The Exclusivity of Gated Communities

from www.tamparealestatelink.com

While researching the Westmoreland Country Club for my final exam essay, I read on the Wikipedia page on country clubs that they began in the 1800s and played a huge role in suburbanization and the development of gated communities. This led me to read more on gated communities. Like country clubs, gated communities are extremely expensive to live in and are very exclusive as to who can live in them. They also are exclusive to any strangers who are simply passing through. Some communities even have identification cards that show if someone is a resident or not.    As I mentioned in my essay, people that are more affluent have the tendency to be more closed off and isolated than less affluent people. This seems obvious for a gated community, since the residents literally have a physical barrier separating them from the "outside world", or people of different classes. What I found to be less obvious while reading about these communities, was that cul-de-sacs are, to a lesser degree, gated communities.

photo from http://www.houstontomorrow.org/livability/story/the-cul-de-sac/

Because of the way they are set up with only one way in or out, a person entering a cul-de-sac probably has a set purpose for being there. This set up makes the homes in the cul-de-sac more of a small community, and makes it obvious when someone is there who is not a resident. According to Wikipedia's section on criticism of gated communities, residents of cul-de-sacs believe the exclusion of people passing through reduces the danger of crime. While it is safer for kids to play outside in a cul-de-sac (because less cars come through) I disagree with the above statement. I think to stop non-residents from simply walking through an area to "reduce crime danger" just suggests that if someone cannot afford to live in one of these gated communities, then they are viewed as criminals.