. Studies have shown that people strike up four to ten times as many conversations in farmers markets than supermarkets.

THE FARMERS MARKET IN ATHENS , OHIO ( POPULATION : 7200) EACH WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY ATTRACTS THOUSANDS of folks to check out each other and more than 100 vendors of produce, prepared food and craft vendors. The markets motto is: “your dollars go the furthest when they stay close to home”. Madison, Wisconsin (population: 200,000) also feels like a small town on Saturday mornings when it seems half the town comes down to the downtown square for the Dane County Farmers Market.

Beyond instilling community spirit, a number of markets are pursuing ambitious goals involving public health and economic revitalization.

THE CAMDEN COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKET IN THIS HARD - HIT NEW JERSEY CITY offers health services and nutrition counseling right alongside heaping piles of wholesome fruits and vegetables. The People’s Grocery in Oakland, California, is a literal moveable feast—a portable market that brings healthy, homegrown food to community centers, schools, and senior citizen centers in poor neighborhoods of this predominantly African-American and Latino city. Oakland’s Fruitvale Village accomplishes the same thing with a stationary market right outside one of the transit station on the Bart train line.

IN ESPANOLA , NEW MEXICO , A MONDAY FARMERS MARKET HAS PROVIDED A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR THE ECONOMY because local growers now have steady customers for their fruits, vegetables and chilies rather than chancing a trip to the touristy markets in far- off Santa Fe. It’s also a boon for residents because stores in this low-income town of 15,000 offer little fresh produce. Panorama City, California, a largely Latino enclave northeast of Los Angeles, has transformed an old shopping center into a Mercado-style market as a lively and local alternative to a Wal-Mart across the road.

IN DETROIT , AND BURLINGTON , VERMONT , THE STORY IS NOT JUST FARMERS IN THE CITY , BUT FARMS . Enterprising gardeners are moving onto many of Detroit’s abandoned tracts of land, producing everything from salad fixings and eggs, to alfalfa and goat’s milk. In the heart of Stockholm, Sweden, an organic farm is planted in vegetables, herbs, flowers, and apples. But Burlington, Vermont, takes the prize with six percent of the fresh produce consumed in this chilly northern city grown at a 260-acre organic farm right inside the city limits. It was once a dump and junkyard but has been reclaimed by the non-profit Intervale Center.

Resources: “Project for Public Spaces Market Program”:www.pps.org/markets “Intervale Center”:www.intervale.org

How to Write an Essay about Your Neighborhood

Kristine tucker.

When your teacher assigns a social studies or civics paper on your neighborhood, consider the role it played in your social development and awareness of community life. Gear your essay around physical attributes, historical factors and economic changes that influenced your community. Talk to neighbors, research statistical information and dive into your personal experiences to fill your paper with specific details and supportive examples.

Explore this article

Neighborhood Residents
Physical Attributes
Community History
Personal Experiences

1 Neighborhood Residents

Visit and interview neighbors about their experiences and involvement in the community. Ask elderly neighbors how the community has changed over the years and what they consider advantages and disadvantages of the community. Study demographics by examining the different ethnicities, age groups, family sizes and neighborhood activities that represent the various groups. Cite neighbors by name in your essay, to support your content with reliable, firsthand sources. Interview new residents to get their first impressions and compare their views with those from neighbors who've lived in the community for a long time.

2 Physical Attributes

Explore the neighborhood by visiting local attractions and examining architecture. Visit churches, parks, schools and commercial businesses to get a feel for what's important to the community. Discuss architectural features, house structures and buildings as they relate to climate or the age of your neighborhood. For example, you might talk about the use of stucco in a hot dry climate, or the use of brick and natural stone in older communities. Examine transportation options, infrastructure features and safety concerns. Include essay subtopics about socioeconomics in the neighborhood, such as apartments versus single-family residences or urban versus rural elements.

3 Community History

Include a section on neighborhood history. Research when and why the neighborhood was first developed. Did it evolve from a small town or fishing village into a large suburb? Did a particular industry or business cause your neighborhood to flourish? Was your neighborhood ever hit by a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, flood or tornado? Research house prices when the neighborhood was first developed and compare them to current prices to see how the price of real estate has risen or fallen over time.

4 Personal Experiences

You can include personal experiences in your neighborhood essays. Talk about your favorite part of the neighborhood, special memories or people who made a difference in your life. Discuss community events that brought the neighborhood closer together, such as picnics, barbecues, community swimming pool activities and neighborhood yard sales. Personal experiences, such as learning how to ride a bike, building a tree house, starting a garage band or helping with a neighborhood recycling project provide powerful illustrations to support your paper.

1 Common Core State Standards Initiative: English Language Arts -- Writing -- Grade 11-12
2 PBS: e2 Teachers -- Community and Culture Project
3 Purdue Online Writing Lab: Descriptive Essays

About the Author

As curriculum developer and educator, Kristine Tucker has enjoyed the plethora of English assignments she's read (and graded!) over the years. Her experiences as vice-president of an energy consulting firm have given her the opportunity to explore business writing and HR. Tucker has a BA and holds Ohio teaching credentials.

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[This article is part of a new series where we will be dissecting each of the UC essay prompts in depth, providing examples and tips on how you can make your application stand out.]

Click here to read yesterday’s post about UC Prompt #6.

Prompt #7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

Struggling with writing your college application essay?

Read our Ultimate Guide to Stand Out College Essays to learn the tips and techniques on writing a winning essay and maximize your college admission chances!

This prompt gives you an opportunity to show UCs the type of role you have in your current communities, and how you plan on carrying that to their campus communities.

But what exactly defines a community? This prompt is actually a lot broader than many might think, because the word “community” encompasses so many different groups. Every single student belongs in some sort of community, including but not limited to your:

Neighborhood

The list goes on! This would be the essay to talk about all those hours you spent volunteering at the library or that time you motivated your school to donate to a cause you care deeply about. An important thing to remember is that the experience or community doesn’t necessarily have to be a super unique and impressive opportunity. What matters is the individual contribution and impact you were able to make on this group.

For example, UC admissions officers would rather see that you helped implement a summer reading program for kids at your local library than read about how you just filed papers at your senator’s office. In the same vein, focus on specificity rather than being broad about your contributions.

Moreover, I think it’s important to also explain how your impact on this community affected you . What did you learn from the experience, and how will you apply that to the future? Admissions officers are trying to figure out how your past experiences will translate into future contributions to their campus community.

Here’s how you might structure this essay:

Describe your community and how it was like before you stepped into it

Explain your thought process in determining the necessary impact that you wanted to make

Detail the steps you took to implement the specific impact you made

Reflect on how the experience affected or changed you

Think about how you might bring the lessons you learned from this experience to college or the future

7EDU has helped hundreds of students connect their experiences to a compelling story. Get started early with a free consultation with our experts.

If you found this article helpful, check out the rest of our deconstructed UC Prompts below:

UC Essay Prompts Explained Writing UC Prompt 1 Tips: Leadership Experience Writing UC Prompt 2 Tips: Your Creative Side Writing UC Prompt 3 Tips: Greatest Talent Writing UC Prompt 4 Tips: Educational Experiences Writing UC Prompt 5 Tips: Significant Challenge Writing UC Prompt 6 Tips: Favorite Subject Writing UC Prompt 7 Tips: Improving your Community Writing UC Prompt 8 Tips: How do you Stand Out?

Sometimes the smallest things we can do for our neighborhoods can have the biggest impact. At Curbed, we know the power of a vegetable garden planted in a vacant lot or a library installed on a sidewalk. Here, we’re sharing 101 urban interventions and ideas that show how even the tiniest changes can make our cities better places.

We've scoured cities all around the world for small ideas with huge potential, and asked some of our favorite urban thinkers for tiny ways to make outsized transformations. And we divided them all up into six sections to help focus your efforts. We hope this serves as a resource for urban inspiration—and that you'll contribute your own thoughts in the comments.

1. Redesign a crosswalk. In 2015, a handful of Seattle streets were reborn when a rogue designer painted colorful new crosswalks. Instead of wiping them away, the city made them a permanent part of the landscape, and even appropriated the idea, setting up a community crosswalk program so other neighborhoods could create their own colorful street art. Between promoting community pride and increasing pedestrian visibility and safety, it’s a quick, colorful step forward. Check out Atlanta , Los Angeles , and Santa Monica for more examples.

2. Green your parkway . Okay, there’s gonna be a ton of regional slang to fight through here: You know that little sliver of property between the sidewalk and the curb? Whatever you call it, replace whatever’s there with a stormwater garden that allows water to naturally percolate into the ground. It will not only alleviate flooding on your street, it will filter and clean the water on its way back underground.

