single word for "positive attribute" of a neighborhood or geographic region [closed]

What is a single word that means 'positive attribute' that would apply to a neighborhood?

Possibly an antonym for "shortcoming." Maybe "features" is the word?

Don't want to use amenities because it wouldn't apply to elements of the community itself, for example the culture brought by the Vietnamese population is a positive attribute of the neighborhood.

Word is for use in a letter to the advisory board for BP Restore money (here on US Gulf Coast), who are asking for recommendations from various neighborhoods.

How about 'merits'? That seems to me to correspond quite well to "positive features" and to be a satisfactory antonym for "shortcomings". "Virtues" would, for me, be more positive still, and, therefore, a better antonym for "vices" which is more negative than "shortcomings".