Security and transportation are things to consider while choosing to settle down or call a place home. Setha Low and Derek Pardue take disparate approach from each other’s in their anthropological field works. Low describe why people choose to live in a gated community; how crime and socioeconomic security plays a significant role in their decision. In the other hand, Pardue discuss how we are all connected with the help of our public transportation system. Even, if we live in ‘centers’ or ‘peripheries’ our vast transit connects our all.
Low focus on two gated communities located in San Antonio and New York City. They both provide excellent comparative cases because of the differences between them in population size, crime, norm and etc. Crime and personal and emotional security is the driven force in selecting to live in a gated community. The people Low interviewed who don’t live in a gated community have one thing in common. They are all afraid of their neighborhood. Living is some sort of constant fear.
I agree with almost all of Low research and I personally want to live in a gated community myself. I have grown up in the city my whole life and really haven’t had any serious problem. However, the fear is always there and the neighborhood is changing for the worst. One thing I do thing Low didn’t mention is that it isn’t easy to get into a gated community.
Furthermore, I don’t agree with Blakely and Snyder in ‘the phenomenon of wallet cities and gated communities is a dramatic manifestation of a new fortress mentality growing in America.’ I don’t think it is a new manifestation or a new concept. Moreover, I think gated communities are as old as urbanization. In the medieval time, kings lived in a castle or palace gated by high wall of stones and bricks, with 24/7 watch guard.
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