Gated Community-aargh!

by Bill Davenport April 19, 2007

OK, here's my rant against gated communities. You've heard it before, but I had to visit one of these places yesterday, for the first time in years, and I have to vent.

Here's my story: a kind and helpful woman who lives in the suburbs off 290 was visiting a nonprofit art space in Germany and agreed to help them by carrying some art back in her luggage, to save on shipping. She emailed me, even sending a map of her gated community, and I went to pick it up.

On its website, The Lakes on Eldridge North looks like this:

 

But in reality, it looks like this:

This photo was taken inside the community. There are walls everywhere. The theory is that residents enjoy a beautiful, well-maintained, safe enclave, but in practice, the unbiquitous walls and admonitory signs more closely resemble a gulag. Maybe it was the weather. It's the American home-as-your-castle mania taken too literally.

You paid how much for this?


The people who choose to live here deserve pity, rather than scorn. The saddest thing you can say about them is that they brought it on themselves.

Though the landscaping may recall the Teletubbies, you had better move before they turn twelve.

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