Transcript Gated communities in the United States

Gated communities in the
United States
Christian Reimann
June 6, 2006
Structure of the presentation
• Definition of gated communities
• Characteristics of gated communities
• Reasons for erecting gates and fences
• Distinction:
lifestyle, prestige and security zone communities
• Gated communities: Problematic
aspects
• Alternatives to gates and walls
Definition of gated
communities
• “Gated communities are residential
areas with restricted access in which
normally public spaces are privatized.”
(Blakely & Snyder, p.2)
Characteristics of gated
communities I
• Physical barriers to access
• Privatization of community space and
sometimes “civic responsibilities like police
protection and communal services such as
street maintenance, recreation, and
entertainment.” (Blakely & Snyder, p. 8)
• Street design: unconnected subdivisions
• Single-use zoning and inaccessibility to public
transit
• Emphasis on private over public space
Characteristics of gated
communities II
• They are mostly suburban, with a
growing number of gated
neighborhoods in the city
• Self-governing home-owner
associations (HOAs)
Reasons for erecting gates
and fences I
• What the suburbs used to offer: close proximity to
nature as well as to the amenities of the city,
safeness, good education and good kids in the
schools, no social deviance in any form, clean and
friendly place
• Nowadays: “no longer as uniform or as racially or
ethnically sterile as that ideal”  growing diversity 
crime, vandalism, disinvestment, blight 
powerlessness, vulnerability
“If security cannot be found in location alone, perhaps
it can be found in a development type – the gated
community.” (Blakely & Snyder, p. 15)
Reasons for erecting gates
and fences II
• “More and more, Americans are turning to
protected spaces from public space. The rise
of gated communities is part of this trend.”
(Blakely & Snyder, p. 28)
• FEAR  residents want to control access to
territory
Dinstinction
Gated communities can be divided into
three types:
1) Lifestyle communities
2) Prestige communities
3) Security zone communities
1) Lifestyle communities
• Retirement communities; golf and
leisure communities; second homes
• “the gates provide security and
separation for the leisure activities and
amenities offered within” (p. 39)
• Members of the community share
individual rather than community goals
2) Prestige communities I
• Originally: enclaves of the rich and famous;
nowadays communities for the upper middle
class as well
• Commonality almost entirely based on
economic status
• Goal: “create and protect a secure place on
the social ladder”
• “The gates are motivated by a desire to
protect an image, protect current investments,
and control housing values.” (Blakely & Snyder,
p. 41)
2) Prestige communities II
• “their gates denote a barrier of status” (Blakely
& Snyder, p. 75)
• “Gated communities also provide privacy and
protection from solicitors and strangers and
relief from the fear of crime.” (ibid.)
• “Marketing brochures and advertisements
rarely mention gates specifically. Code words
such as ‘private’ and ‘exclusive’ are found
over and over again.” (p. 82)
3) Security zone communities
• Barriers erected for security reasons,
i.e. for fear of crime and outsiders
• It‘s the residents who build gates and
barricades
• Occur at all income levels and in all
areas
• The important point is whether the
residents feel they need to cut off their
streets
Gated communities:
Problematic aspects I
• “The phenomenon of walled cities and gated
communities is a dramatic manifestation of a
new fortress mentality growing in America.”
(Blakely & Snyder 1999, p. 1-2)
• Influence on crime rates is dubious; in any
case the problem is not solved but simply
shifted elsewhere
• Often: physical community only
• “Gates provide a false sense of security that
encourages lax behaviour – doors left
unlocked, garage doors left open, alarm
systems not turned on.” (p. 97)
Gated communitites:
Problematic aspects II
• Limitation of social contact that puts the
social contract into question
• Manifestation of segregation
Alternatives to gates and walls
• Crime prevention
• Community coaches
• Planning streets in order to control
traffic and those who drive on them
(traffic calming)
• Solving the problems on a higher level
(neighborhoods as parts of regions, and
of the nation as a whole)
Sources
• Edward J. Blakely & Mary Gail Snyder (1999):
Fortress America. Gated Communities in the
United States. Washington, D. C.: Brookings
Institution Press + Cambridge/Mass.: Lincoln
Institute of Land Policy
• Gated communities. From: Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_communities )
Last visited: June 5, 2006