Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States.

• Author: Pompe, Jeffrey J.

By Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder.

Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997. Pp. xi, 209. $24.95

This book examines the growth and social impact of gated communities in the United States. Because of the growing popularity of gated communities, the topic deserves more research attention than it has had in the past. For this reason we are pleased to see this book. Blakely and Snyder estimate that eight million Americans now live in gated communities that restrict access to residents and their guests. Although gated communities are not a new phenomenon, the number of gated communities has grown significantly since the 1960s, when master-planned retirement developments began to appear, and especially since the 1980s.

In Chapter 1, the authors provide a brief discussion of the history and evolution of gated communities. This chapter also provides some data on gated communities, although details are insufficient to justify some of the conclusions the authors draw. In Chapter 2 the authors deal with the concept of community and conclude that Americans are turning to gated communities because they feel threatened by crime, traffic, and noise. This chapter also explains their research design, which includes focus group sessions, media searches, and personal interviews.

The authors divide gated communities into three categories - lifestyle, prestige, and security - and devote Chapters 3, 4, and 5 to these categories, respectively. Lifestyle communities emphasize amenities, prestige communities are status oriented, and security communities are concerned with protection from crime. Each category is further broken down into three subcategories. In their examination of these three types of communities, the authors rely heavily on interviews with members of the communities. The information they compile is mildly interesting, not surprising, and often repetitive.

In Chapter 6 the authors present the results of a 1995 national survey of homeowner associations by the Community Associations Institute. Their findings are about what one would expect. Respondents told them repeatedly that they wanted security, reduced traffic, and control over their neighborhoods. In Chapter 7 they look at the "larger social issues that underlie and are reflected in the proliferation of gated communities." The authors' bias against gated communities clearly emerges in this chapter. Chapter 8 is the last chapter in the book, and here the authors provide...