Look at expenses and rent and see what you can optimize.

Or just holding and optimizing?

Not ideal (to put it mildly).So long as you aren't forced to sell, hopefully the area will grow to justify your optimism. 

It’s not optimal.

The best way (but not the fastes way) is through SEO search engine optimization (that is how I make all my money through homerun deals).The faster way however, is establishing a credible website, and drive ideal traffic to the site manually.

For example, maybe I let 10 people try a new menu item.

Your personal website will get lost in a sea of a million other websites if not SEO optimized.

Milestones are more fun than the finish line.I technically retired in 2015, but realized I am not happy without a challenge, got licensed, started a team and a YouTube channel.Our portfolio is already pretty optimized, but who knows what we will do in 10 years.

Again, this is a full-out optimized system. 

They improve neighborhoods and resell individual homes to 1st time buyers at a fair price.Gotta be a way to better optimize many of the vacant and underutilized housing stock out there.