3. Make a seat. " One small thing a person can do for your city is build an attractive bench and place it where it's needed. There is an urban seating deficit the world over and some of my favorite cities are those where people frequently build their own street seats. Here are bunch of examples we once catalogued in New York City." — Mike Lydon , The Street Plans Collaborative

4. Create a little free library. Libraries may change and evolve, but the pleasure and joy of reading a book remains. In Dallas, the Little Free Libraries/Libros Libres project helped construct and decorate makeshift shelves positioned across the community, part of a wider community literacy project. Inspired by the wider Little Free Libraries movement , it’s creating a real-life literary community on city streets.

I was lucky enough to get this photograph of #BillCunningham on the street in 2012. thanks for all the inspiration, Bill - #GOAT A photo posted by Anthony Danielle (@takinyerphoto) on Jun 27, 2016 at 10:37am PDT

5. Start documenting your street. Share the beauty of your surroundings, whether it’s through an Instagram hashtag or a personal photo project. Once you start snapping pictures of everyday life there’s no telling what you’ll find or who you’ll meet.

6. Add additional bike parking. While artful racks and bikeshare stations are sprouting up everywhere, popular roadways and sidewalks can still become overcrowded with riders angling to anchor a U-Lock. Small businesses can help make a difference by placing some DIY rackspace out front to make the parking situation more bearable. Here are some creative solutions .

7. Plant a tree . Shade, serenity, sustainability— trees add so much to the urban landscape and ask so little. Many cities give away free trees , have planting services , or require tree planting permits, so check your local rules before you start digging .

8. Pick up more poop. "I have the habit of trying to pick up someone else’s dog’s poop every time I pick up my own. I am talking about old poop, as opposed to ambushing another dog’s poop-in-progress." — Michael Bierut, partner, Pentagram

9. Forge a fancier garbage can. If there isn’t money in the municipal budget for murals or street art, there’s still creative ways to beautify the streets. Providence, Rhode Island, turned everyday urban hardware such as fences and trash cans into colorful creations with the help of a local nonprofit, The Steel Yard. By commissioning artists to create striking bike racks and railing, the city gets more exciting, eye-catching infrastructure.

10. Set up a small, interactive community art project on your corner. " Share your art with people in small ways. With our As You Wish project, our artists made versions of people’s wishes with cheap materials we had on hand. With Forensic Friends , people stopped by our artists on the street and described a friend like you would if you were doing a forensic sketch of a criminal. But, instead, the artist draws a portrait of a friend from the description. With Listening Booth , we simply have somebody sit and listens to anybody who wanted to talk." — Jim Walker , founder and director of the Big Car Collaborative

11. Hang some chandeliers . Need a way to brighten a blah block and add whimsy to a dark sidewalk? The Chandelier Tree in Los Angeles has become a local landmark for the dozens of lighting fixtures ensconced in a sycamore. Neighbors donate to the electric bill using a repurposed parking meter . In Vancouver, a spinning, LED-lit chandelier was installed under a bridge underpass.

12. Fight crime with neon . Especially in a city strapped for cash, streetlights are low on the priority list as they’re expensive to install, maintain, and keep powered. But they’ve also been proven to deter crime. Two Philadelphia artists took it upon themselves to brighten a dangerous South Philly block with a " neon mural ." The illuminated work of art has become a social-media destination after dark, putting eyes on the street at a time when the neighborhood needs it most.

13. Begin a guerrilla garden uprising. Green thumbs often have private plots and backyards to grow, but they can also get on the front lines. Surreptitiously filling in unkempt lots or small patches of untendered land with plants and flowers, or tossing a "seedbomb" at a hard to reach patch of land, turns lost space into lush greenery. Richard Reynolds, one of the leaders of the movement, maintains a blog with invaluable tips on how to reclaim "unloved public spaces."

14. Look underground. "So much of what happens at the city surface is impacted by what happens underground. From sewer systems to bedrock geology to culverts, what happens below the urban crust can highlight the history of a place, revealing why and how a city develops. In Lexington, SCAPE recently went subterranean, tracing the historic buried stream channel of Town Branch, and creating a podcast tour that describes this forgotten waterway and how it shapes the city's past and future." — Kate Orff , landscape architect, principal at SCAPE, author of Toward An Urban Ecology , New York City

1 5 . Make an alley into a public art studio. Back in 2004, Detroit homeowners frustrated by people tagging and vandalizing their property decided if their garages were going to be canvases, they might as well benefit the community. Now, those alley-facing doors have become public galleries thanks to The Alley Project, which works with more than 100 young artists to showcase their work, hold art classes, and beautify the neighborhood.

16. Get lit . Sometimes it only takes a few spotlights to completely transform a city block. Casting light on a forgotten building can bring a renewed sense of appreciation and community. Boston’s new strategy to light its city hall has enlivened its famous adjacent plaza, even for those who hate the "Brutalist punching-bag" of a building.

Pirate Printers, una nueva forma de impresión urbana http://www.urbansmag.com/pirate-printers-impresion-urbana/ #pirateprinters #berlin #art #urbanart #design #urbandesign #raubdruckerin #alcantarilla #estampado #camiseta #tshirt #fashion #moda #urbanfashion #modaurbana #orange #naranja #stamping #urbansmag A photo posted by Urbans Mag (@urbans_mag) on Sep 20, 2016 at 6:39am PDT

17. Turn infrastructure into t-shirts. It’s a simple way to achieve instant street cred. German art group Raubdruckerin uses a "pirate printing" technique that, in essence, screenprints manhole covers, a process that creates graphic T-shirts with a clever connection to different European cities.

18. Fix up your porch . "In a city like New York it's easy to burrow inside your house and ignore the outside. But I have a neighbor with a stoop who has plants on every step, and a neighbor with a tiny vestibule who has managed to fit in one pretty copper pot by her front door. Both of their houses look brighter and friendlier, like they bothered to accessorize." — Alexandra Lange , architecture critic, Curbed

19. Don’t despair; depave. Working under the banner "free your soil," the Portland, Oregon-based group Depave has been kicking asphalt for a decades, turning unused parking and abandoned lots into community gardens and parks. If you discover an opportunity to literally reclaim your streets, the group has a guide on its website to help get started.

Kunstenaar @ichbinkong werpt letterlijk een nieuwe blik op photobombing #theylive #stockholm #comeandsee #streetart pic.twitter.com/xmIZY0AzYm — Canon Nederland (@CanonNederland) October 3, 2015

20. Make faces. “ Eyebombers ” believe that there’s nothing a bit of humor can’t fix. By taking “googly eyes” and placing them on inanimate objects around the city, eyebombers add a bit of Muppet-like merriment to public space. How can you be in a bad mood when the garbage can is giving you a goofy grin?

21. Go chairbombing. Public benches and seats have been removed in many cities due to fears of loitering, which often has the sad side-effect of discouraging community interaction (cue Forrest Gump). To encourage people to sit, share, and socialize, Brooklyn group DoTank started chairbombing , upcycling discarded pallets into street furniture they set up on empty sidewalks, reclaiming the corner for the public.

22. Design fake signs. The frighteningly official looking faux signage installed by Michael Pederson stops people in their tracks and engages citizens with their cities, as they look around to see if anyone else noticed the caution sign placed next to a sidewalk crack or a rating system for the quietness of a local park. If you’re aiming to make a bigger splash, you could always take it upon yourself to fix an incorrect sign, like artist Richard Ankrom did with a spot-on replica of a Los Angeles freeway sign in 2001 .

23. Turn utility boxes into civic canvases . In Philadelphia’s Washington Square West neighborhood, industrial metal utility boxes line the streets. Instead of seeing them as a mandatory, unusable part of the landscape, a group of local art students wrapped them in colorful artwork. This simple, striking beautification project , co-funded by the University of the Arts and Washington Square West Civic Association, turned more than a dozen aesthetic afterthoughts into colorful neighborhood symbols.

A photo posted by 5 Every Day (@5everyday) on Sep 7, 2016 at 2:16pm PDT

24. Turn a freeway overpass into a coworking hub. LA writer Kailee McGee was inspired to change up her work routine while on the road. Or more accurately, over the road. With the help of a handful of friends, McGee set up school desks on the apex of a pedestrian bridge over the 5 Freeway to create a pop-up, open-air coworking hub, complete with Wi-Fi and LaCroix (but of course). Nothing beats a change of perspective.

25. Network your alleys . Reinventing an alley can turn a dark, scary space into a vibrant place. An even better idea is to combine several alleys into a network of public spaces that stretch on for blocks. In Vancouver, the project More Awesome Now , is turning alleys (they call them laneways) into assets with basketball courts, foosball tables and shady cafes. And they’ll all be connected with a way-finding system using bright paint and eye-catching graphics.

26. Create a fit path. As part of the Market Street Prototyping Festival, a San Francisco celebration of creative urban intervention, one design team decided that activating the sidewalk required a different kind of action. The City Fit Path proposal, a simple-to-set-up series of exercise stations and prompts, encourages easy and equitable workouts, no gym membership required.

