In the context of clean starts: dealing with slums, writes Jane Jacobs in Death and Life, requires gradual change. She quotes several examples where existing conditions for near-spontaneous unslumming were destroyed as slums were bulldozed and rebuilt as project neighborhoods.

A very important factor, she writes, for unslumming to take place, is that the turnover of residents isn’t too high. People must stay long enough to ensure continuity in the community. Such things take time. If people move out too soon, there’s no energy to fuel the unslumming. I have thought about this in the context of apartment buildings: that the “mood” of it is replicated from old residents to newly moved in residents. To make sure that the habitants take care of their building, turnover can’t be too high.

I’ve also thought about it in the context of team cultures. Here, a high turnover will destroy the dynamic between the people in the team. The culture is in the people, and if too many old timers move out too quickly, the culture deteriorates.

I was interrupted as I wrote this, so I’ll have to pick it up later.