Creating and Maintaining a Good Community Works Better With Some Knowledge

Last Updated: January 3, 2025

Community work can be both fascinating and intensely frustrating. It takes real work to sustain or create a good community bit by bit. As a seasoned urban planning professional, I enjoy nothing more than helping ordinary people figure out how they can address the challenges and opportunities of their neighborhoods. On this website I try to give you the insight and knowledge you need to improve your particular geographic place, whether a major metropolis, declining or emerging neighborhood, small city, quaint village, or rural enclave. 

Our goal is to talk about common community and neighborhood issues in plain English, emphasizing uncommon candor, a point of view, and a sense of humor.  Expect a conversational style, good background information you will need to bring about change, and informed general advice on what usually works and what does not.

Community Work Topics On This Website

Below are links to the different sections of the website;  start poking around if that's your style. If you have something specific in mind, use the site search box at the top of each page. This introductory article continues below the navigation.

Community Improvement Projects

Community Organizations

Housing Issues for Communities

Community Beautification

Code Enforcement

Zoning and Regulation

City Planning

Economic Development

Redevelopment

Crime Prevention

Urban Sprawl

Sustainability

Definition of Community Development

Purpose of Community Development

Community Development Principles

Your Questions Answered

Many of you probably want to dive right into some community improvement projects. The site contains myriad ideas you might want to explore as an informal or formally selected neighborhood leader.   Both large and small projects, long-range and immediate, and easy and difficult projects can be found in these pages.

Community improvement concepts, ideas, and specifics found here are also practical for those who find themselves appointed or elected to a planning commission, board of adjustment, town council, neighborhood association board, or water district board, for example. 

While this website does not delve into theory very often, I do explain the jargon that professionals use so you can understand the conversations and feel secure about becoming involved. 

In a previous version of this website, we used the term community development very frequently. In my world, community development is anything you are doing to make or keep a good community.  In the U.S., often the term community development is seen as nearly synonymous with housing issues, especially those dealing with affordability and neighborhood revitalization.   As critical as your housing stock is, we just think there are many additional topics to cover.  

If you are action-oriented and want to begin with comparatively simple initiatives, it's time to start planning some community beautification projects.

However, for greatest long-range impact, we can help with the challenging prospect of learning how to make your community organizations more effective, or perhaps how to form a new one. Often in urban areas, the urge for a new neighborhood association arises as part of a perceived need for crime prevention.  But there are many other good reasons to increase trust and problem-solving ability among neighbors in any and every type of community.

Many of you express a keen interest in municipal or county code enforcement matters, and we include a section on the different types of codes you may encounter, each of which is designed to help you create and maintain a good community.

Regardless of the size, type, or wealth of the community, all will benefit from thoughtful city planning.  As we explain in more detail in that section, someone is always making plans for your village, town, or city, but those of us who care about outcomes want to assure thoughtful deliberation about creating a future that is in the public interest.

In the U.S. at least, planning is legally required to precede land use zoning, which has become quite a complex web of law and custom. We try to simplify that complex topic, while describing also a few other forms of public or private regulation of land use and development. 

Another topic that is nearly universal in its relevance to making and keeping a good community is economic development, although admittedly what that means varies widely depending on the context. Very few communities seem completely satisfied with the amount, quality, and mix of retail businesses and economic generators, so I have tried to write something for many types of communities.

Moving now to what are hot topics in only some neighborhoods, I include a section on redevelopment, one on crime prevention for neighborhoods, another on the subject of sprawl that impacts many of you, and a limited number of articles on sustainable development practices and sustainability projects that some neighborhoods will want to undertake.

We also host an  extensive section of visitor-originated questions, which our editors and I attempt to answer.  Check out that section, where you can send a question and receive an answer on a page on this website. Never fear; you can be anonymous.  I will answer everything that I can understand and where I think I can add some value, unless of course that is already answered on the site. Use the search bar before asking your question.  In some cases, you can tell stories about your community work too; just follow directions of the various forms.

How to Interact with this Site About Making and Keeping a Good Community

To get started, explore the site.  You can jump around on the menu, or use the search bar to find a specific word. There are more than 800 pages of information, perspective, opinion, and insight. Logical thinkers can use the sitemap.  On that page we also have links to files that list all pages on this site that might be relevant to different audiences, such as planning commissioners, leaders of distressed neighborhoods, local government leaders, and many more. This is just a different way of sorting our contents. Also you may want to read our About page or use the information there to contact us. Some of you enjoy the monthly email called Good Community Plus. Typically it contains one article, a few recommended reading items, and a list all of the new pages that were added the previous month, including of course the site visitors' questions that have been answered. Another way to keep in touch is to notice that the first few lines from recently added or significantly revised pages appear on this home page and in a feature known as What's New. We may add other news bits that are either short or time-sensitive there as well.

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Have fun getting to know more about how you can be an ongoing part of A Good Community.

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