27. Create a community sign initiative. Many marquee streets in American cities share a certain edge, history, and a organic form of verbal branding that helps draw attention, pedestrians, and customers. The CoSign project in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood used visuals to makeover a neglected block, commissioning artists to transform staid storefronts with arresting, original signage. After redecorating another street in Covington, Kentucky, the project is poised to hang a shingle, so to speak, in cities nationwide.

28. Remake an underpass into an art space—or a park . Los Angeles has hundreds of pedestrian underpasses originally built to help students get across busy streets. But most of the underpasses have been sealed off to discourage illegal activities. In the Cypress Park neighborhood, coffee shop owner Yancey Quinones fought to reopen a nearby tunnel and fill it with art. The monthly openings spill out into the streets, activating the entire block. Need more inspiration? We’ve rounded up 11 ugly urban underpasses now functioning as parks.

29. Start a parking lot diary. Lexington’s plans for the Town Branch Commons , a linear park system that would thread together different areas downtown, is a game-changer. Part of that new system will run through the Transit Center, a huge, bland parking lot that could be put to better use. To come up with a new use for the space, the city will set up a parking lot diary and let resident feedback determine the shape and function of their new urban park.

30. Open a gallery in your living room . If you think your apartment is cramped, maybe all it needs is a few paintings on the wall: Paul Soto turned his 300 square-foot apartment in Los Angeles into a functioning gallery .

31. Take over an empty storefront. Closed for business doesn’t need to mean closed from the community. Numerous neighborhood groups, artists, and local business groups have turned empty commercial spaces into canvases and economic catalysts. From Project Pop Up , which hosted an array of displays and shops in abandoned Pittsburgh Storefronts (some of which have become permanent tenants) to initiatives such as Chashama and SmartSpaces in New York, creatives are breathing new life into these underutilized spaces.

32. Fix up your local park. Does barely functional equipment take the fun out of your local playground? Would new basketball courts or equipment make the park next door more enticing? To help guide those seeking to get their public parks in tip-top shape, the Center for Urban Pedagogy created a guide for building coalitions, activating the community, and petitioning local government for change. It’s New York-centric, but the lessons can be applied everywhere.

33. Build a pop-up playground. "Explode the static notion of the playground. No city resident is too old to play, and no city space is too small to become a playscape, even if just for a few hours. Gather loose parts (wood scraps, old tires, cardboard boxes, stones) and sponsor a session of Pop-Up Adventure Play . When people of all shapes, sizes and colors come together to play in unexpected ways, communities grow stronger." — Kate Tooke , Sasaki Associates

34. Start an urban orchard. This is more of a long-term solution to supporting parks and local agriculture. But isn’t the idyllic vision of sitting under an apple tree a few blocks from your apartment worth the wait? The Chicago Rarities Orchard Project (CROP) will literally take root in the city’s Logan Square neighborhood, in a lot adjacent to one of the area’s main intersections. The planters/planners also have plenty of additional fruit trees growing in a nursery, ready to be spread, Johnny Appleseed-style, to different sites across Chicago.

35. Build swing sets for adults . With the value of play proven to be a source of stress relief and inspiration, there’s no reason grown-ups can’t get in on the fun. An increasing number of cities and designers are providing adults with places to relax, recreate, and workout. The 21 Swings project by Tous les Jours transforms a busy median in Montréal into a highly visible space for fun.

36. Plan a pop-up dog park . If your neighborhood doesn’t have a place for dogs to run free, that’s nothing that a few yards of temporary fencing can’t fix. A pop-up dog park that’s become part of a weekly Sacramento farmers market became so popular it inspired a permanent park for pooches to be built nearby.

37. Ask kids to help design their own playgrounds. Participatory design shouldn’t have an age limit. Involving children in the creative process for local parks and playgrounds not only guarantees the end results will be more engaging to the end user, but also it fosters an early appreciation for design. Firms such as Public Workshop are renowned for working with a much younger set of client when making play spaces a reality.

Check out this before/after photo of our #ParkletSF of the week: #parklet at Caffè Greco designed by @rebargroup . pic.twitter.com/fIg1IVgR4B — Pavement To Parks (@pavement2parks) July 26, 2016

38. Turn a parking space into a park. Bustling streets can do much more than handle automobile traffic. That’s the idea behind Park(ing) Day , a worldwide event that encourage artists and designers to turn metered parking spots into temporary community installations. The concept has even become city policy; the Ground Play program allows sponsors in San Francisco to test similar projects and turn some into permanent public spaces, as does the People Street initiative in LA.

39. Slow down . Driving just 5 mph slower might save someone’s life. A famous 2011 AAA study looked at 422 crashes involving pedestrians and determined that a person is twice as likely to die if they’re struck by a car traveling at 30 mph instead of 25 mph. A study in 2017 confirmed these results, finding that speeding was the main factor in 31 percent of all traffic fatalities. Better yet, petition your city to implement a " 20 is plenty " zone for dense urban areas—98 percent of pedestrians hit at that rate of speed will live.

40. Give directions to your entire city. With a mission to get more "feet on the street," the Walk Your City project promotes more conversational, community-oriented wayfinding. Community groups can visit the site , create a set of custom signs (with messages such as "It’s a 2-minute walk to the library"), and get them shipped and ready to install. The concept has already played out in cities such as Mount Hope, West Virginia, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

41. Map a 40-minute walking circle around your house. Measure and draw a two-mile radius circle around your house to determine your " walkshed ," the places you can easily walk. You’ll realize how many local amenities are closer than you think—most people can walk two miles in about 40 minutes—and you’ll be more likely to hoof it and support local businesses.

42. Don’t forget the suburbs when building bike lanes. Making your neighborhood safe for cycling is important, but shifting suburban commutes can make a massive difference in safety and larger transportation patterns. Initiatives like the Family Friendly Bikeways program in Chicago help connect riders across local cities and towns.

Truly everything can be shared. Even kayaks. https://t.co/OaLxfNJgOP — Sharing Summit (@SharingSummit) September 14, 2016

43. Paddle to work. Bike share and ride share have become commonplace. But paddling to work is another thing entirely. In Minneapolis, a paddle share system lets commuters ride the Mississippi, traveling between two stations on the mighty river. Since the boat docks are connected to the city bike share system, it uses both modes of transportation to get you to work.

44. Organize a local car-free day. Every September 22 cities around the world participate in a global Car-Free Day , showcasing the possibilities of a more progressive commute and the advantages of walkable streets and biking infrastructure. Want to be inspired? Check out 14 beautiful car-free cities .

45. Paint a pop-up bike lane. Rather than talk about the impact of new bike lanes on the Macon, Georgia, transportation network Better Block went ahead and brought the vision to life with the help of 498 cans of paint (and support from the city and the Knight Foundation). The pop-up paint job, which linked together existing bike lanes, may be a precursor to expanding the city’s cycling infrastructure.

46. Take the bus. "Get lost in your city. Often times we avoid certain areas or simply stay within our comfort zone, but the true city dweller should attempt to reach all areas of the place they call home. You'll be surprised to find that not everything you read—both positive and negative—is true." — Germane Barnes , architect , designer, and city planner, Opa-Locka, Florida

47. Obey traffic laws. Cars that swerve into bike lanes or don’t watch out for two-wheeled commuters definitely deserve to be called out and ticketed. Bikers who ignore rules don’t help the cause for better bike lanes and better enforcement. Pedestrians should pay attention while crossing busy streets. Everyone: Follow the rules of the road .

48. Bicycle to new parts of your city. Slow Roll, a community bike ride series that started in Detroit, gathers riders to interact and explore new parts of the city, promoting riding in new neighborhoods, as well as expansions of bike lanes and bike share systems into underserved areas.

49. Form a bicycle-friendly district . The city of Long Beach, California didn’t just want to encourage cyclists to frequent local stores and restaurants, it wanted to prove that people on bikes were good for small businesses. The bike-friendly business districts provide amenities for two-wheeled patrons like racks and discounts, and serve as hubs for the city’s growing bike network.

50. Protect your bike lanes with plants . Vancouver took the protected bikeway one step further, turning the typical painted lanes into a planted greenway . Using self-watering planters instead of utilitarian poles not only safely separates bikes from cars, it improves the streetscape for all its users.

51. Fix up your bus stop. Is there a more bland and boring seat than a typical urban bus stop, a functional, feckless box of plastic? These key parts of urban infrastructure desperately need an upgrade , and people around the world are taking action. Community groups met that call to action with sharp redesigns, from Bus Stop Moves in Cleveland, which covers station walls with fitness instructions, or Ride, Rally, Ride in Memphis , which transforms transit stops into cycling hubs.

