Theft is theft

It is really not that hard to treat ordinary spaces well if,(okay, real big if) over time, there are consistent standards of site design and / or businesses take the long view instead of the short view in development. Then the people have to consistently demand that their "public servants" maintain the built environment. In the past (and continuing to the present), gross exemptions to basic standards, a transfer of wealth, were provided to political cronies (names familiar to everyone in whatever city one may reside in) and presently wealth is transferred in other ways from the many to the few to create special places for visitors, further marginalizing the previously neglected areas of the city.