The growing prevalence of gated communities symbolizes for many critics the lack of suburban encounter with the other. With or without gates, the encounter with the other is not so easily eliminated from suburbs; differences are enabled by generational frictions, and by music and other media that bring foreign attitudes in under the door. Keeping the suburbs pure is a constant effort that constantly fails. Since the media and the Net that can get around any gate, those who want to enforce conformity must resort to gated media, but this enhances the forbidden fruit effect.

Index
what are cities for now?

(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001