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Fort Lauderdale area Broward County
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Old 08-01-2008, 10:16 AM
 
346 posts, read 1,336,494 times
Reputation: 174

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharkey514 View Post
The originators of this post (from Sweden?) may want to read an article by Rick Steves, the travel writer. A few years ago he wrote about gated communities in America. He cited a statistic that gated communities and prisons would be the largest growth sectors in U.S. real estate. I agree social isolation is significant here - BUT, it's significant in our culture. The same problem exists in many regions of the country and is pervasive in our society. For example, as much as people complain about being isolated they seem to prefer communicating via e-mail and blogs. In the old days we would be having this "blog" in person over the white picket-fence.

Our gated community has many nice common areas. Usually, my boys are the only ones on the playground. There is a big community pool, but it's not used very often. The only time my kids see the neighbors is on Halloween -- and half of the houses are either empty or have the lights out (don't bother ringing the bell). Sorry, I got off point...

Sad but true, our society is moving towards contrived neighborhoods and communities. We live in a gated community. I think that in many areas of the country, this is becomming the norm for new housing. For our family, it gives us a sense (may not be true) of security and protects the common areas (pool, playground, tennis courts) which we pay for. As South Florida residents know, the gated communities vary by codes, security, intensity of rules, and population focus. For example, we visited friends at a gated community in Wellington where the gaurd made a copy of my drivers license. Some neighborhoods have gates, but they are only down at night. Some of the big condo buildings on Ocean Drive have a "gated" system - you can't even drive up the driveway.
Bring your kids to Lighthouse Point for Holloween and you'll see how a community celebrates together. There's a concert and childrens event at Dan Witt Park after trick or treating.

It does seem like the gated communities are only to give you a false sense of security. Everybody knows that neighbors are the people that keep each other more secure than any minimum wage guy taking down drivers license numbers and tag information. I think a neighborhood is worthless if you can't tell all your neighbors around you to lookout for your place while you're out of town.
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Old 08-01-2008, 03:26 PM
 
148 posts, read 680,172 times
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Thanks, DK -- We are hoping to buy in LHP next year! Everyone says it's a great family community.
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