Summary.Gated communities, which are walled and gated residential neighborhoods, represent a form of urbanism where public spaces are privatized. In the U.S., they represent a substantial part of the new housing market, especially in the recently urbanized areas. They have thus become a symbol of metropolitan fragmentation. This paper focuses on how local governments consider them as a valuable source of revenue because suburbanization costs are paid by the private developers and the final homebuyer, and how this form of public -private partnership in the provision of urban infrastructure ultimately increases local segregation. An empirical study in the Los Angeles region aims to evaluate this impact on socio-economic and ethnic patterns using factorial analysis (dissimilarity indices). As a result, the sprawl of gated communities increase segregation. Very significant socio-economic dissimilarities are found to be associated with the enclosure, thus defining very homogeneous territories, especially on income and age criteria. But gated communities are located in ethnic buffer zones and stress an exclusion that is structured at a municipal scale. Keywords.Gated communities, urban sprawl, segregation 2 GATED COMMUNITIES AND SEGREGATION Gated communities: Sprawl and social segregation in southern California. Glasgow, September 18-19, 2003] Summary. Gated communities, which are walled and gated residential neighborhoods, represent a form of urbanism where public spaces are privatized. In the U.S., they represent a substantial part of the new housing market, especially in the recently urbanized areas. They have thus become a symbol of metropolitan fragmentation. This paper focuses on how local governments consider them as a valuable source of revenue because suburbanization costs are paid by the private developers and the final homebuyer, and how this form of public -private partnership in the provision of urban infrastructure ultimately increases local segregation. An empirical study in the Los Angeles region aims to evaluate this impact on socio-economic and ethnic patterns using factorial analysis (dissimilarity indices). As a result, the sprawl of gated communities increase segregation. Very significant socio-economic dissimilarities are found to be associated with the enclosure, thus defining very homogeneous territories, especially on income and age criteria. But gated communities are located in ethnic buffer zones and stress an exclusion that is structured at a municipal scale. [Version: September 2004 (revised). First submission in October 2003 -Part of an earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on gated communities,
This article examines the notion of gated communities and, more generally, privately governed urban neighbourhoods. We do this by reviewing the idea that they are an innovative built‐environment genre that has spread globally from a diverse set of roots and influences. These include the mass growth of private urban government in the USA over the past 30 years; rising income inequalities and fear in big cities; the French condominium law of 1804; and many other locally and culturally specific features of urban history. We contrast the popular notion that gated communities are simply an American export with the idea that they have emerged in various forms for different reasons in different places. We contrast supply‐side and demand‐side explanations, focusing on the idea that much of their appeal comes from the club‐economy dynamics that underpin them. We examine the social and systemic costs – territorial outcomes – of cities made up of residential clubs, considering, in particular, the issue of segregation. We conclude with a reflection on the importance of local variations in the conditions that foster or inhibit the growth of a gated community market in particular countries.
Housing prices being one factor thought to contribute to segregation patterns, this article aims at differentiating gated communities from non-gated communities in terms of change in property values. To what extent do gated communities contribute to price filtering of residents, and do patterns of price differentiation favor gated communities in the long run? The article provides an analysis of the territorial nature of gated communities and how the private urban-governance realm theoretically sustains the hypothesis that property values within gated communities are better protected. In order to identify price patterns across time, we elaborate a spatial analysis of values (price distance index) by identifying gated communities with real estate listings in 2008 and matching these with historical data at the normalized census-tract level from the 1980, 1990 and 2000 census in the greater Los Angeles region. We conclude that gated communities are very diverse in kind. The wealthier the area, the more it contributes to fuelling price growth, especially in the most highly desired locations in the region. Furthermore, a dual behavior emerges in areas with an over-representation of gated communities. On the one hand, gated communities are located within local contexts that introduce greater heterogeneity and instability in price patterns. In this way, they contribute to a local increase in price inequality that destabilizes price patterns at neighborhood level. On the other hand, gated communities proliferate in contexts that show a very strong stability in terms of price homogeneity at the local level.
So-called 'gated' communities have become common throughout the continents of Asia and America. Such communities are characterised by the ability to provide public goods and perform governance functions, independent of central and local government. It would be surprising if such communities did not develop to a greater extent in Britain, especially as a more complete legal framework now exists for their governance. Examples in Asia and America demonstrate their effectiveness, as do historical examples in the UK, such as the garden city movement. There are outstanding legal and regulatory issues that will need to be addressed as 'gated' communities do develop.
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