The Threat of Gated Communities

The Retreat at Twin Lakes, where Martin died, is the kind of place where people choose to live when they want to be safe – from crime, from outsiders, from economic uncertainty. Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. By fostering suspicion and societal divisions, the argument goes, gated communities can paradoxically compromise safety rather than increasing it. And because they cut residents off from the larger community, writes Edward Blakely, author ofFortress America, they can “shrink the notion of civic engagement and allow residents to retreat from civic responsibility.”

The Threat of Gated Communities - Sarah Goodyear - The Atlantic Cities:

• JUL 15, 2013