Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States.
By Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder.Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997. Pp. xi, 209. $24.95
This book examines the growth and social impact of gated communities in the United States. Because of the growing popularity of gated communities, the topic deserves more research attention than it has had in the past. For this reason we are pleased to see this book. Blakely and Snyder estimate that eight million Americans now live in gated communities that restrict access to residents and their guests. Although gated communities are not a new phenomenon, the number of gated communities has grown significantly since the 1960s, when master-planned retirement developments began to appear, and especially since the 1980s.
In Chapter 1, the authors provide a brief discussion of the history and evolution of gated communities. This chapter also provides some data on gated communities, although details are insufficient to justify some of the conclusions the authors draw. In Chapter 2 the authors deal with the concept of community and conclude that Americans are turning to gated communities because they feel threatened by crime, traffic, and noise. This chapter also explains their research design, which includes focus group sessions, media searches, and personal interviews.
The authors divide gated communities into three categories - lifestyle, prestige, and security - and devote Chapters 3, 4, and 5 to these categories, respectively. Lifestyle communities emphasize amenities, prestige communities are status oriented, and security communities are concerned with protection from crime. Each category is further broken down into three subcategories. In their examination of these three types of communities, the authors rely heavily on interviews with members of the communities. The information they compile is mildly interesting, not surprising, and often repetitive.
In Chapter 6 the authors present the results of a 1995 national survey of homeowner associations by the Community Associations Institute. Their findings are about what one would expect. Respondents told them repeatedly that they wanted security, reduced traffic, and control over their neighborhoods. In Chapter 7 they look at the "larger social issues that underlie and are reflected in the proliferation of gated communities." The authors' bias against gated communities clearly emerges in this chapter. Chapter 8 is the last chapter in the book, and here the authors provide alternatives for those who want what gated communities offer but without the gates. They suggest that society must do more to prevent crime, control traffic, and make neighborhoods more livable.
Blakely and Snyder provide a valuable overview of gated communities, so that the book is of interest to anyone interested in such developments but with very limited knowledge about them. However, the book contains a big dose of social commentary. The authors are concerned that gated communities are contributing to the polarization of the nation, yet they present little if any "hard" evidence that this is the case. The reader is left merely to surmise that gated communities divide us and, assuming they do, that such a result is undesirable.
The separation of gated communities into three categories (lifestyle, prestige, and security) is useful, although clearly there is much overlap, especially between lifestyle and prestige communities. Any evidence to support such arbitrary divisions is not convincingly presented in the following chapters. Not explored in the book is whether differences exist between communities that add gates afterward. We expect that it is more difficult to provide a successful mix of services for a community once vested interests have already staked out claims.
The authors accurately describe numerous reasons for the popularity of gated communities. Security from crime is important, but the authors suggest that in some gated communities security may not be any greater than in nongated communities. However, evidence provided is fairly circumstantial and unconvincing (p. 122). Another significant factor that explains the popularity of gated communities is the control of governance structure, which many believe provides some protection for their investment. Other characteristics that have led to the growth of gated communities include the uniformity in development in perpetuity through deed covenants, peacefulness, privacy, and less traffic.
The authors provide very little descriptive information on gated communities and almost no statistical analysis. They provide a map that shows areas of high, medium, and low concentrations of gated communities, but no detail or documentation is provided to support the map (p. 6). There is no information on the number of communities in different locations or on the number of communities that are lifestyle, prestige, or security. Although the authors' national survey provides some interesting commentary on gated communities, the information is minimal and disappointing overall. The survey, located in the appendix, contains only five questions that attempt to determine residents' perceptions of the level of community. One interesting observation the authors derive from the survey is that residents of gated communities feel a greater sense of community when there is increased privacy (p. 132). Perhaps this is explained by the maxim that "good fences make good neighbors."
