How is it that the character of a neighborhood ebbs and flows, with new residents moving in and others leaving? 

Consider my neighborhood. This spring, two groups of people moved into the house across the street. On the first floor, a family moved in. The father, who I shall call Bill works at Union Hospital as a nurse practitioner and is a personal trainer. He is a proud lifelong Lynner, whose oldest son goes to college. Different members of the family will sit out on the front porch most every night and peacefully hang out.

The house across the street is owned by an absentee landlord. Unfortunately, the 2nd floor tenants make so much noise that Bill has decided to move out. I don't know the 2nd floor occupants and their noise hasn't bothered me, but it has caused some disruption among adjacent households with children who need to go to bed early and wake up for school the next morning. 

Bill has tried to negotiate with the landlord, even pointing out a clause in the lease which prohibits excessive noise, but the landlord would rather see him and his family leave than kick out the noisy ones. "You gotta do what you gotta do," says Bill, so he is moving. Who knows who will move in next? Hopefully not anyone engaged in criminal activity.

I hate to see him go. But that's life in the hood with absentee landlords who care less about who lives in their houses and more about whether the rent check comes regularly. I would think that a landlord would want more stable, respectful tenants in their property, so that other like-minded people would be encouraged to move into a peaceful abode. Then again I am not a business man with rental properties. However, I like to think that I would be more responsible.

This is how a neighborhood ebbs and flows, with new people moving in, others moving out, some foreclosing on their houses, others buying that property in pursuit of the great American dream. Businesses come and go and change ownership. How do we as a neighborhood encourage it to flow in a direction that sustains healthy development?