A long shot (for NaNoWriMo purposes), but here we go…
Anyone here live in a gated community, or spent time in one? What was it like? Did all the people who lived there work for one nearby company? Any crazy rules regarding mailbox colours and lawnmowing hours?
It doesn’t really have to be Fort Knox-style, more like an out-of-the-way suburb with, like, four different kinds of houses that repeat over and over, maybe a community pool-- like in that X-Files episode where Mulder and Scully pretend to be a couple, the Petries, and a garbage monster from the sewers going after nonconformists (great episode, BTW).
I just want to know all about it. Any observations, really, and feel free to include movies set in this type of community.
Where my mom lives doesn’t have a gate, but it is a planned community of homes with condo-like regulations. There is a homeowner’s associate, they take care of exteriors and roofs, and there is a community pool and play area.
It’s pretty uneventful. I think she has to get it approved if she does any construction. The association has the usual amount of busybodies, but no outrageous stories.
We used to live in a gated community. There were rules about the styles of houses, but all the homes were custom built by individual builders, so there weren’t any duplicates. There were rules, but nothing I wouldn’t have adhered to anyway (keep your lawn nice, no outbuildings, no tacky fountains). I liked it and found it nice to come home to, but there were lots of people who couldn’t seem to stick to the rules. It seemed like they broke them just to cause a problem with the HOA - like the one guy who moved in and immediately bought a huge tacky fountain and a guillotine, both of which were deposited on his front lawn. I mean - come on.
We had a community pool and tennis courts and a golf course. There was a “country club” type thing, but I don’t know anyone who actually belonged. People had diverse employment - our best friends there were a builder, a TSA employee, a drug rep, an occupational therapist, an orthopedic surgeon, and a guy who managed the banquet department at a hotel. There was not a diversity of races or relgions, which is something I didn’t like.
I don’t know - it was nice. I’m not sure we’d look for a house in a gated community again, but I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out. I didn’t feel any safer or anything living there, but I haven’t really felt unsafe living anywhere. I mostly liked the aesthetics of nice neat houses and pretty flowers. It’s definitely not for some people. If you’re someone who really, really hates rules and regulations, don’t ever, ever consider buying a house with a HOA.
I had a friend that lived in one. Boy was it nice. They even had an on duty security gaurd there to check visitors in at the gate. (The officer would call the resident you intended on seeing before he would let you pass.)
This community also had a canal system that led to a rather large lake as well. So lots of the home owners kept their boats docked right in their back yard. If they wanted to go fishing or skiing; just hop in the boat and get to it! No need to bother with a trailer and hitch.
My wealthy rabidly republican sister lives in an upscale gated community; she evacuates to my house every time there is a hint of a hurricane. Her community has a gate with a guard. It is also surrounded by a fence that is laughably easy to penetrate—her property backs up to an alley that is outside the guarded community and is easily and readily accessable to anyone. Her HOA fee is “around” $300.00 per month, for which she gets–??? She complains a lot about how shoddy her lawn mowing service is.
I just can’t help feeling that we’re regressing as a civilization, back to the walled cities of the Middle Ages. How pleasant for Republicans to turn back the clock to when the masters ruled and servants and other inferiors knew their place.
My parents live in a 55-and-older gated community, with a guard. The homes are all manufactured houses, but don’t have the feel of trailers at all. I wouldn’t care for the insularity and lack of kids, but they’re both in poor health and appreciate having people looking out for them a bit. There is a clubhouse with a pool and food service, if you don’t feel like cooking. The community holds various weekly and holiday events. There are even people who come to do massages or haircuts and so forth. It suits them.
I live in a rural gated community. It’s nice, with a lake, docks, beach, hilly terrain, and plenty of trees, but there are rules. Like you can only have one outbuilding/shed. No signs on your property other than your house number and the name of your residence. If you’re the conformist perfectionist type, the rules probably wouldn’t bother you too much. Just be sure you know what the rules are before moving there.
And of course rules can be added or changed later on. Which brings up the next problem with gated communities, the board of directors/management/people in charge. I’ve learned that a board of directors always seems to want to do something. They can’t just maintain the status quo, they’re always wanting to do new things. Of course the new things involve raising everyone’s dues. So check out the political situation before signing up. And, the political situation can of course change, like it did where I live. There was a big upheaval where the balance of power on the board changed, the office workers resigned, and general manager resigned, and now we just have a temporary general manager with little or no office help.
Basically living in a gated community can definitely add another layer of complexity to the current federal->state->county[->town/city] government you’re already in. I like where I live but I’m on my way out, I want 5 or 10 acres out in the county that I can do what I want with (well mostly.)
We got three electronically operated gates. Two machine gun nests, plus roaming patrols in jeeps. We have a double-wall system, with a death strip ranging from a meaningless five meters to an impressive 100 meters. We have a cricket oval in out death strip.
I have a steel door with a bolt on one side on my bathroom. In case we hear shots were are supposed to lock ourselves in the bathroom, bolt the door and lay on the floor until help arrives.
Barbed wire on the outer wall, nasty barbed tape on the inner one.
I do think gated communities have their place - Paul in Saudi has excellent reasons for living in one, as do cher3’s parents. I don’t live in one, and at this point in life, I don’t think I would - I’m too thrifty right now to pay for lawncare and the like. I also don’t feel at all threatened in my community.
I don’t care for the connotations attached to the uber-riche gated communities, but I do think that they’re perfect solutions for some people.
Every time someone talks about the “(Black, Hispanic, Gay, Jewish, Whatever) Community” I wonder what the homeowner’s association must be like. There has to be a comic sketch in there somewhere.
I lived in a gated community in Danville, California for a while when I was a pre-teen. There were some weird quirks, lots of rules to follow for the association, and of course having the guard at the gate call your house to ask if they are authorized to let so and so in. But inside, it was just like living anywhere else.
I lived in a less amenable gated community in Colorado for a while after the judge…nevermind that one.
I have no interest in living in a gated community, but if I could buy property in one of those in America, I would be sorely tempted.
For probably five minutes.
Or was this intended as hyperbole?