Spend five minutes in a local Facebook group and you will encounter a familiar chorus:

“The roads are awful.”

“The city needs to repave everything.”

“Why do these potholes never get fixed?”

People will passionately debate asphalt quality, paving schedules, and municipal budgets. Yet some of these same residents live or work in buildings that have not seen a fresh coat of paint since the Carter administration. Facades rot. Windows deteriorate. Landscaping dies. Aesthetic maintenance is deferred for decades. Nobody mentions it.

This disconnect is not just ironic. It reveals something deeper about how people perceive responsibility, pride, and improvement in their community. If a city wants to improve civic morale and economic vibrancy, it needs to understand this psychological blind spot.

Let’s break down what is actually happening.

1. The Externalization Bias: Blame the City, Not Myself

The road is a public asset. The building exterior is a private one.

One belongs to someone else.

One belongs to me.

Complaining about what belongs to others is easy.

Fixing what belongs to me is hard.

Behavioral science calls this externalization bias. Humans tend to attribute problems to external systems, institutions, and actors, rather than accepting internal responsibility.

Roads become an acceptable target because roads are “the city’s problem.”

Facade maintenance is awkward because now the responsibility is personal.

It is psychologically safer to complain about the asphalt than to admit your building is dragging down the aesthetic value of the street.

2. Perceptual Habituation: We Stop Seeing Our Own Ugly

There is also a neurological reason people tolerate decrepit buildings: the brain filters them out over time.

This mechanism is called perceptual habituation.

When you see the same peeling paint and dying shrubs every day, your brain stops registering them as relevant stimuli. They fade into the cognitive background.

A pothole, on the other hand, disrupts your vehicle. It is novel, irritating, physically uncomfortable, and sometimes expensive. That makes it neurologically “loud.”

In other words:

• Peeling paint is invisible to the brain.
• A bent rim from a pothole is not.

This explains why people can be surrounded by visual decay and feel nothing, yet slam the keyboard in rage when they spill their coffee in a crater on Elm Street.

3. Prevention Beats Promotion: Cars Win Over Place

Behavioral researchers talk about regulatory focus theory, which recognizes two primary motivational states:

• Prevention focus: avoid harm or discomfort.
• Promotion focus: pursue improvement or aspiration.

Potholes are prevention triggers.

Facade improvements are promotion triggers.

Humans disproportionately prioritize prevention over promotion.

Avoiding a flat tire always beats improving the view from the sidewalk.

Cities suffer from the same bias. They spend heavily on infrastructure triage and almost nothing on aesthetics. They prevent failure rather than pursue beauty.

But beauty is what drives pride, belonging, foot traffic, and investment.

Pavement does not create any of those things.

4. The Broken Windows Feedback Loop (In Reverse)

Urban economists often reference the broken windows theory, which argues that visible disorder invites more disorder.

But there is an important inversion to consider:

Neglect on private property undermines public investment.

Repave a street in front of a rotting strip mall and the result still feels depressing. The city spent money but got no psychological return.

We see this everywhere: new sidewalks next to vacant lots, fresh asphalt next to boarded windows, new lamp posts illuminating empty storefronts.

Infrastructure alone cannot overcome environmental signals of surrender.

5. Curb Appeal Matters More Than Asphalt

Real estate investors have known forever that appearance influences value more than most inputs.

• Fresh paint increases sale price.
• Landscaping improves perceived safety.
• Clean facades increase foot traffic.
• Outdoor seating signals vitality.
• Mixed storefront colors stimulate attention and curiosity.

Roads support mobility.

Buildings support identity.

Identity is what keeps residents, attracts investment, and builds tax base.

Cities chasing growth through pavement alone are like a restaurant polishing the silverware while ignoring the dining room.

6. Why This Matters for Civic Morale and Economic Growth

The health of a place is not judged from the driver’s seat.

It is judged from the sidewalk.

If buildings look neglected, the brain concludes:

• People have given up.
• Value is declining.
• Pride is low.
• There is nothing to protect.

These are catastrophic signals for civic morale.

Research shows that environment influences psychology, and psychology influences decision making about:

• Homeownership
• Entrepreneurship
• Volunteering
• Local spending
• Political participation
• Neighborhood attachment

You cannot build civic pride on a street that looks unloved, no matter how smooth the pavement is.

So What Do We Do About It?

There are three practical shifts that change everything:

1. Make Private Appearance a Public Conversation

Not through shame, but through identity reframing:

“Your building is part of our brand.”

“Your facade affects property values.”

“Your storefront helps us attract investment.”

People care far more about identity than compliance.

2. Reward Beautification

Cities spend millions on paving but zero on aesthetics.

Offer micro-grants or credits for:

• Paint
• Lighting
• Planters
• Signage
• Landscaping
• Cleaning

$5000 spent on facade micro-grants often produces more visible ROI than $5,000,000 on asphalt.

3. Measure Pride, Not Just Pavement

Track indicators like:

• Beautification participation
• Volunteer maintenance
• Storefront upgrades
• Public-private improvements
• Resident satisfaction

As soon as pride moves upward, so does economic confidence.

Conclusion: Potholes Matter, But They Are Not the Problem

Complaining about roads is a symptom of something deeper.

People are not just asking for pavement. They are asking for dignity, competence, and fairness from their government.

But if the town looks abandoned, no amount of asphalt will fix morale.

Paint, plants, repairs, and pride move the needle far more.

Want a healthier city?

Fix the sidewalks, yes. But fix the buildings too.

Teach people to see again.

Stop normalizing decay.

Build beauty into the environment.

The psychology follows.

Potholes frustrate drivers.

Neglect depresses communities.

Only one of those has the power to hollow out a town.