Today, we took a tour of the Hill District with the illustrious Terri Baltimore. She led us through a small part of the neighborhood, but still gave insight into the deep history of success and failure within their community. From what she described, oftentimes the hardest failures came from people who focused their efforts on trying to change the community without thinking about the present attitudes and feelings of the residents who live there. Although, investing in the community can sometimes still result in failure. One example was a supermarket that was placed in the Hill District in roughly 2013. It had to be replaced in around 2019, and its replacement has recently shut down. Oftentimes these failures happen because of habits that have been built for decades. Residents are used to having to travel outside of the Hill District for groceries or entertainment, so when new businesses are brought in, the real enemy are habits. In order for a neighborhood to thrive, it needs community backing. The community is what truly differentiates neighborhoods from each other, but oftentimes communities feel under-respected and therefore don’t want to build into a place they don’t feel welcome. Business leaders can best support the communities they operate by making their residents feel heard. Although they cannot make large scale social changes like local politicians, they are able to help discuss problems affecting the local community and support any changes the residents hope to make.