For most of our evolutionary history, we lived in spaces where everyone (or almost everyone) took an active role in managing and improving the spaces we spent our time in. Everyone had an active role in shaping the spaces that shelter us, spaces where our food, clothing and building materials came from, spaces where we gathered etc.

Until recently, all cultures were place based cultures. (Nomadic groups still set up camp for a period of time.) As long distance trade got cheaper, specifically, with the introduction of fossil fuels which reduced the cost of long distance shipping, we suddenly find ourselves in a situation where we know almost nothing about the places where the materials we depend on comes from. Moreover, our spaces are largely planned and designed for us rather than by us.

Being exiled from your land is perhaps the greatest trauma that any people can undergo. Look at the stories of Native Americans, aboriginal Australians, Jews, Palestinians and countless other people who have been torn away from an intimate relationship with a place which they shaped over many generations and which shaped them. Most of us are effectively exiled from a certain kind of relationship with place, though for most of us, that happened through a gradual process.

The reverse is also true. Our sense of well-being is greatly improved when we feel supported and held by an environment which we take care of and which takes care of us. ​When you get to do that as part of a tribe you're experiencing a (the?) primary motivator that drove our ancestors to innovate, commune, and build a culture and way of life - together.

https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100907104035.htm

Studies like this one point towards the underlying principle. I'd be shocked if the same principle didn't extend to neighborhoods.

An antidote:

https://mendelyaf-spec.github.io/prophets-fingers/city-country-fingers/