Cleanliness of a neighborhood is a sign of economic stability

Cleanliness of a neighborhood is a sign of economic stability
and prosperity and pride.

Keep the hedges trimmed. Put fresh mulch by the flowers.
Bathrooms should smell nice and fresh. Sidewalks should be free
of mold (especially black mold) and stains. Streets shouldn't
have oil drips on it.

This holds true for homes and it also holds true for businesses,
as it also holds true for the entire community.

Collier County FL is a very clean community. From Vanderbilt
Beach to Golden Gate Estates, 95% of Collier County is very
clean and fresh. Every area has its exceptions, but they only
serve to prove the rule! Even in its ugliest parts, Naples FL is
more beautiful than many other places in the USA.

There's something that happens to a community when a little bit
of overlooked unkeptness rapidly grows to overtake the
community. It's called the "Broken Window Syndrome". I mention a
little bit about it here:
[1]http://free.naplesplus.us/...ken-window and
[2]http://free.naplesplus.us/...-explained

The gist of it is this:

Perhaps in a foreclosed (abandoned!) home, a window is broken.

Nobody pays any attention to the broken window.

Yet people drive by, walk by, every day. Kids play around there.

And the grass grows taller and the window stays broken. Bored
kids break in through the broken window to see what they can
see. Perhaps a homeless person crawls in to make a home. But
that's not the main problem.

Before you know it another window is broken elsewhere. Nobody
notices.

Then another.

Then a fence is broken. A sidewalk is cracked. Nobody pays it
any mind.

Before you know it, there is graffitti. Property values plummet.
Places are no longer selling, so they go for rent. But nobody is
renting houses. So house is split up into rooms. One house has
rooms for rent. Then another, then another.

Within a very short time (just a few years at most), the
character of the neighborhood has changed.

All starting from a broken window that nobody paid any attention
to.

Kenneth Udut

NeighborHelp Referrals' Affordable Trapping 239-465-9291

[3]http://free.naplesplus.us/ - Collier County Electronic
Village

P.S.
The first time I heard about Broken Window Syndrome was when I
was looking into something called "self-organizing systems" (
it's related to chaos theory and complexity theory - I'm a
science nut).

The short version of it is how a very small, seemingly
insignificant thing is more powerful than it appears at first.

A rumor starts and spreads like wildfire until it culminates in
someone getting fired from a job.

A few words spoken by a VP candidate ends up becoming fodder for
Saturday Night Live and is all over the Internet and the news
and spawns article after article.

A fear about a Depression spirals out of control and ends up
CAUSING the very thing it feared!

This can also apply to good things. The whole "Pay-it-Forward"
movement is based on that idea, as is the simple effect of
making yourself say, "Good morning" to everybody in the office
(whether you like them or not) - Good Will, while slower to move
than Ill Will, is very powerful stuff.
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References

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1. http://free.naplesplus.us/articles/view.php/6911/broken-window
2. http://free.naplesplus.us/articles/view.php/6917/broken-window-theory-explained
3. http://free.naplesplus.us/
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5. http://www.utterli.com/simplify3
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