52. Build your own bridge. Nobody is suggesting that you try to one-up Robert Moses, but even a small span can make a difference. New York artist (and chief engineer) Jason Eppink often walked beneath the leaky Hell Gate Bridge Viaduct which flooded the sidewalk with a large puddle of dirty water. His satirical remedy, the Astoria Scum River Bridge , a miniature elevated wooden walkway, earned plaudits from locals, and eventually shamed the bridge owners into fixing the leaky pipes.

#Cyclehack #vienna w. >> The Strap-on #Cobblestone #Cocktailshaker << Using Vienna's deficient streets to mix it! pic.twitter.com/P1YvbCecsI — Smarter Than Car (@smarterthancar) June 26, 2016

53. Host a transportation hackathon. Pedaling meets prototyping at the worldwide innovation workshop Cyclehack , which gathers designers and riders in cities around the globe to build and test new concepts for a better bike tech. Transportation Camp is an annual "unconference" for tackling tough transit problems.

54. Just r ide a bike. Yes, riding a bike really can save the world. According to a 2015 study by the University of California at Davis , shifting more urban trips to bicycling, and cutting car use accordingly, could reduce urban transportation CO2 emissions by 50 percent worldwide by 2050. That seems especially feasible when you consider that half of all urban trips are a very bikeable six miles or less.

55. Organize a park-and-pedal. David Montague, the owner of a Boston company that makes foldable bicycles, wanted to encourage cycling in an area where many faced long commutes, and hit upon an ingenious hybrid solution: Organize a cycling-based version of the park and ride systems utilized by city commuters. His Park&Pedal system , which utilizes existing parking lots and trails to encourages people to split their commute between biking and driving, now includes 19 lots around the Boston area.

56. Swim your local waterways . Urban rivers, lakes, and harbors are being revitalized at an astounding rate. Organizing events where people can use waterways for recreation —even for one day!—helps visualize change. In Boston, the annual swimming events sponsored by the Charles River Swimming Club have bolstered restoration efforts for the once-polluted, now-swimmable river. See more cities that are reclaiming their waterways, over here .

57. Organize a bar crawl . Phoenix’s Meet Me Downtown functions as a weekly after-work mixer as well as a fitness event that gets people out on the streets and into local bars and restaurants. A variety of routes send participants into new neighborhoods and participating businesses offer deals for those who walk or run.

58. Advocate for accessible parks. Nearly one in five people have a disability in the U.S., but most parks aren’t built to accommodate them. Go to your nearest park and take a look around: Does it allow for wheelchair access? Are there supportive swings, activity panels at ground height, descriptions in Braille, accessible merry-go-rounds, and elevated play tables? Help build a more inclusive city by advocating for accessibly designed playgrounds .

Where to learn more

While the projects and proposals covered in this list lean towards DIY, the "yourself" part is optional. Small-scale urbanism is a great way to build community and unite neighborhoods, and numerous organizations and guides already exist to help and inspire. Here are some places to get started:

Project for Public Spaces

People’s Design Library

Neighborhood Design Center Action Guides

People Make Parks

The Parking Day Manual

How Can I Improve My Park

Tactical Urbanism , Tactical Urbanism 2 and the coming-soon Tactical Urbanist’s Guide to Materials and Design

Spontaneous Interventions

ArtPlace America

Shaping Space for Civic Life

Knight Cities Challenge

Pop-Up City

59. Get to know your neighbors . "We bring the trash cans out every Monday for our 85-year old neighbor and keep an eye out for him generally. We swap our lemons for another neighbor's superior kale. My husband bartered with our house painter neighbor: he designed the painter's website and the painter painted our house! We are on a first-name basis with all the store owners in our little 'downtown,' from bakery to bookstore. Our neighborhood has a Yahoo group—so old school—and through it I've found my daughter's preschool, a new dog walker, numerous babysitters and first learned about the hood's fabulous 4th of July parade. A neighborhood feels pretty special when we know we're all looking out for each other." — Allison Arieff , editorial director, SPUR

60. Provide dignity . Extend basic services to help your city’s most marginalized residents feel more welcome. Mobile showers and easily accessible public restrooms give people a moment of privacy and peace. The good news is, people want this and it works .

61. Start a YIMBY group . Across the country, pro-development, pro-housing fans are organizing against NIMBYs with unified YIMBY—that’s "Yes In My Backyard"—movements. Head to a YIMBY conference for new ideas.

62. Launch an oral history project. From Studs Terkel to StoryCorps , there’s a rich tradition of storytelling as a time capsule of modern life. Documenting your neighbors’s stories preserves the fabric and history of a neighborhood, giving context to why this place and its people matters.

63. Don’t eat so much meat . A 2016 Oxford University study showed reducing the amount of meat in Western diets by half could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save over $31 trillion (trillion, with a T) in healthcare costs. The # MeatlessMonday movement has gotten governments and schools all over the world pledging to stick to veggies one day of the week. (If you already don’t eat meat the rest of the days of the week, you’re ahead of the game.)

64. Volunteer. There are dozens of groups in your neighborhood doing their part to make your city a better place. Spend a few hours pitching in.

65. Share your idea with your neighbors . "Often, your neighbors need a little help figuring out how to make their ideas happen, and you can easily share suggestions or donate money on Neighborland . There is real power in sharing our ideas openly, connecting with others who share the same desire, and working together to make great ideas happen, like this streetscape improvement for the Mission District of San Francisco." — Dan Parham , founder, Neighborland

Check out the the photo credit! Jamaica Plain residents belly up to a homemade snow bar http://t.co/0vnZgGEVG8 via @BostonGlobe — Matt Fecteau (@MFect78) February 24, 2015

66. Turn snow piles into sidewalk ice bars. In 2015, Boston architect Chris Haynes and his wife Kristy Nardone turned #Snowmageddon into happy hour by carving a bar out of the massive mounds of snow accumulated on their block. Inspired by the Quebec Ice Hotel, their subzero watering hole boasted Bluetooth speakers, lighting, and the finest Moscow Mules (no word on whether the ice was hand-carved).

67. Talk to someone for 10 minutes. In Charlotte in 2015 and 2016, the Take 10 project recruited city workers to function as "ambassadors" who engaged in simple, direct conversations with residents, asking them what they like about their city and how to make it better. Crowdsourcing at its finest, the initiative also gave people a direct, personal connection with the municipal employees that make their hometown work.

A photo posted by Jim Hunt (@jimhunt) on Oct 4, 2015 at 1:56pm PDT

68. Set the table for community conversation. After breaking bread with someone, it’s hard to consider them a stranger. That’s the philosophy that informed The Longest Table , a 400-person feast put together by community groups in Tallahassee, Florida, to break down social barriers and get neighbors talking to each other.

69. Stage a scene. The public pranks of Improv Everywhere might seem like frivolous fodder for viral videos. But there’s something about witnessing a spectacle that can bring people together like nothing else. Their " No Pants Subway Ride ," which started in New York in 2002—and is exactly what it sounds like—has become an annual tradition in dozens of cities.

70. Take a person experiencing homelessness out for lunch. " Listen to their story. A lot of people just want to be heard or seen as human. I think it would be emotionally very hard to be ignored or overlooked the way our community is in San Francisco. How did they lose their housing? It's often unexpected. San Francisco’s homeless population is diverse and ever-changing. Some people lose their housing because they went through a medical bankruptcy after a partner became terminally ill. Some are veterans who fought in our wars. It's always interesting, and then you start to understand the sheer scale of the problem and how difficult it is to keep people housed in this city, with all of their idiosyncratic financial or medical needs." — Kim-Mai Cutler , columnist at Techcrunch

71. Become a tour guide for your neighborhood. You don’t have to live in a famous zip code to show people around. Using Vayable , you can create and share guided tours of the hidden gems in your neighborhood, or discover a unique experience nearby that allow you to become a tourist in your own city.

72. Join a time bank . Think of a time bank like a community ATM where you can deposit and withdraw "hours" of skills like cash. If there’s not one near you, the documentary Time as Money highlights several successful programs around the world and provides inspiring resources.

73. Create a community guide to tactical urbanism. Turning DIY projects into long-term additions can feel like a regulatory and zoning obstacle course. Officials in Burlington, Vermont, mindful of their citizen’s commitment to community projects, drafted a Tactical Urbanism and Demonstration Projects Guide , making it easier to launch neighborhood projects or organize small-scale interventions, and giving active citizens a green light to experiment.

74. Learn to give a great presentation. Community improvements always need ace advocates, and in addition to taking the time to listen to your neighbors, becoming a better speaker can help you spread the word and get local government on your side. The Neighborhood Design Center has a great guide.

75. Create community murals, and make preserving them a priority. Public art can illuminate a street, but protecting the work over time can truly define a neighborhood and foster creativity and talent. Philadelphia’s iconic Mural Arts Program , which started in 1984 and turned the city into a street art mecca, includes a restoration initiatives, to make sure creative expression is prized and protected. In Denver, Colorado, Crush Walls is an annual urban art festival that transforms the street walls of the city’s former industrial neighborhood.

