Gated

[August1991]

When did gated communities start in the US? Anyone know?

Driving around small town New England, I am always struck by the broad open lawns to a coloured clapboard two storey house - invariably with an American flag hanging on an angle. I was lost once in Vermont or NH and before I fixed the GPS, I wound up  in a strange town with many such houses. Curious, I noted the name and discovered that it was a pre-revolutionary town with regulations preserving buildings. Weird, whatever.

In the US, when there are fences, it is usually to keep animals in; not to keep other people out. I have driven by horse farms in Kentucky (yes!) with white-painted log fences that anyone could jump over - but not a horse.

In Florida, there's a place that I go where I must pay a toll - but anyone can go over the bridge. Hilton Head in SC seems separate but I entered with my snow-mud filthy car.

It was in Brooklyn (of all places), on the ocean, near Brighton Beach, where I recall first having to give my name and license plate to someone in a booth to enter a place to visit a friend. Then it happened to me in Florida where I was just driving. I had to do a U-turn.

I understand the concept of a condominium or a co-op. In Manhattan, some people have a doorman.

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Here's my point: When people in a society erect obvious walls or gates to separate themselves from other people in society, something is seriously wrong with the society.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong.

 

 

[The_Squid]

If I lived down there, I would be building walls too.   Too dangerous not to.

[bush_cheney2004]

Lots of gated communities in British Columbia...like in Kelowna BC.  They have a Walmart and Home Depot too (both are American).

[taxme]

1 hour ago, The_Squid said:

If I lived down there, I would be building walls too.   Too dangerous not to.

You got that right, and I would pay to have 24 hour security guard protection. Those homes in places like Vermont and New Hampshire or even in towns like Lyndon, Washington are not close to the big cities like New York or Baltimore, and they do not have a huge amount of blacks living near by which makes those people some what safer from the crimes that go on in the big those two cities. Those people live in fairly safe communities where crimes are very very few for now.