Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States

by Edward James Blakely

" Gated communities are a new ""hot button"" in many North American cities. From Boston to Los Angeles and from Miami to Toronto citizens are taking sides in the debate over whether any neighborhood should be walled and gated, preventing intrusion or inspection by outsiders. This debate has intensified since the hard cover edition of this book was published in 1997. Since then the number of gated communities has risen dramatically. In fact, new homes in over 40 percent of planned developments are gated n the West, the South, and southeastern parts of the United States. Opposition to this phenomenon is growing too. In the small and relatively homogenous town of Worcester, Massachusetts, a band of college students from Brown University and the University of Chicago picketed the Wexford Village in November of 1998 waving placards that read ""Gates Divide."" These students are symbolic of a much larger wave of citizens asking questions about the need for and the social values of gates that divide one portion of a community from another. "

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a bit frustrating to review, because on the one hand: it is one of those important works at social science that critically engages a phenomenon rendered invisible to many by its sheer ordinariness. Establishing the basis for future scholars to dive deeper into a subject that cannot be fully unpacked in a simple survey. In doing so, the scholars create a useful typology and identify the relevant lanes for further inquiry/elaboration beyond their own methods.

On the other other hand, it was clear the authors had a contention to make about gated communities, but their “objective survey” mode painfully hindered that message.

It is hard to take seriously any snake oil salesman still peddling the lie of “objective knowledge”, but it is perhaps even sadder when such salesman are obviously not saying it from any true convictions but from the snake oil company that hired them to conduct their interviews.

It honestly isn’t a big issue here, because the authors do a great job critically breaking the gates defining these communities. It is difficult for a reader to go through and conclude the authors have a (+) view of gated communities, which is good!

However, I really feel as though their apologetic language and overly precautious framing hinders what could otherwise be a strong and well-known condemnation towards a rather destructive trend of contemporary American urbanism. The pieces are there, and the path is certainly drawn, but the full convictions just aren’t… full. Thanks Brookings Institute…

If you are concerned this isn’t worth the read, don’t be. You will learn everything you want to know about the rise of Gated communities. Even with the 20th century publication date, the book did not feel outdated (the extent and geographies of much of the described phenomena have likely shifted, but the mechanics still seem to hold up). The language is perhaps a bit too dry (certainly not helped with having multiple authors), but I still found it a relatively quick and worthwhile read.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a brilliant little introduction to gated communities in the United States. Written over ten years ago it is clearly out of date, but gives a very good sense of the growing number and diversity of such communities, and the feelings of many people within them. I found that quite tragic really, though I already knew there was a whole lot of scared white folks out there, never mind the ones who find gates prestigious and proof they've arrived, and the others obsessed with their property values. On the whole this is quite a damning indictment of the phenomenon, though more neutrally expressed than not.

The book also raises many of the key questions about the meaning and impacts of gated communities on local and regional levels, and attempts to look at positive alternatives. This was not done in any kind of depth however, and some of the alternatives--like security by design--I found to be almost as tragic as gated communities themselves.