What YOU see as urban decay, most see as "home".

I don't get what your point is. Are you saying people don't fix and improve their homes?

Leave cracks and potholes on the pavement for long enough, allow some dilapidated building to stand for long enough, and it just becomes part of the identity of the city and the people who live in it? It turns into the city's "character" ?

To me that sounds like a coping mechanism.