Are Gated Communities Bad for Society?

[Slap47]

I don't really see any benefit to having gated communities.

1. They strengthen class divisions. Rich people now only associate with other rich people. They come to view the poor as almost another species due to lack of interaction. This harms social mobility (the people you know makes a difference) and social cohesion. I suspect this is why identity politics is bigger than ever. They don't relate to the poor, just fellow X race.

2. They disconnect people. That NBA star that lost his shit when the rioters came for his community after encouraging riots? Yeah, that sorta stuff. These people practically live in an ivory tower.

3. They strengthen bad governments. The Home Owners Association has developed a reputation for being oppressive. They charge 1000$ fines for grass and ban waving American flags. The type of citizen this type of place will create terrifies me.

4. They harm the community. These people still vote and they don't give a shit about the rest of their city or other communities. Libraries, parks and public community centers? Fuck that, we have them within these here walls. Road construction? I pay for the roads here. Housing crisis? Homeless? Don't see it. These people likely only vote in favor of more publicly funded sportsball arenas.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Yes.

 

[Thumb Butler]

I'm all for them. We need to keep people like this locked up:

 

[Chilson]

Does it really matter? Class divisions will always exist regardless of whether there are physical gates or not because it is human nature to divide people into such groups. It just seems like your trying to imply the gate is the problem rather than the reality that the gate exists because fundamentally people will always build them.

People are also free to do whatever the hell they want to do anyways as long as they are not actively hurting anyone. Living in a gated community or not is completely up to the individual person, society and "community" or whatever collectivist term you want to use be damned.

 

[Takodachi]

3. They strengthen bad governments. The Home Owners Association has developed a reputation for being oppressive. They charge 1000$ fines for grass and ban waving American flags. The type of citizen this type of place will create terrifies me.

I've been wondering for a while, how can they even enforce this in your own property?
Do they make you sign a contract weaving away your property rights or something? What prevents people from telling the HOA to just go fuck themselves.

 

[Slap47]

I've been wondering for a while, how can they even enforce this in your own property?
Do they make you sign a contract weaving away your property rights or something? What prevents people from telling the HOA to just go fuck themselves.

People choose to join them or are required to join them if they want to buy a piece of property. There are also occasions where HOA's sue people for non-compliance and force them to join as part of a settlement.

 

[DavieJones714]

Some feel secure in a gated community. I would feel trapped. Do feel your points, tho.

 

[User names must be unique]

I can understand wanting to put up a gate and fence around your house but it seems completely bizarre to me to to put it around the neighborhood. Honestly can't fathom the kind of weirdo that would want to live in one, so it's probably for the best to keep them all in one place and locked up.

 

[Sgt. Pinback]

Gated communities remind me of the micro-states in Neal Stephenson's future tech dystopia Snowcrash:

Los Angeles in the 21st century, an unspecified number of years after a worldwide economic collapse. Los Angeles is no longer part of the United States, as the US federal government has ceded most of its power and territory to private organizations and entrepreneurs. Franchising, individual sovereignty, and private vehicles reign supreme. Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts while private security guards preserve the peace in sovereign, gated housing developments. Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads and all mail delivery is by hired courier. The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds where they do tedious make-work that is, by and large, irrelevant to the society around them.

Much of the world's territory has been carved up into sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise (such as "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong", or the corporatized American Mafia), or various residential burbclaves — quasi-sovereign gated communities.

I'd choose "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong" to live at because they're on most major blocks and they have badass cybernetically enhanced dogs doing security detail.

 

[rocknrollmartian]

Now that I think about it, the nicest neighborhoods in my suburban hometown in Virginia and my current town in the Rockies are not gated communities. Same goes for the wealthy Chicago north burbs where some of my family lives. I don't think I'd want to live somewhere full of gated communities. They seem more common in CA, but CA is fucked up for so many reasons.

 

[Emperor Julian]

Their an indication of deeper problems in off itself and aggravate larger social issues.
In addition they're creepy as fuck.

 

[DumbDude42]

gated communities showing up is a clear sign that government is failing to do its duty.

all the things that make people want to move into self-segregated gated communities are social ills that make living in society a bad experience. high crime, bad schools, unpleasant neighbors, homeles people on the streets, drugs and hookers everywhere, etc. all these are things that the government should be preventing in the first place, but since the leadership refuses to do so, the only option people have left is to try and wall themselves off and keep all this shit outside their small neighborhood.

if you want gated communities to stop being a thing, you have to address the problem of some areas (mainly urban ones) simply having straight-up unacceptable living conditions. but realistically, that is never going to happen, because all those places tend to be ruled by leftists who actively work to make these things worse rather than fix them, so the gated community phenomenon isn't going away any time soon. it's basically the logical end point of white flight.

 

[King Daddy Telomerase]

It's a usually silly extra step by whites to keep the niggers out. I can't blame them, as I'm sure most people who have lived near niggers would understand. DSP's "gated community" is an example of a silly one where there's very easy access for anyone to find the code and can enter, it's more of a bragging point there.

 

[millais]

They are common in Third World shitholes because it's more cost effective for homeowners to be paying for 24/7 private security as a group rather than on an individual basis. If they are showing up in the First World, that means conditions are deteriorating to Third World levels.

 

[Slap47]

They are common in Third World shitholes because it's more cost effective for homeowners to be paying for 24/7 private security as a group rather than on an individual basis. If they are showing up in the First World, that means conditions are deteriorating to Third World levels.

California seems to be the only place in America where having people you identify as "servants" is normal. The idea of having servants is almost a foreign idea to your average American.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I don't think the gated arrangement itself is the problem. In New York City, you can walk right up to (and into) Trump Tower if you want, but the people living in there are just as disconnected from the common man as any California mogul in his fortified beach compound.

 

[Basil II]

let karen have her containment zone.

 

[Giant Throbbing Clit]

They're autistic and I'd rather get robbed by a frijolero than live inside a fence

 

[ToroidalBoat]

walled castle town > gated "community"

 

[William Tell Underpass]

Lobster Man Peterson said that there is a high correlation between relative poverty (people near eachother being richer/poorer than one another) and violent crime.

So I guess from that perspective gated communities are good things because taken to the extreme they separate the poor from the rich, but the downside is they become a monument to how much life sucks for poor people.

But either way, people who live in gated communities are basically one wrung down from reptilians for weirdness factor.