There is a lot of activity in any neighborhood, otherwise the people would die.
Much current American neighborhood activity is individual or competitive--not cooperative, not synergistic.
Much of the activity today involves creating and maintaining links to resources outside the neighborhood.
John L. McKnight makes a compelling case that in the 20th century American neighborhoods lost much of their local capabilities to outside businesses and governments. It is a little understood fact that outside producers are generally more expensive. While the monetary cost may seem less than locally sourced products or services this is because the real costs have been externalized and shifted to someone other than the purchaser or to some time later in the life of the purchaser.