76. Open a creative incubator . The community nonprofit CreateHere opened a space on a blighted Chattanooga street with a simple goal to improve the neighborhood. Over the course of five years, CreateHere helped dozens of artists relocate to Chattanooga, stimulating an estimated $4 million in local real estate investments and launching 300 small businesses.

77. Become a 311 vigilante . Civic reporting apps powered by SeeClickFix have gamified urban improvement in hundreds of U.S. cities—but they rely on people filing reports to work. Ann Arbor resident Rebecca Arends was a SeeClickFix superuser who had reported over 160 issues when she became frustrated by how long it took the city to respond to graffiti complaints. Using data from the app to identify the most vulnerable buildings, she coordinated an effort with the city to cover tags with murals—even enlisting some of the taggers to help paint walls.

78. Smile, particularly at strangers. "If you are feeling Southern enough, actually speak. It instantly makes the world a better place." — Carol Coletta , senior fellow with The Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Practice

79. Screen a movie outdoors. An impromptu movie night isn’t as hard to organize as it may sound. From a small gathering with neighbors to a larger, site-specific, artistic spectacular, cinema can expand horizons and bring people together. This guide on how to set up your own screening offers tips on how to host your own screening, whether it’s on an actual screen or the side of a building. Need a movie recommendation? We’ve got 101 of our favorites, right here .

80. Start a public mapping project . If action follows knowledge, than getting good data about your neighborhood can be the first step toward improvement. Nonprofits such as Public Lab offer the advice and knowledge needed to create citizen-made maps. You can also build DIY sensors to collect key data points such as pollution levels, which can help inform larger public debates about the environment.

"Grocery shopping in the Stone Age?" Overheard #PAFMemorial pic.twitter.com/O14y2tqaV2 — travellingcari (@travellingcari) September 19, 2016

81. Put your treasures where the public can see them. The need for sculptures and installations extends far beyond major parks, central squares, and high-trafficked tourist areas. Illuminating the off-the-beaten-path places with high-profile public art, such as the Picasso statue found amid New York University student housing, or Marc Chagall’s Four Seasons mural, set amid the Exelon plaza in Chicago’s Loop, gives the impression that wonders may hide around any city corner.

82. Just show up. "Most public zoning and development meetings are dominated by people who have a vested interest in the project. When a citizen shows up without a fish to fry, and expresses an opinion for the good of all, it’s a breath of fresh air." — Jeff Speck , author, Walkable City

83. Launch a community emergency hub . It’s not the most ideal circumstances under which to meet your neighbors, but knowing you have a local support network in place is critical for a crisis. Emergency hubs provide a centralized meeting place and a strategy that allows neighborhoods to remain self-sufficient in the days or weeks after natural disasters. In Seattle there are about 50 groups specifically organized for such events. This is especially good because climate change is making natural disasters—like the recent Hurricane Florence—worse .

84. Create a swimming pool from a dumpster . This ain’t no country club, it’s a simple, quick urban intervention that turns a neighborhood gathering into an impromptu pool party. Simple, down-and-dirty DIY swimming holes can make all the difference on a summer day. It’s highly recommended you don’t use a fire hydrant as a water source, however, since it may draw the attention and ire of city officials.

"Before I die I want to dance at my granddaughters' weddings" from Tonawanda , New York. pic.twitter.com/Bcx2FLQRbG — Before I Die (@BeforeIdiewall) August 29, 2016

85. Reflect and connect with your neighbors. "Create an anonymous prompt in public space using simple tools like chalkboard paint, stencils, and chalk." — Candy Chang , Before I Die , New Orleans

86. Brainstorm a community vision. Community planning discussions benefit from some levity, some understanding, and a lot of visual aids. The St. Paul, Minnesota-based Friendly Streets Initiative holds community visioning events that display large images of potential neighborhood improvements, asking neighbors to vote for their favorites via Post-It. It’s a quick, effective, and entertaining way to take the temperature of the neighborhood.

87. Shop local. It’s simple, straightforward, and an easy addition to your routine that supports local businesses, provides community jobs, and reduces transportation costs and carbon emissions.

88. Imagine housing in impossible places. "I love that in Indianapolis, near their new transit center, they looked at a traffic lane as they were redeveloping, and realized they didn't need it. So they put out an RFP for a developer to turn it into housing. Ironically the microhousing that was created is bolted onto a parking garage—which will be ultimately redeveloped, I would hope." — Gabe Klein , founder, CityFi

Was in Indy last week. Love how they took a travel lane, turned it into micro units & bolted it onto parking garage pic.twitter.com/hBZToFWPXt — gabe klein (@gabe_klein) May 23, 2016

89. Help build a better shelter. Sometimes, the best ways to help build your community is to help others who are feeling apart and alone. The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, along with architect Corrie Rosen, created a series of guidelines , called Building Dignity, to help construct more comforting and effective shelters for victims of domestic violence. The plans include soliciting donations from the community, such as asking interior decorators to "adopt" a room, and asking a local steel artist to create artful window displays that projected both strength, security, and beauty.

90. Start a mobile produce market. Running a new route through the city’s food deserts, a decommissioned Chicago Transit Authority bus transported market-fresh produce—not riders—for eight months in 2017. The Fresh Moves project helped underserved neighborhoods get access to the same farmer’s market finds sold in other parts of the city.

91. Set up neighborhood Wi-Fi. In a digital world, neighborhoods without strong wireless connections effectively lose out on other important network connections, ones that can help provide jobs, opportunity, and education. In the Rod Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, an often isolated pocket of the borough, a local non-profit initiative decided to bridge that gap by building its own mesh wireless network , creating a tool for local communication and a platform for community development.

92. Come together to combat climate change. Villagers in the rural English town of Ashton Hayes didn’t need government help, special technology, or some special funding grant to fight climate change. Over the last decade, neighbors there have achieved a 24 percent reduction in emissions by collaborating and changing everyday behaviors, sharing tips on weatherproofing and reducing energy usage. The grassroots, no-drama effort had earned the town a place in the media spotlight by building community around a shared effort.

93. Fall in love. "I think if we love the places we live, we'll make better decisions about them. Even in communities that are lacking, we can at least love the way the morning light hits the trees or any little thing. And with a little space for love to grow, we can transform our own expectations, inspire others to do the same, and over time, make real changes to improve the world around us." — Ryan Gravel , founder of Sixpitch and the originator of the Atlanta Beltline

94. Write an op-ed. If you’ve got a good idea, share it. If you want to change your neighborhood, start building a coalition. Explain your plans and help build grassroots support.

95. Turn old bridges into something beautiful. Post-industrial sites pockmark many major cities, remnants of old industries that often fall into disrepair. Trust a Rust Belt city to find a way to make this infrastructure beautiful. The Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) hosted a pop-up project for a vacant covered bridge, showcasing new uses for the old crossing . It was so successful, that the city embarked on an official planning process to renovate and reuse the steel structure.

96. Plant a community garden. Rolling up your sleeves and digging in the soil offers a great way to meet neighbors and collaboratively add something to your neighborhood. To get started, the American Community Gardening Association offers a set of resources and recommendations on how to manage and maintain a public patch.

97. Create a crowdfunding campaign. While it’s possible to get burned occasionally when the hype of Kickstarter or Indiegogo meet the realities of city planning, not every crowdfunding platform is created equal when it comes to changing cities. In the UK, Spacehive , a site launched in 2011 by a London architecture writer, provides extra transparency that helps civic ideas get off the drawing board. It’s helped fund $7.4 million worth of projects, and even hosted campaigns sponsored by the Mayor of London . In the U.S., Ioby has raised over $5.2 million for neighborhood projects.

98. Map your public produce. After noticing how many figs hanging over property lines remained unplucked, Fallen Fruit started making maps to help neighbors discover unharvested edibles growing on sidewalks and alleys. For bumper crops, Food Forward will show up and pick unwanted fruit, distributing it to those in need.

99. Think bigger. "I think the best small thing we can do for our neighborhoods is educate ourselves on the kind of huge changes American cities need to pursue to build their way out of the terrible housing crises most prosperous cities face, divest themselves of auto-dependent infrastructure, improve access to education and job re-training, ruggedize themselves for a changing climate and drop their greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the next couple decades. Almost everything else is window dressing." — Alex Steffen, writer, speaker, planetary futurist, The Heroic Future

100. Throw an amazing block party. Don’t forget the ice cream.

101. Vote. No excuses .

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Home | News | 8 Simple Ways to Make Your Neighborhood Safer

8 Simple Ways to Make Your Neighborhood Safer

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Long gone are the days where all the neighborhood kids played kick-the-can in the middle of the street each summer night. Whether you blame it on paranoid parents or uninterested children, one thing is for certain: many neighborhoods today are lacking the close-knit feeling that was prominent just 10 or 20 years ago. Missing this feeling creates concerns for neighborhood safety overall.

