DeRienzo clarifies the difference between a neighborhood and a community, which was interesting since, like most, I am guilty of interchanging the two. He implies that a neighborhood lacks the personal relationships that a community is built on. Neighborhoods are organized by the location an individual lives in relation to others, while communities are much more. Members of a community come and go, enjoying certain places, people, or activities, for example, which bring them there. Even in this global world, people are still “place-based”. They are connected to where they live, grew up, went to school, etc. This makes it hard for someone to completely abandon a community even when they move away. Individuals build interdependent relationships with each other to go on with their day to day, whether it be to help babysit or to borrow some sugar.

When this dynamic is disrupted in any way, it will affect the community in its entirety. A large part of what shapes a community is the actions of outside forces that are not a part of the community itself. This is the case in the South Bronx and with FreshDirect’s relocation. When organizing and decisions come from the outside, the community is not taken into account. In top-down reform, individuals come in with all the “answers” and their selfish motives to make a change that may benefit them more than the community. The South Bronx is now facing this dilemma and it highlights the way this area is more than just a neighborhood, but also a community. Individuals living in this area share the same hardships and, more importantly, want to make their situation better and accomplish something. The community is taking action and following the Transformative Model. The residents do not want to accept what is happening to them or think that they have no other option. If they were not united for this cause and just went along with their lives separately, they would have no power as a community. The fact that individuals want to work to make a better community is proof that communities still matter and are essential in society.