Why community needs diversity

Keats writes that one of the problems with development "communities" and that whole system, is that it lacks heterogeneity: " But in an homogeneous community, no one has anything to offer anyone else. What ideas are expressed? What values formed? What do you give to your neighbor? What can he give you?"

This is crucial to understand at all levels. In natural life, we understand the importance of biodiversity for the survival of species; it boosts the ecosystem's productivity because each element plays a crucial role in the life of the other even by association. 

This is the same for people, buildings and cities. 

You cannot expect the same type of people: same race, same background, age group, number of children, education level to live in a development with the same housing layouts and expect this "community" to thrive and grow. They cannot bring anything new to each other, they live the same lifestyle which is a common ground, but because they live the same lifestyle they can only bring so many innovative ideas.

The same goes for cities, this is why metropolitan cities thrive and are the big economic powers. Think about it in your daily life, you eat mexican, chinese, lebanese, cribbean, spanish food this is the beauty of diversity.

In a diverse city, everyone brings their best to the table, in terms of culture, skills, ideas etc...

I think we can see this in diverse classrooms in Architecture. Usually people in charge of Admissions tend to want to recruit from different places, walks of life, levels of experience... This is because it makes us better. 

Developments should not be homogeneous, and try to implement some sort of diversity in the design and the targeted audience, while offering amenities that constitute a community.