Please fence me in
The allure of gated communities is built on a simple premise: Gates keep criminals out and desirables inside. It's an idea that has appealed to many. But is it valid?
For visitors to Marsh Landing development, stopping by to see a friend involves more than driving up to one of the large, expensive homes.
The first stop comes at a gatehouse, where a guard checks the day's list of expected guests. Unanticipated visitors must wait until the guard calls the homeowner and gets clearance. Only then are approved guests issued orange passes that allow them to enter this private 1,100-house neighborhood.
The limited-access, or gated, lifestyle of Marsh Landing is one chosen by roughly half the residents in this region southeast of Jacksonville, Fla. The allure of such developments is built on a simple premise: Gates keep criminals out and desirables inside.
It's a concept that has appealed to many over the years. Nationally, the number of people building or buying behind gates grew rapidly in the past few decades to about 4 million today, according to some estimates, with maybe twice as many behind walls or fences that give the appearance of being gated.
And builders continue to construct gated communities. After all, by putting a gate on a new project, a developer can quickly and inexpensively make a statement with a memorable entrance.
But gating has now lost some of its original cachet. Since gated communities are no longer new, they are not so special anymore. And they don't necessarily deliver the increased safety that attracted buyers in the first place.
Urban planners and academics are also raising questions about the long-term social impact of gated neighborhoods: Will privatizing traditionally public spaces lead to an erosion of civic engagement? Will gates that clearly delineate neighborhood boundaries heighten the sense of social, economic, and racial divisions that already exist in society? And will children who grow up in gated communities come to depend on walls and gates for a sense of security?
Questions like these hang in the air, waiting to be studied, as first-generation gated communities mature and new ones are created.
What has been answered, so far, is the question of whether gated communities provide the level of safety that has long been implied. The answer: not really.
There is no definitive study, for example, that proves gating significantly lessens crime. The fact is, upscale communities like Marsh Landing generally are in areas that already enjoy low crime rates. What crime does occur here is limited to things such as vandalized mailboxes or garage thefts that insiders, including teens and contractors, are as likely to commit as anyone else.
Living behind a gate does provide residents with a perception of greater safety, however, and it does discourage some criminals.
"Just having the gates, psychologically, is going to deter some burglars," says Chris McGoey, a California-based security consultant. He acknowledges that the real focus in these places is on discouraging drive-through robberies, speeding, and unwanted traffic and solicitors.
Regardless, many residents still say that they feel more secure, because the gates protect them in ways that are not immediately apparent.
Seniors such as Cali McClure, a resident of Lake Barrington Shores in Lake Barrington, Ill., appreciate the presence of friendly guards at the entrance. "As a single woman, it's nice when you drive in late at night," she says. "It's just like somebody greeting you when you come home."
And as Marcia Hodgson of Marsh Landing points out, the gates do provide more privacy. "You don't have people selling you vacuum cleaners or magazines or trying to talk you into their religion," she says. "And if somebody like the Girl Scouts come to your door, you know it's a kid from the neighborhood."
For Dan MacDonald, a retired salesman from New York, Marsh Landing appealed because of "the landscaping standards and the look of it." Unlike unzoned areas where stately homes may sit alongside double-wide trailers with abandoned cars in the front yard, the subdivision, with its lagoons and carefully laid out green spaces, has the feel of a manicured private park.
Even as gated subdivisions have lost their sense of newness in most parts of the country, they appear here to stay. This is partly because of their inherent appeal in a security-conscious culture, and partly because they project an air of exclusivity, which sells well in a society that imitates the wealthy.
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