But it's not just about feeling safe—it can also save you money and hassle. The average cost of a burglary is nearly $3,000. And burglars are likely to strike again in areas they hit once, so you have a lot to gain (and potential money to save) from creating solidarity with your neighbors. 1

Neighborhood safety is a team effort, but it starts with you . What can you do to make your neighborhood a safer place? We have some simple tips here.

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8 simple ways to make your neighborhood safer

Make friends with neighbors
Organize neighborhood safety efforts
Keep up your yard
Install a security system
Exercise caution when out of town
Close windows and blinds at night
Improve lighting on your street
If you see something, say something

1. Make friends with neighbors

Familiarizing yourself with neighbors can be a win-win situation. Offer yourself as a resource in case of emergencies or help needed on their end; some neighbors might reciprocate the offer. See if they’re comfortable sharing their needs.

Are there small children you should look out for? Do you live next to an older couple that stays home but sometimes needs help? Does your neighbor have indoor pets, and should you call if you ever see the pets outside?

Planning get-togethers based on physical activity is a great way to get to know neighbors. Arrange to go on walks or to have your children play together outside. Ensure all kids are a safe distance away from traffic, and teach them safe rules for playing outside together.

2. Organize neighborhood safety efforts

Consider giving a Neighborhood Watch group a go in your neck of the woods. If you don’t know where to start with a neighborhood association, we outlined the steps to get Neighborhood Watch started in your area .

Developing a neighborhood calling tree could help when things go amiss in the neighborhood, whether it’s a property crime or something more sinister like violent crime.

You could also encourage neighbors to disclose safety/burglary incidents on a neighborhood safety app so others know what to look out for. These apps can flag specific crime occurrences so you’re not just relying on perceived neighborhood safety assumptions.

Be cautious about the neighborhood safety app you choose since Ring’s Neighbors app has been entangled with law enforcement in ways that raise privacy concerns . Think critically about what neighborhood incidents should involve police versus when you can turn to other public safety resources.

3. Keep up your yard

A well-kept yard can help deter crime since trimmed foliage offers fewer places to hide. And fences can, of course, keep unwanted visitors out.

But these backyard crime prevention measures can get pretty pricey sometimes. Lean on the free tips in our article if you want to stave off property crime but landscaping/construction isn’t in your current budget.

4. Install a security system

Overall, one of the surest options for crime prevention in your neighborhood is to get a home security system and use it properly. We regularly update our list of the ten best home security systems — these are your best bets .

Compare the best home security systems

Info current as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change. Read full disclaimer . Full ADT disclaimer

5. Exercise caution when out of town

To choose targets, burglars rely most on easily scannable visual cues. 2 Details like building type and signs of vacancy fall under this umbrella. We can’t overstate the importance of making it look like you’re home when you are away.

Consider swapping offers with neighbors to keep an eye on each other’s homes when out of town. Even small efforts can deter crime.

Favors might include mowing your lawn, shoveling your walks, or picking up your mail and newspapers. You could even have a neighbor park a car in your driveway occasionally while you’re gone. Make sure to return the favor if payment isn’t involved.

Use timers or smart switches to turn on your lights, or find a smart security system that will allow you to turn lamps off and on remotely.

6. Close windows and blinds at night

A big-screen TV is a less enticing steal if no one knows it’s there . Leaving your blinds open and lights on at night provides a free look into your house, its layout, and the habits of its occupants. And leaving windows open at night or when you’re gone is an invitation for an uninvited guest to come on in.

7. Improve lighting on your street

Burglars often prefer to target neighborhoods with lower residential density. 3 So if your neighborhood has few houses and lots of space, take special care to ensure that space is well lit. Streetlamps are not the only way to do this.

Ask that each household turn on their porch lights in the evenings and install motion-detector lights in the backs or sides of the house so potential intruders don’t have the darkness to hide in.

Burglars also prefer homes with multiple entry points or detached properties, so ensure that all doorways and pathways are well lit. 3

8. If you see something, say something

It’s not just for airports—being diligent in your neighborhood and speaking up when you see something out of place helps everyone on the block. Criminal justice expert and SafeWise advisor Dr. Ben Stickle says neighbors working together can make a big difference, especially with crimes like package theft . He also recommends filing a police report, even though odds of recovering goods swiped off the porch are low.

If package theft is a concern in your neck of the woods, work with neighbors to keep an eye out for deliveries and suspicious snoopers or cars. If one neighbor is home most days, see if they’re willing to collect packages that would be left unattended on other porches for hours.

And if you catch a package thief on your video doorbell , share the footage with neighbors—yours may not be the only home targeted.

Improving neighborhood safety is a team effort, but it needs to start with someone. As you get to know your neighbors, discuss your concerns, and apply some of the ideas above, you’ll find that your neighborhood becomes not only a safer place to be but a more enjoyable one.

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3 College Essay Examples that Need Improvement

What’s Covered:

Common college essay mistakes, how to strengthen your college essay.

College Essay Examples and How They Could Be Improved

Where to Get Your Essay Edited for Free

If you’re preparing to apply to college, you already know how important your essay is as a part of your complete application. The college application essay demonstrates your strengths , and allows you the opportunity to explain to admissions committees why you are the perfect fit for a school.

With the increasing popularity of test-optional and test-blind admissions, essays are becoming even more important. The last thing you want is to make simple mistakes that detract from your story. In this post, we’ll are three essay examples that didn’t quite make the mark and explain where they fell short and how they could be improved to make sure you don’t fall into the same traps.

Picking the Wrong Topic

Admissions counselors are looking for topics that stand out. They seek originality when reviewing college applications, so it’s best to avoid any topics that could be considered cliche or overdone , like a sports injury or personal tragedy. Focus on what makes you stand out as a student, and as a person. Think about what makes you different from your peers, and center your topic around this.

Writing About Too Much

Avoid repeating what you’ve said in other areas of your application. Write about one area of your life that’s interesting. The college essay isn’t a place for a chronological narrative of your life. You’ll want to focus on one moment, one anecdote that you can build on. The moment can be small, such as a bird you saw on a ledge when you woke up one morning. It can be as simple as a conversation with a friend in a car, or that time you went skydiving. In your college essay, think about how you will use a moment or metaphor as a vehicle for your story.

Writing Too Formally

Write in your natural voice. Avoid academic jargon and use active voice rather than passive voice. You want to produce an essay that reads as natural as possible, so the meaning of your writing is clear to the admissions committee. Forget about impressing anyone with your top-tier vocabulary. Write how you speak, without any grammatical or spelling errors.

Not Showing Personality

The essay is an opportunity to show the admissions committee what makes you stand out. It’s a reflection of who you are. In the process of trying to build a complete application, don’t treat the essay as a formula to complete. This is your time to shine. Have fun with it, and show your readers what makes you unique.

Telling Instead of Showing

Rather than giving a summary of your accomplishments, you’ll want to show the reader who you are by building a narrative. This means using sensory details to help your reader experience the story. When you move into telling moments, this pulls your reader away from the narrative.

For example, if you want to describe a storm, instead of saying that you heard thunder and saw lightning in the sky (telling), say that there was a rumble in the ground and the sky lit up with a fluorescent haze (showing).

So, now that you know what to avoid when it comes to writing your college essay, what should you do to strengthen your essay?

1. Strong Topic

Choosing a good topic is essential to a strong college essay. The topic you choose should allow you to answer the essay prompt, while also showcasing who you are.

Keep in mind that your topic should not be a list of your best qualities. Instead, think about an experience or series of experiences that can be expanded upon to provide insight into your character. Pick a memorable experience or exciting revelations, and then use literary devices, like metaphors, to create connections to your personality, identity, and values. The most seemingly simple topics, like walking your dog or participating in a summer program, can be exciting and insightful as long as you share your personality and reflections throughout your essay.

2. Personal Quotient

Essays are the place to add your personal flair to your application. A great college essay should answer these questions:

“Who Am I?”
“Why Am I Here?”
“What is Unique About Me?”
“What Matters to Me?”

Essays are one of the only places on your application where admissions officers can actually hear your voice. While the rest of your application allows the admissions committee to understand you as a student through a collection of scores, grades, and activities, your essays can reveal who you are as a person. Make sure you write in your natural voice so that admissions officers can put a personality to the rest of your application data.

3. Quality Writing and Storytelling

It’s important to show your writing skills in an essay, and keep your audience engaged. Don’t forget, the essay is different from other parts of your application: it’s a story . That means you need dialogue, action, sensory details, and a strong hook.

Think about your favorite writers and how they tell a story in a captivating way. Rather than blatantly stating a character’s thoughts or feelings, authors often show these plot points using sensory descriptions or exciting action. You should do the same in your essays! This will allow admissions officers to feel more invested in your story and your application.