Many of the author's testable statements are insufficiently supported by their evidence. For example, the authors offer a study (apparently by the Meyers Company, although no further reference is provided) that concludes that properties in gated communities are actually lower priced than similar properties outside the gates (p. 16). The study compares resale prices between 1991 and 1995 of gated and nongated housing within a two-mile radius in Orange County, California. More information on this study, even if only in the notes, would have been useful. The study is poorly explained, with almost no discussion of the data set, and the figure used to illustrate the results (Figure 1-5) is confusing. On the basis of the limited information provided, one could surmise that numerous factors other than gates could explain the price differentials. What effect gated communities have on property values is an interesting issue, but one that is poorly presented by the authors.
Gated communities in southern California represent the majority of Blakely and Snyder's case studies, and indeed most of the book appears to be principally a discussion of gated communities in this region of the country. Granted, there is a major concentration of gated communities in southern California, but a study that purports to offer a "sweeping study" should have provided a wider cross-section, especially since other areas of the country may offer different perspectives on the subject. For example, Sea Pines, begun in 1957 on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, very early on set the standards for many inland gated communities (Danielson 1995). Numerous developments on barrier islands along the Atlantic coast have followed and expanded on Sea Pines' lead.
Much of Fortress America is social commentary and much of it critical of gated communities because the authors believe a sense of community is lacking. The authors note that "community - a common bond, interdependence, and meaningful association - cannot be purchased at any price" (p. 98). Even if this judgment is correct, it would not be surprising. As the authors note, a "sense of community" is not a primary goal of people choosing gated communities (p. 44). However, some gated communities do choose to emphasize community involvement. On Dewees Island, South Carolina, where a "sustainable community" is being developed, common areas and community activities are part of the draw that encourage community spirit. One would expect that if consumers demand more community spirit, more effort will be exerted to provide a closer-knit community. It is highly unlikely that gated communities would be less successful than nongated communities in building community spirit.
Blakely and Snyder further assert that "gating does nothing to address the cause of the problems that it is a response to." The two primary solutions they present are improved crime prevention and traffic control. Their specific suggestions, however, offer little if any improvement over what we are currently doing. They also suggest developing "new design principles for towns and neighborhoods and regional approaches to problem solving" (p. 162). Ebenezer Howard, the influential English planner, said the same thing almost 100 years ago when proposing "garden cities" that would lead to utopian solutions (Howard 1965). It is difficult for us to see how this approach is going to solve the problems of residents seeking gated communities, especially in the foreseeable future. The bottom line is that the authors' solutions to the problems of poverty, social disorder, and failing municipal services is to limit individual choice (i.e., choice to live in a gated community, thereby voluntarily and automatically dealing with societal problems) and make greater use of government and planning, but not the planning of profit-motivated developers.
The authors make no mention of how gated communities are solving some market failures. Two important roles for local governments are the control of negative externalitites and the provision of public goods. Gated communities on many South Atlantic barrier islands respond to consumer demand by protecting environmental amenities, and this clearly is not a phenomenon unique to barrier islands (Rinehart and Pompe 1997). Perhaps the increasing popularity of gated communities is an application of the Tiebout model that explains how local jurisdictions are set up to provide public goods on the basis of the preferences of particular households. Gated communities can effectively provide local public goods, and covenants do at least as well as zoning without the coercion. Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that gated communities are evolving institutions.
Limited information is available on gated communities, and it is here that the book makes a contribution. For the novice the book is an interesting read. Unfortunately, the authors provide little concrete data and analysis to substantiate many of their statements. One feels that the authors have a romanticized vision of small-town America that is preferred to the gated-community concept.
Jeffrey J. Pompe James R. Rinehart Francis Marion University
References
Danielson, Michael N. 1995. Profits and politics in paradise: The development of Hilton Head Island. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Howard, Ebenezer. 1965. Garden cities of tomorrow, edited by F. J. Osborn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rinehart, James R., and Jeffrey J. Pompe. 1997. Entrepreneurship and coastal resource management. The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy 1:543-59.
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| Author: | Pompe, Jeffrey J. |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Southern Economic Journal |
| Article Type: | Book Review |
| Date: | Jul 1, 1998 |
| Words: | 1683 |
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