What Subdivision Walls Tell Us About Our Values

In her recent column, Mary Newsom, an associate editor at the Charlotte Observer, writes:

"Look, I know as well as anyone that not many people are going to pay a million dollars-plus for a house on a city street carrying 33,000 vehicles a day, and that if you're a developer building a luxury subdivision along [that road] you're going to want a wall. I'd want a wall, too, if it were my house."

"Where the wall is now, you formerly saw front lawns, flowerbeds, houses, windows, front walks and front doors -- the traditional American neighborhood design that says, "Welcome." The wall sends another message: "Keep out." "

But it has a more subliminal message, too...The hidden message, what you absorb unconsciously, is that public streets and public places -- the public realm -- are best shunned, that they aren't valuable enough for the public to demand that they offer any beauty, or even just cleanliness."