Michelle Wilde Anderson is a Stanford law professor and author of “The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America.” She says local communities banding together can be the spark that leads to outside investment in those particular communities.

“Once you rebuild those networks of trust and cooperation at the ground level, it’s actually more likely that outsiders will come in and help,” says Anderson. “I think you are seeing that in Detroit — the rebuilding of a lot of the civic infrastructure in the city.”

“Once you rebuild those networks of trust and cooperation at the ground level, it’s actually more likely that outsiders will come in and help.” — Michelle Wilde Anderson, author