UL Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Edge and the Center- Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear

Thesis:

            The advantages New York and Texas residents face when living within a gated community.

Summary:

            This chapter explained the aspects of gated communities. Page 132 states that an increasing pattern of building fences cutting off relationships with neighbors and moving out in response problems and conflicts. New York was compared to Texas because of the large population.

            The people interviewed in this chapter moved into gated communities for different reasons. Some reasons were because of the crimes in their previous neighborhoods. The changes of ethnicity and some people already lived in a gated community. It seemed like people were more comfortable and felt more secure living in gated communities.

            The interviews from San Antonio were weird, but not uncommon. I felt awkward reading that one of the interviewees daughters felt threatened by poor people because she hasn’t gotten enough exposure. Some even mentioned that living in a gated community doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re safe and I agree with that because a guard isn’t always paying attention to everyone at every second of the day.

Personal Reflection:

            I do think that gated communities do make people feel safer because they’re isolated from everybody else in the world, but it ruins people socially. What relationships do people have outside of that gate if it isn’t with someone else behind the gate? Crimes are one of the last things to worry about, but it can still happen. It would probably want outsiders with bad intentions to want to burglarize homes in a gated community even more because they know middle class families live there.