City zones it, the developer builds it, the agent markets it and you get stuck with it.
On the same level, if you get conned out of your life savings, you shouldn't be calling the police.
One of the smartest things I've seen in down in Brazil where the mayor of a town got federal money to build levys and flood protection, redirection of water and so on. He bought all the land about the river to where it never has reached and called it a park. That created the largest park in Brazil if I am not mistaken. He then gave blessing to sheep herders to graze their livestock for free all along there keeping the growth down.
This created a huge amount of money left over from the flood prevention fund that he used to buy all the crops that locals could grow. He then gave a bag of fresh vegitables for a bag of garbage to the poor people living in the old part of town where trucks could not enter to remove garbage. This created a huge reduction on the cost for sending men into haul all that garbage out.
So he took that along with the money from the flood prevention and closed downtown main street to traffic over a long weekend and tore the road up, then put down pavers and changed 4 blocks into a walking mall without traffic. This made the run down part of downtown a mecca for shopping and stores became higher and higher in demand there. People loved that they could walk and shop and sit about in the afternoons drinking coffee and watching the people.
That expaned to many blocks and in raised taxes from the area, he built a tansit line that ran a car every twnety seconds or so. So there was no waiting, and they would drop you off farther away from downtown where there is plenty of parking.
With all the extra money that he saved and generated with just the money the guy goes and sets up schools for kids who had a tendency to spend their time ripping off tourists and customers that allowed for them to have a safe place to sleep and something to eat and if they stay, education and life skills.
I can't remember the name of the place but the guy was quite remarkable with what he did and how he did it.
People shouldn't live near rivers like that because they flood. Turning it into a park solves that problem and makes for such a large amount of relaxation area, that you could actually go there are relax in peace and quiet. What a messed up idea that is eh?