Start!! Not finished…

„(…)locking yourself away from the rest of society, how can you justify that?“. This is an argument from Delaney when he talks to Jack Jardine discussing the topic of gating in the community. “Safety. Self-protection. Prudence.” Is the answer he gets. Jack Jardine, a lawyer and the president of the homeowner association in Arroyo Blanco, is the neighbour of Delaney Mossbacher and the patron of the gate idea. He says that the society won’t change until America gets control of the borders. Keeping out illegal immigrants and keeping in the millions of money they cost because of welfare, emergency care, schooling etcetera.

A hard working real estate agent, mother of a son and a woman how knows her properties. This is Kyra. She is trying to give people a good impression of the neighbourhood and for this reason she deserted a boulevard corner which was a meeting point for many Mexican workers. Another reason for her behaviour is the grief about her two dogs which were killed by coyotes. ”They can`t hunt what they can’t see.” Is a pro from her regarding to the wall.

Jack Shirley carries on an import trade abusing Mexicans as illegal worker. Simultaneously he scurfs the hate of white man against Mexicans. He starts the discussion about the burglar on the gathering at Dominick Flood.

Dominick Flood, a client of Jack Jardine, “was entangled in some unwise investment” why he now got a device on loan from electric monitoring service for a house-arrest program. But in spite of everything he got a lot of ascendancy in the community. Initiating the cessation of the labour exchange is the best example for it. He is also one of the supporters of the idea of a gated community.

In the beginning of the novel he is called “the athlete”, later on he introduces himself as Todd Sweet, the only liberal humanist beside Delaney Mossbacher. Coming up with the idea of a column against the gated community he takes part in the story. But Delaney refuses to work with him in fear of a discussion with Kyra, which supports the gated community.

Delaney Mossbacher understands himself as a liberal humanist. He loves the nature and writes a column about it in a paper called “Wide Open Spaces”. Because he sees a deeper appreciation by himself he often digress from his actual topic up to topics like overcrowding or deforestation. The same enthusiasm he shows in environmental questions he shows in politics. At the discussion about Mexicans on the homeowner meeting he advocates for the rights of them. But bit by bit he lets other people change his opinion. At last he points on two Mexicans as the causers of a fire, when everybody was evacuated because of it. After that he calls himself a redneck, a racist and abuser.

G.C. in the united states today

http://books.google.de/books?id=rwmwDvD7duAC&pg=PT21&lpg=PT21&dq=Security+Zone+Communities&source=bl&ots=6IElB0W5c9&sig=tM5D1YnyMq5kXUxICM3TvaqfVSo&hl=de&ei=_m2ZSs93wY6wBoDeyaIH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=Security%20Zone%20Communities&f=false (Blakely/Snyder 1997, S.2 zitiert nach Wehrheim 2002 S.168)

„Gated communities are residential areas with restricted access in which normally public spaces are privatized. They are security developments with designed perimeters, usually walls or fences, and controlled entrances that are intended to prevent penetration to noresidents. (…)They were uncommon places for uncommon people.”

With this extract out of Blakely and Snyder’s documentation “Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States today” I would like to start my overview about gated societies today. More than 40.000 facilities are already build in the United States.

If you want to characterize a gated community you have to sliver them in to three different kinds.

The first ones are „lifestyle communities”. People with the same idea of lifestyle are coming here together.

The second kinds of communities are the „prestige” ones. Who lives here owns a lot of money.

http://books.google.de/books?id=rwmwDvD7duAC&pg=PT21&lpg=PT21&dq=Security+Zone+Communities&source=bl&ots=6IElB0W5c9&sig=tM5D1YnyMq5kXUxICM3 TvaqfVSo&hl=de&ei=_m2ZSs93wY6wBoDeyaIH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=Security%20Zone%20Communities&f=false

“The gates are motivated by a desire to protect an image, protect current investments, and control housing values. They include the enclaves of the rich and famous ; developments for the fifth, the very affluent; and executive home developments for the middle class.” (Blakely/Snyder 199 P.41)

The last one is the „safety zone community”.Mostly founded in the middle- and lower-class, they try to protect the people.

http://books.google.de/books?id=rwmwDvD7duAC&pg=PT21&lpg=PT21&dq=Security+Zone+Communities&source=bl&ots=6IElB0W5c9&sig=tM5D1YnyMq5kXUxICM3TvaqfVSo&hl=de&ei=_m2ZSs93wY6wBoDeyaIH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=Security%20Zone%20Communities&f=false

“The disruptions caused by crime and traffic that their residents fear may be real or perceived, near or far, the important point is not whether they need to cut of access to their stress, but that they fell they must.” (Blakely/Snyder 1999 ,P.42)

Many G.C`s. got a Homeowner Association. The Association regularize everything in the community. The outward experience of your house, your garage, where your car have to be, your garden, your taxes