Do you know your neighbors? Most of us don’t, and that is a problem. In Fragile Neighborhoods, Seth Kaplan explores what we lose when neighbors don’t watch out for each other.

So what shifted neighborhoods? Is it changing demographics? Two-income households? Fewer nuclear families? The reasons are multivariate and in some ways, not as important as figuring out what happens next. In the book, Kaplan explores a variety of interventions, including community programs focused on building stronger families and creating more opportunities for prosperity.

We don’t see our neighbors’ problems as our own. We worry sometimes about the impact those problems could have on property values but we don’t tend to believe that helping our neighbors benefits us. Kaplan says the opposite is true. That the value of strong communities is all about creating a web that supports everyone. If we are only out for ourselves, we tend to have no one to help when we are in need. If we support the weakest, everyone gets stronger.

When reading a book like this, it’s tempting to ask, what’s the answer? It turns out it’s a mixture of social support as well as infrastructure that includes affordable housing, community facilities, and places to gather. There need to be moments of contact between neighbors that form the basis of relationships. We also need to identify the fragile neighborhoods and assess the economic factors leading to the deterioration of the area. Basically, this, as all things maybe, comes down to a mix of good data, consistent outreach, and, of course, lots and lots of money well-deployed.

Kaplan points out that other cultures are better at supporting their neighbors. Has our relative privilege created isolation? Is it possible to get back? There are no simple answers. I grew up in a great neighborhood with a built-in friend circle and a network of parents who all knew each other. Kids waited for the bus together each morning. Today’s world is far more compartmentalized. Children aren’t running around alone in the streets or in parks. We have gained the appearance of safety, but what we’ve lost may be far worse.

I can’t decide how I feel about this book.

The first section has a lot of good information about organizations that are doing great work in their communities and what hthey do. It was a great way to spread information about the beneficial things that are happening in both cities and urban areas, and would be a really helpful read for community organizers.

However, the end of the book (especially the last chapter) kind of ruined it for me because it felt so preachy. Kaplan chose to leave his readers with the message that churches, traditional marriage, and having children is the real way to repair societies. Although this had citations and was supported with evidence, it just left a bad taste in my mouth because I believe people can have a positive impact on society without those things.

Overall some helpful ideas, but I don’t know that I’d recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for being able to read this book as an e-arc.

I typically enjoy reading non fiction books about our society. However, this book, though it may be unbiased in some parts, it’s hard not to feel as though it was slightly pushing religion onto others. Was it any particular religion? No. But as a part of it’s whole to solve the issue of how broken the US society and neighborhoods have become, religion or the religious institutions is part of that solution.

A part of me wanted to like this book more than I actually wound up liking it. It was a guidebook with an outline of “how to” at the end. There was anger and frustration in some of the words. However, I became frustrated at some of the points the author made. It seemed the solution to fix our broken society was to go backwards, the ole “let’s do it the way it used to be” circa no phones, no social media, and put down that video game and be social face to face. Yes, socialization is important. But it would have been nice to hear what else could be done to work with today’s technology and connectivity, versus shaming the people who use it and those who have embraced their introverted nature. What they did mention about technology was a rather cool-nerdy app that tracked people’s behavior. But that also seemed borderline big brother.

If you are looking to be an active member of your society and want a guideline on how to fix those things, and be an activist? This is the book for you. I do not see this as an every reader type of read.