A cultural movement like this can work wonders, far beyond what it actually does, because it motivates people to want to improve something, be it their property, their neighborhood, or themselves.
Socialists are attracted to this, but they always fail because they want to *direct* and *force* people to do this in a regimented and controlled fashion, the way the socialist wants. This is a big reason that people despise socialists, and would rather live in squalor than give the socialists what they want.