College Essay Examples and How They Could Be Improved

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized.

Essay Example #1

Prompt: You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:

Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities.

It was a raw day of what seemed as autumn but suggested winter. The red in every thermometer started to fall alongside the first few snowflakes. The green of the streets started to hide as the frost took control of the landscape. The colors of nature were an odd sight, as though it could not decide what dress it should wear. A cutting, ominous wind blew across the land.

That raw day was my first encounter with real personal crisis. My mind was blank. My head burned intensely. I couldn’t decide if this was a nightmare or a real tragedy. My mom had urged me to do a video call. I didn’t imagine she was the herald of dismal news: my parents were going to split up. Bitterness and sorrow accompanied every tear that my mother shed. She ended the call and l burst into tears. The unexpected news rammed my heart and injured it severely.

My parent’s separation created turmoil inside of me. I wasn’t the first kid whose parents separated, but I felt distant and powerless. I was living abroad for a year. I was thousands of miles from my beloved family. After this event, the chasm between me and my family seemed gargantuan. I lived in a land where I could barely speak the language. The language barrier didn’t allow me to explain how I felt and tears weren’t enough to describe what I was suffering. Even though I was surrounded by my host family and new friends, I felt alone without the ability to communicate. I stopped attending chess school. I rejected offers from my basketball teammates to train. I declined my music teacher’s offer to learn to play a new instrument. I was slowly succumbing to the pain caused by a problem that I couldn’t solve.

My emotional imbalance forced me to ponder about my decisions. Ron wouldn’t have rejected an opportunity to try his new chess tactics. Ron wouldn’t have rejected an opportunity to better his basketball personal high score. Ron wouldn’t have rejected an opportunity to challenge his musical abilities by learning a new instrument. I was ceasing to be myself. I realized I stopped doing what I loved, and instead lamented about the unchanging state of my parent’s ruined marriage. I realized I was throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime by staying home crying for something I couldn’t repair. I suddenly opened my eyes to my reality. I was living in Russia. I was living in the land of ballet, the land of scientific discovery, the land of music. I made the resolute decision to take advantage of the place I lived in, and fight through my pain whilst doing it. I kept myself busy with activities, as to not leave time for my mind to wander. I spent my afternoons in chess practices, basketball training, and music rehearsals. I started to play in chess tournaments, basketball matches and even had my first musical recital. I had filled my heart with joy from nourishing activities and had forgotten my internal grief.

Social, emotional, physical or even religious crises may bring personal instability into one’s life. The fact that I lived far away from my loved ones brought a more severe emotional instability. Nonetheless, this instability gave me the opportunity to mature and grow both emotionally and intellectually. Commitment to my daily activities not only helped me grow as a musician, as a chess player, as a basketball player, and as a person, but it also helped me encounter myself after being lost in grief. By finding a safe haven in my activities, I discovered a way to soothe the pain I felt. Through this state of entropy, I discovered that “times of personal crisis and inner turmoil” is just a euphemism for “opportunities and chances to thrive”.

Why This Essay Isn’t Strong

Although this essay has a nice story at its core, there are multiple weak points that ultimately overwhelm the essay and confuse the reader.

Creative language: While this student was hoping to convey a sophisticated writing style, the inundation of metaphors, lofty diction, and irrelevant imagery severely distracts from the story and gives the impression this student used a thesaurus for every other word. The entire introductory paragraph has nothing to do with the essay except to demonstrate this student can describe the weather. Phrases like “ herald of dismal news ” and “ rammed my heart and injured it severely ” feel overly dramatic and out of place in a 17 year old’s conversational vocabulary. Yes, you want to put your best foot forward in your writing, but it has to be your words and not a thesaurus.

Grammar: Something as simple as grammar can make or break your essay. Unfortunately, this student had multiple grammar mistakes that are hard to ignore. “ It was a raw day of what seemed as autumn but suggested winter, ” “ I didn’t imagine she was the herald of dismal news, ” and “ My emotional imbalance forced me to ponder about my decisions, ” are just a few examples.

Too much repetition: Repetition can be a great tool in writing to create flow or emphasize certain points, but in this essay the combination of repeating sentence structure and ideas makes the essay feel unvaried and a bit monotonous. This student starts sentence after sentence with “ I ” and repeats the phrases “ I lived ” and “ I realized. ” On top of that, the pattern of chess, basketball, and music is repeated—in that same order—four times throughout the essay. It’s okay to focus on these three interests, but bringing them up in the same order multiple times makes the essay predictable.

Assuming the reader knows too much: You don’t want your college essay to spell everything out for the reader, but at the same time you don’t want each new piece of information to come out of left field and shock them. This student casually brings up that they were abroad in the third paragraph without any explanation as to why. They also refer to themselves in the third person (“ Ron wouldn’t… “), but at first glance it might not be evident that they are talking about themselves and the reader might wonder who Ron is.

How It Could Be Improved

So, how could this essay address each of the pain points addressed above?

Trust in your voice: Rather than feeling the need to inject creative language and sophisticated diction into every sentence, rely on your natural writing style to truly convey to admissions officers who you are. A good practice is to write your first draft completely in your own voice and then when your editing you can change a few words or phrases, but make sure the majority of your writing sounds more like a conversation you would have with a friend or teacher rather than a formal essay.

Proofread. Proofread. Proofread : The best way to catch grammar mistakes is to read over your essay multiple times. With each reread you will catch a sentence that sounds clunky or a typo that doesn’t belong. However, you shouldn’t be the only one proofreading your essay. Give it to a friend, parent, or teacher so a fresh pair of eyes can help you perfect your grammar. Or, you can get an expert at CollegeVine to look over your essay!

Vary sentence structure: To combat the over-repetitiveness in this essay this student needs to employ more creative sentences that play with the subject and predicate. These sentences, “ I stopped attending chess school. I rejected offers from my basketball teammates to train. I declined my music teacher’s offer to learn to play a new instrument” could become: “ From ditching chess practice to skipping training sessions to abandoning my potential to learn the oboe, everything became meaningless.”

Clear organization: The reader can easily get confused when new details are randomly introduced because of this essay’s lack of organization, so mapping out a clear flow of the story from beginning to middle to end would be beneficial. This essay should have begun with a depiction of this student’s life abroad in Russia, joyfully participating in the activities they abandon later. Then it would present the conflict of the divorce and the emotional turmoil the student experienced. Finally, they would demonstrate how their mindset shifted and what they learned. Presenting information in an organized, chronological way would greatly increase the reader’s ability to follow along.

Essay Example #2

Prompt: At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200-250 words)

“Big Boy is back!” a child exclaimed excitedly, brandishing a marker and running towards me.

Having just walked into the room of the local nursery program at my church where I often volunteered, I couldn’t help but be amused. No matter how many times I told the kids my real name, I would always be known as “Big Boy.”

“Hey Sam! What are we doing today?” I asked enthusiastically, eyeing the chaotically moving marker that was inches away from my face.

“We’re coloring angels, let me show you!” he responded. Looking at his multi-colored hands, I could only imagine the masterpieces he and the other kids had created.

When I tell people I’m interested in pursuing engineering, the last place they expect me to be spending my Sunday mornings is at a church hanging out with a bunch of little kids. Yet, that’s exactly where I’ll be. After they get over their disbelief, they often ask why, of all places, I would want to spend my time at such a chaotic place. The answer is simple: kids are fun! They do the most adorable things, and they surprise you in the best ways. But beyond that, I do it because I feel I can make a difference. I’ve watched many of these kids grow up since I started in 7th grade, and they always tell me that I’m their role model. If I can have such an impact on the life of a child, then why shouldn’t I continue?

At first glance you might think this essay is good—it has a surprising hook, it engages the reader with dialogue, and it includes the student’s playful voice. The big issue with this essay is it barely addresses the prompt and and the conversation with the kid has very little to do with the reflection the student provides at the end.

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate your role within a given community. We want to see what your role is, what it entails, how the community has been affected, and hopefully how you have been affected or changed because of your involvement. We know that this student’s role is volunteering at a church nursery program, but that’s about it.

While the final paragraph mentions “ I do it because I feel I can make a difference “, the rest of the essay doesn’t address this at all. The student refers to themself as “ their role model ” and yet the dialogue that encompasses half the essay doesn’t show us how this student is a role model nor how they’ve watched kids grow up and witnessed their impact.

What Could Be Improved

This essay could easily be improved by tweaking the conversation with the little kid. Rather than making it about the student’s nickname and coloring, they could have discussed a conversation they had about teaching kids to work through a disagreement or how they inspired a group to start a hobby this student loves themself. The actual topic could vary but the important idea is conveying that this student is a role model and is making a difference in the lives of these children.

