You have to have a pool of money, like an upscale community, located somewhere inside the city limits. This group of people get fleeced, and in turn a few of them do the fleecing. If the poor have any role to play, they are just a distraction. Blame the poor for all the problems in the City and people don't look around for the true source.
Essentially, community leaders and elected officials collude with each other to undermine the rights of ordinary people. It's an abuse of power. Of course, they can't do it without the help of a few recruited henchmen who already live in key areas around town. So suburban life in Central Florida is all about becoming the victim of fraud and conspiracies, which usually involve some of your own neighbors. If you try to fight them, you're subjected to some nasty resistance. Everything from defamation in the HOA meetings, to having your authority undermined when the local government withholds public services to show everyone in the neighborhood that they're not willing to work with you.
Why would they go to this extreme, besides the fact that they can get away with it? It's all about the real estate industry. The Florida city governments see it as their only option for an economic development plan, and the developers continue to play hardball. So, to make things happen, select people within the community are corrupted to facilitate key decisions.
The gated communities are pointless against these kind of crimes. That's because the henchmen selected by the cleo's (community leaders, elected officials) live inside of them. (You can even track how they move in right before major community development events take place) Once inside, they recruit anyone they need to join forces. These cabals use their combined votes to undermine the Homeowners Association. Over a course of years you can see the inducements. Some of the recruited get city jobs, others are bestowed with titles in business related organizations that allow them access to important people in the community. (Important for people who have consulting businesses.) Another inducement is the division of the Association's resources. i.e. common grounds. And, yet other inducements come from the city's or county's economic development department which may have established relationships overseas, and is in need of an entrepreneur to take advantage of the program.
Meanwhile, the neighbors who aren't part of the inside circle are stuck with failing infra-structure because the city cut deals with the developer and overlooked their regulatory responsibilities. Nobody can get traction within the Association to sue the developer or the city because the henchmen are there to call you crazy and defame you to make sure that nobody pays attention to you.
So that's how you create a stratified community, because this is not a one shot deal. This goes on forever, since there are deceptions that have to be continued in order to protect the power base that can make all this happen.
Essentially, most of the old guard in our social and political networks in Central Florida are unethical and corrupt. But they don't see themselves as corrupt. They see themselves as being the tough guys that had to make the tough choices, and therefore, their indiscretions should get a pass. (I'm sure they spend a good amount of time in the Country Club laughing at our helplessness.)
So you see, you can continue to put up gated communities, but there are many, many ways to undermine the very place where people live, meaning that you will never have peace of mind because you never know who in your community is looking for a way to earn his or her bones to become part of this core group.
= new reply since forum marked as read
