Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States

By Edward James Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder

Book Overview

Gated communities are a new ""hot button"" in many North American cities. From Boston to Los Angeles and from Miami to Toronto citizens are taking sides in the debate over whether any neighborhood should be walled and gated, preventing intrusion or inspection by outsiders. This debate has intensified since the hard cover edition of this book was published in 1997. Since then the number of gated communities has risen dramatically. In fact, new homes in over 40 percent of planned developments are gated n the West, the South, and southeastern parts of the United States. Opposition to this phenomenon is growing too. In the small and relatively homogenous town of Worcester, Massachusetts, a band of college students from Brown University and the University of Chicago picketed the Wexford Village in November of 1998 waving placards that read ""Gates Divide."" These students are symbolic of a much larger wave of citizens asking questions about the need for and the social values of gates that divide one portion of a community from another.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815710038
• ISBN13: 9780815710035
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Response to Irving Texas--the authors

This is a response to Irving, Texas. The book contains plenty of crime statistic, in fact the best ones available. Perhaps the reviewr is talking about a diferent book. The Authors

Well written and clear presintation about gated communities

Blakely and Snyders's FORTRESS AMERICA was a very interesting look at the growing trend of gated communities. The book was very well organized and presented. It was written in a clear and understandable manner, and based on solid research. The book indentifies types of gated communities, the reasons behind them, and the problems associated with them. The authors exaime the pros and cons and myths and realities of the gated community in America. It makes an excellent research tool or an interseting read for anyone interested in urban geography/ sociology, or city planning.