Gated Communities - would you?

[Domestic Goddess]

In its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community sometimes characterised by a closed perimeter of walls and fences.
Some gated communities, usually called guard-gated communities, are staffed by private security guards. These communities are often home to high-value properties. Some gated communities are set up as retirement villages. Some gated communities are secure enough to resemble fortresses. The purpose of such a community is to protect its residents from outside violence. The same philosophy is seen on closed buildings and most shopping centres (many of them can only be accessed from inside the parking lot or the garage).

Would you feel safer in a gated community, do you think that you would be less likely to suffer a NFH while living in one? Do you think that they are "snobby" or do you feel that in today's society they are a sensible solution to having a nicer place to live?

[Noise Stopper]

Could we set up gated communities for the Chav sc*m a la "Escape from New York"? put them all in a city set up guard towers all around and let them fester in their own mess!

Ian :nfh1:

[StoneHenge]

It's a sad reflection on society that more things like that are cropping up because they feel the need to protect their homes. Prison is the word that springs to mind.

[jrobertson]

If they want to get you they will find you.

[Noise Stopper]

If they want to get you they will find you.

It may be worth pointing out that Neighbours from Hell in Britain is a support network, and that something this negative is really not helping.

Just my opinion obviously

Ian :nfh1:

[jrobertson]

Point taken, incidents of those nature are very small. It wouldn't surprise me if security checkpoints did get installed, since it would probably increase the value of the properties (which means more money for property developers).

[Noise Stopper]

Point taken, incidents of those nature are very small. It wouldn't surprise me if security checkpoints did get installed, since it would probably increase the value of the properties (which means more money for property developers).

But wouldn't the added sense of security (no matter how spurious) be worth something if one were of a paranoid frame of mind?

Ian :nfh1:

[jrobertson]

Sad but true. If it's not controlled though you could end up with something resembling an Amercian Embassy in Iraq. Which leads me on to this article I read today via Google News


http://www.donga.com/news/img/blank.gif Tragedy of America’s Fortress-Like Embassies

SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 03:11


“It is sad, but it is the reality the United States faces.”
This is an unofficial Department of State staffer’s comment on the recent criticism the media released about the American Embassy building in Baghdad, Iraq. The ‘sad issue’ he mentioned was the reality that the United States is currently facing around the world: America now has to build high and thick walls around its embassies, making them into virtual fortresses.

Two such buildings drew the attention of Washington D.C. on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

These two are the American Embassy in Baghdad-the largest embassy building ever-and the Department of Defense building (the Pentagon) that is being renovated as an impenetrable fortress. They all remind us of the reality that the U.S. is fully engaged in the ‘War against Terrorism.’

Castle within a Castle: the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad-

Upon the western shores of the Tigris River in Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy is in the final phase of construction.

The new embassy is being built upon an assigned strip of land that used to be a riverside park, constituting a total 104 acres (420,000 m²). This is approximately six times the area of U.N. Headquarters in New York and ten times the size of the new U.S. Embassy building being built in Beijing, China. It is equivalent to the total area of the Vatican.

Walls of at least 2.7 meters in height will surround the complex, with 21 buildings inside. There will be a power plant, sewer system, swimming pool, movie theater, shopping facilities and a social club.

Jane Loeffler, Architectural History Professor at University of Maryland, wrote in a Foreign Policy (September/October issue) article that, “An overseas embassy must be a place where it can communicate with local society while promoting the benevolence and democratic values of the United States,” and that “The new embassy was designed with a frontier outpost in mind.”

She also remarked that, “Although the U.S. administration proclaims confidence in a future Iraqi democracy, the embassy conveys no such confidence.”

Fortified Pentagon-

A memorial hall will be completed within the Department of Defense complex nearby the Potomac River to commemorate the 184 people who died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, a greater change than the memorial hall will occur, as the Washington Post released on September 9 news of the fortification of offices to fortress-level protection.

The outer windows of the building have been replaced by special glass panes that can withstand a large-scale explosion, while state of the art security systems have been installed in the building. A police squad of one thousand is capable of fending off any chemical, biological and radiological attack. In order to reach the building, most visitors will have to park their cars at an outer rim parking lot and walk about ten minutes through an over-pass that is built on top of multi-layered defense walls.

[Noise Stopper]

If I could afford a building like either of those, I would be gleefully changing the face of Sussex as we spoke!

Ian :nfh1: