Landlords don't ask tenants to leave just for sport. 

Easier to get rid of a consultant than an employee.Also, if you ever participated in sports the role of the coach is clearly to teach but just as importantly to bring out the highest performance of those they are coaching. 

To use some sports parlance to perhaps illustrate the point, if it were a boxing match, the scorecard would read:  10 - 4 in favor of Irvington (i.e. not even close).If you look at some of the listings from the online sources for the Highlands neighborhood you reference, you would/could consistently find single-family homes which have sold below $20,000.

But, while Joplin was a school rival for sports (and we won most of the games, BTW) I like Joplin and things are really changing after the tornado.

Everything is all very measurable like knowing sports stats.My goals are not so specific but about trying to build/maintain a work life balance. 

Anyone willing to a gamble on Englewood being "great again" (within 4-8 years)?...

I think some people are here as a sport or just bored for some reason. 

It is a gamble to say the least.

I gambled and told them NO---that he owed that amount and I was not willing to settle for less.

I don't think it's worth renovating, as tennis is a sport that so few people play.