Salon: Out of the Closet and Behind the Gate (Gay community in FL)

[kskiska]

The first gated community marketed at gays and lesbians is under construction in a small Florida town. Will it be a queer utopia -- or one more sign of the fragmentation of America?

Each year, a growing number of Americans agrees to be locked behind bars.

They check in at manned guardhouses, waiting to be sealed inside their gated communities, where they obey countless rules written into their deeds. They grow only approved flowers and walk dogs no taller than 16 inches. They choose window treatments with trepidation, afraid a peeping neighbor might report a deviant swag to their homeowner's association -- which can and will foreclose on rebels. They endure these indignities for one reason: order. "In the end, it's not about security at all," says Mary Gail Snyder, a professor of urban studies at the University of New Orleans and co-author of "Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States." "Most gated communities are incredibly easy to break into. The appeal is really about control."

But more than just a way to escape the chaos of real life, these enclaves are also becoming ghettos, increasingly targeted to specific groups. Golf addicts lock themselves away in sand-trapped communities such as Colorado's Fox Acres. Sections of the Los Angeles suburb Monterey Park are specially feng-shui'd to serve the Asian population.

But the newest example will likely be the most controversial: Wilton Station, the first gated community in America to specifically, if not solely, target the gay market.

Now under construction in Wilton Manors, Fla., a bedroom suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Station will be an ambitious low-rise project of 272 varied condominium units:
brownstones in dignified rows, loft spaces to tempt the trendy, and quaint porches to add a Mayberry touch. The prices, from $300,000 to $500,000, are less quaint. On-site retail spaces will let young professionals dry-clean John Varvatos sweaters or stumble out of a martini bar without leaving the complex. A vast health club will overlook a 72-foot lap pool, "beach" area, waterfalls, two spas, and a "Tiki Hut." Other perks: a private screening theater, pet areas, and the conspicuous guardhouse, where security guards will let the privileged through that magic ingredient -- the gates.

more…
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/04/30/gated_gay/index.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Gated communities are un-American

It's un-American when rich white Republicans do it to avoid contact with black and Hispanic people, just as this scheme is un-American. It's anti-social, bigoted, elitist and erodes any semlance of community life in this country.

[Catt03]

2. I live in South Florida where thousands of

"gated" communities exist.

Not only has their construction replaced the wetlands (that Bush is so proud of)but hey have been a big hinderance to emergency response and created traffic congestion.

As far as being safer by living in these walled enclaves, doesn't seem to have worked in Florida. The state is rated as the 7th most dangerouse state in the country.