Is it me or does the South have a lot of gated communities?

[bleedingheart]

I don't mean the gated communities of the super rich... but ones in which middle to upper class individuals live..

I live in PA and while we have McMansions like the rest of the country there aren't any gated communities that I can think of in our area...

A friend of mine lived in two different gated communities in VA and when my husband and I were down visiting his company in Atlanta there were gated communities there as well...Another couple I know moved into a gated community in Florida..

The other thing I found out was that they pay anywhere from $500 to $1000 a year to pay for the security, pools and other extras the community offered...that's pretty expensive...

[SmileyBoy]

1. Gated communities should be illegal.

Or at least not considered as incorporated towns.

North of St. Paul, MN, there's a whole gated suburb called North Oaks. VEEERRRRYY rich people. No one who's not invited or who doesn't live there is allowed.

If I was the HUD secretary, I would either make gated communities illegal, or champion a law that would take away the designation of "town", "city" or "village" from them.

Those things do NOT belong in a civilised society. Now as for ONE mansion property that belongs to a wealthy person/persons, I haver no trouble with. But making a whole TOWN like that is just plain wrong.

[bleedingheart]

3. I find it ironic that people who buy $400k houses put gates

around them when I work in a town that has $1 million plus priced houses and they have not gates...you can actually walk up to the front door and say hi...

The community I work in has "old money" homes...grand trees..etc...but it has a homey kind of appeal... I don't live there by the way...

[sasquatch]

4. I say if they want to live in a gated community

Then send them to prison or tell'em to join the army. If I lived in a gated community I'd get a cutting torch and remove the fuckers.

[SOteric]

2. I don't know what it does to your demographics theories...

but Seattle and it's environs has several gated communities. We're decidedly NOT south of the Mason-Dixon up here.

[bleedingheart]

5. Actually the Eastern Seaboard states are the only ones I am very

familiar with... that is why I was asking..

To be honest a lot of the new trends in the South..since it is growing normally go elsewhere...so I actually think its more of a marketing thing than a Demographic issue...

[sasquatch]

6. It's a biproduct of racism

Which is the worse in the south then anywhere else in the nation.

[mitchum]

12. Really, now?

[sasquatch]

19. Yes, now

[tishaLA]

7. If you think the South is bad, come to California

the idea was invented here, I am told.

[Melsky]

9. I agree

I can think of quite a number of them. I used to work for a real estate agent in San Diego and used to have to take potential buyers to them. They creep me out.

[bleedingheart]

10. i didn't know that...only been to CA twice for business so

and I didn't visit any housing areas...

what I did notice there was that there were a ton of restaurants and loads of choices...one friend took me out to dinner while I was in town for a conference and he told me that CA'ers tend to eat out more...he was originally from PA...

[MisterP]

13. you trip over the dang things here!

[Nikia]

8. We visited my husbands uncle in Florida

He lived in a gated community that had its own country club. My husband remarked that the security guards were better armed than many police deapartments.
My mother briefly lived in a gated condo community in Indiana. I don't know if this was considered truly gated as there weren't security guards and one of the gates didn't require a special key or card.

[bleedingheart]

So is this gated community thing a growing trend in the nation?

from the posts I see here they are found everywhere... so are these new communities? is this a new trend???

[SOteric]

14. Seattle's gated communities are not new.

At least 3 of them are more than 50 years old.

Make of that what you will.

[bleedingheart]

15. I really don't know what to make of it other than the expense

if people already pay taxes for police why would they need to have a guard for their community?
Now I can understand the community pool and playground concepts...even the recreation centers...but why gate the community and have a security guard on duty??? Just seems like a lot of cashola....

[SOteric]

18. Well, at least one of those gated communities,

and probably more, the very large, very posh houses are inhabited by people who work lengthy hours and/or travel a good portion of the year.

Rather than screen for house-sitters and worry about disabled or incompetent security systems, these folks can add to their sense of security the fact that few people can even access the community.

Additionally, a good many of them work in the same industry/firms/corporate environment. So there's the added sense of community.

[bleedingheart]

11. So is this gated community thing a growing trend in the nation?

from the posts I see here they are found everywhere... so are these new communities? is this a new trend???

[Kathy in Cambridge]

16. Gated Communities are prevalent in places where there is more land

Because land is more expensive in the Northeast and the population density is greater, you don't find many gated communities. You do, however, find multi-million dollar homes sitting on 1/4 acre of land.

I have friends in VA that live in a gated community. I couldn't stand living like that.

[IronLionZion]

17. You've got to be shitting me

There are gated communities in the Pittsburgh area and in Central PA. with armed guards and stuff.

Yeah some people in the South still like segregation.

[bleedingheart]

20. Where in Pittsburgh?

I live on the eastern side... and I don't know of any... There are some really nice housing plans in my area with very expensive homes but they don't have gates and guards...

I think it seems like a housing trend ..some sort of status symbol..

[JVS]

24. I think that there is a gated housing plan off of Penn Avenue

Over near the busway and the train tracks.

[Insider]

21. a slight tangent

the thread title reminded me of goodie mob (rap group) lyrics from Cell Therapy (1995?), great song


Me and my family moved in our apartment complex
A gate with the serial code was put up next
The claim that this community is so drug free
But it don't look that way to me cause I can see
The young bloods hanging out at the sto 24/7
Junkies looking got a hit of the blo it's powerful
Oh you know what else they tryin to do
Make a curfew especially for me and you the traces of the new world order
Time is getting shorter if we don't get prepared
People it's gone be a slaughter
My mind won't allow me to not be curious
My folk don't understand so they don't take it serious
But every now and then, I wonder
If the gate was put up to keep crime out or to keep our ass in

Who's that peeking in my window
POW nobody now


edit:
goodie mob is from atlanta

[DEM FAN]

22. The South DOES Have Alot Of Gated Comm.

There Are Everywhere. Here In Florida To. :shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. Absolutely. Without question.

*

[Logansquare]

25. My inlaws live in one in the D.C. area

They are elderly, and I must say that the "community" provides a lot of services for them like deliveries, maintainance, and landscaping that are nice when one gets older. However, I think the popularity of gated communities in D.C. is the direct result of having a very upper class, mostly white population right next to a poor, mostly black, and service-deprived populace. It's like creating a little banana republic right in the USA. The rich need guards and high walls in the middle of such social disparity. The Bush administration is going to turn all of America into a gated community.

[name not needed]

27. when bush is through

i dont think many people wouldve survived world war 3

[DinahMoeHum]

26. The people who live in them are fooling themselves. . .

Gated communities could well become targets for terrorists. Just ask people in Saudi Arabia.

:nuke:

[Wcross]

28. I live in a gated community

I got me a farm gate up by the road- I live in Tennessee, there are a few here and there- mostly in the rich areas of town. Hey, I don't see anything wrong with them if thats where you want to live.