What makes a neighborhood livable? A lot of people might say it's a neighborhood that is safe, healthy, pretty, friendly, affordable and good to the environment.

So how do you make your own neighborhood more "livable?" The people at the New York-based Empowerment Institute, with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, developed a step-by-step program to help neighbors work together to address four topic areas: health and safety (crime, hazardous waste removal, exercise clubs); beautification (tree planting, historic preservation, doggy cleanup); resource sharing (vegetable gardens, baby-sitting co-ops, carpools); and neighborhood building (dispute resolution, block parties, welcome wagons).

The book, The Livable Neighborhood, encourages people to form teams, and gives an agenda for initial meetings and specific actions. It also includes a checklist teams can use to rate their neighborhoods. The program has been used in a variety of places such as Philadelphia, Tacoma, Wash., and Kansas City, Mo.

According to authors David Gershon and Larry Shook, "Sociologists tell us that modern lifestyles carry burdens of isolation that cost us dearly. ... The loss of 'social capital' ... can be more than unfortunate. It can be toxic. Nowhere is this more true than in the neighborhoods we call home."

To learn more or order the book, go to www.empowermentinstitute.net.