It could also be nice to include details about older kids that they started working with a few years ago so the reader can actually see the impact of this student in the community. For example, maybe they use to kick a soccer ball around with a kid when they were in the program and now that kid is eight and they joined a local soccer team because they want to play varsity in high school like the student. An anecdote like that demonstrates a tangible impact this student had and makes it very easy to see how they are a role model.

Essay Example #3

Prompt: How did you discover your intellectual and academic interests, and how will you explore them at the University of Pennsylvania? Please respond considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected. (For students applying to the coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer these questions in regard to your single-degree school choice; your interest in the coordinated dual-degree or specialized program may be addressed through the program-specific essay.) (350-400 words)

My second grade accomplishment of being designated “Star of the Week” came with the requirement of filling out a poster about myself. Besides telling the world my favorite snack, I had to write down my favorite subject and why—a box I ended up cramming, in the smallest handwriting possible, full of every single subject we’d explored at age seven.

I have always been drawn to areas that allow me to combine my interdisciplinary passions. When I had the chance to promote school events as part of my school’s Leadership program, I realized that Marketing is one such subject. So I started seeking more venues to learn about the field.

One of these opportunities came in the form of Wharton’s own Leadership in the Business World program. The RTAs-residential teaching assistants-helped me focus on the arena of marketing as I conducted research on target markets and branding strategies to apply to our team’s startup. By the end of the program, I’d gotten a taste of the resources Penn has to offer to its undergraduate business students.

At Wharton, I look forward to a varied curriculum that will enable me to pursue an interdisciplinary education which is strong in business and also offers a well-rounded General Education. Classes like “Creativity” and “Strategic Brand Management” will challenge me to learn and apply the diversity of technical and interpersonal skills required in the professional world.

I also look forward to the chances outside the classroom where I will be able to pursue my interest in Marketing. I can join the MUSE organization (maybe under the Creative agency), where upperclassmen and working professionals will mentor me in my education and career. I can look for opportunities to do research with professors like Dr. Kahn about brand loyalty or visual design. At the Wharton School, the resources-faculty, curriculum, network-are abundant and diverse, making it the perfect place for me to pursue my interest in Marketing.

This essay makes a good effort, but ultimately feels flat and generic. To begin with, the story at the beginning was a nice attempt to establish pathos with a callback to their student’s childhood, but it doesn’t serve the essay at all. The whole essay is about pursuing marketing, therefore an anecdote about them discovering marketing would have been a much stronger opening. Instead of casually mentioning the “ chance to promote school events as part of my school’s Leadership program “, they could have shown the reader what that program looked like and why it piqued their interest.

In the body of the essay, there are many places where the author falls short in making connections between their own interests and UPenn’s unique resources. Highlighting Penn’s “ interdisciplinary education which is strong in business ” is by no means a unique school-specific offering, and the classes this student chose are pretty generic business classes. This student tells us what they will get out of these classes, but not why they want to take them. What prior experiences drew them to a class about creativity?

The student also mentions a club they want to join and a professor who’s research interests them, but again these aren’t Penn specific and there is a lack of personal connection. Why is learning about brand loyalty and visual design so important to this student? The reader gets no insight to the deeper emotional connection this student has to marketing. This essay is a prime example of how name dropping school resources isn’t enough.

The biggest change this essay could make would be to elaborate on their personal connection and fascination with marketing and UPenn. What would that look like?

To start, they would place us in the action at their school’s leadership program: describing the project they were working on, the creative ideas running through their head, and the adrenaline coursing through their body as they watched their marketing campaign get launched.

The paragraph about Wharton’s Business program would be reworked to put the emphasis on the student’s startup and the process they went through to develop a marketing strategy, rather than what the program provided generally to all students.

When they discuss classes, clubs, and professors at Penn, the student would go into detail about why they are choosing this specific opportunity over anything else. How does it relate to their previous experiences? What skills are they hoping to develop and why? How will their future be impacted by participating in this particular opportunity? Each resource at Penn they mention has to drive home two points: the student will benefit from this opportunity and they could only have this at UPenn.

Writing college essays is hard; you need to show your personality, engage the reader, and answer the prompt fully. It’s important to get a second set of eyes on your essay so you can avoid these common college essay mistakes. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

How to Make Your Essay Better: 7 Tips for Stronger Essays

Krystal N. Craiker

Essay writing doesn’t have to be intimidating. With a few tips, you can improve your writing skills for any type of academic essay.

How to Write Better Essays

7 tips on how to make your essay better, how to become a better essay writer.

The best way to sum up how to write better essays is, “Make sure you’re answering the question.”

This sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how many students struggle with this.

From not understanding the prompt to poor research skills to off-topic body paragraphs, it’s easy for an essay to derail.

We’ve got seven tips for writing better essays that will help you avoid common mistakes and craft the best essays possible.

Here are our top tips for improving your essay writing skills.

Understand the Prompt or Research Question

The first step in your writing process is to fully understand the essay topic. If your professor gave you a prompt for your academic essay, spend some time analyzing it.

First, take note of whether you’re writing an expository or persuasive essay. The tone, structure, and word choice will differ between essay types.

Pay close attention to the wording of the prompt.

If your teacher wants you to “analyze” the effects of new technology in World War I, but you turn in a descriptive overview of the technology, you are not answering the question.

If they have given you a topic but no prompt, you’ll need to create a guiding question for your research.

Be specific in what you are trying to research, or you’ll end up overwhelmed with a topic that is too big in scope.

“Symbolism in modern literature” is too broad for a term paper, but “How does F. Scott Fitzgerald use symbolism in The Great Gatsby ?” is an achievable topic.

Take Excellent Notes

Once you understand exactly what your essay is about, you can begin the research phase. Create a strong note-taking system.

Write down any idea or quote you might want to use. Cite every note properly to save time on your citations and to avoid accidental plagiarism.

Once you have gathered your research, organize your notes into categories. This will help you plan the structure of your essay.

You’ll likely find that some of your research doesn’t fit into your essay once you start writing. That’s okay—it’s better to have too much information to support your argument than too little.

Write a Strong Thesis Statement

Possibly the most important step in essay writing is to craft a strong thesis statement. A thesis statement is a brief—usually single-sentence—explanation of what your essay is about.

The thesis statement guides the entire essay: every point you make should support your thesis.

A strong thesis is specific and long enough to address the major points of your essay.

In a persuasive or argumentative essay, your thesis should clearly establish the argument you are making.

Make an Outline

Once you have all your research, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. How do you turn the information into a cohesive essay?

Rather than writing an essay with no roadmap, an outline will keep you on track. An outline helps you organize your thoughts, plan your arguments, and sort your research.

A good outline saves you time, too! You can compile the relevant evidence in your notes before writing, so you don’t have to find that specific quote in the middle of essay writing.

An outline will also stop you from reading your finished essay and realizing you went completely off track.

With an outline, you can avoid finding paragraphs that don’t support your thesis right before you submit the essay.

Craft a Great Introduction

An academic essay needs a strong introductory paragraph.

The introduction is the first impression of your essay. It prepares the reader for what’s coming and gets them excited to read your paper.

A good introduction has three things:

A hook (e.g. insightful statement, quote, interesting fact)
Brief background information about the topic
A thesis statement

Using this formula will help you write a strong introduction for your essay.

Have Original Ideas and Interpretations

The best academic writing advice a professor ever gave me was, “You’ve shown me what other people have said about the topic. I want to know what you think about the topic.”

Even a fact-heavy or data-heavy essay needs original ideas and interpretations. For every piece of information you cite, whether you quote or paraphrase it , offer original commentary.

Focus on insights, new interpretations, or even questions that you have. These are all ways to provide original ideas in your essay.

Proofread for Readability

A good essay is a proofread essay.

Readability, or how easy something is to read, has many factors. Spelling and grammar are important, but so is sentence structure, word choice , and other stylistic features.

Academic essays should be readable without being too simple. In general, aim for a readability score that is close to your grade level in school.

There are several ways to check readability scores, including using ProWritingAid’s Readability Report.

The quickest way to increase readability is to fix grammar and spelling mistakes . You can also raise the readability score by using more complex and compound-complex sentences.

ProWritingAid can offer suggestions on how to improve your essay and take it to the next level.

Our free essay checker will check for spelling and grammar errors, plus several other types of writing mistakes.

The essay checker will offer you suggestions on sentence length and passive voice.

It will help you trim the excess words that bog down your writing by analyzing your sticky sentences and overused words.

The essay checker is here to help you turn in an error-free essay.

Want to improve your essay writing skills?

Use prowritingaid.

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Krystal N. Craiker is the Writing Pirate, an indie romance author and blog manager at ProWritingAid. She sails the seven internet seas, breaking tropes and bending genres. She has a background in anthropology and education, which brings fresh perspectives to her romance novels. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book or article, you can find her cooking gourmet gluten-free cuisine, laughing at memes, and playing board games. Krystal lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, child, and basset hound.

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