Gated Communities Becoming More Popular

"In cities and suburbs from New York to Los Angeles, wealthy homeowners no longer are the only ones retreating behind gates. The desire to lock out the outside world cuts across all income groups, according to the first Census Bureau survey to measure how many Americans live in walled or gated communities. "It's spreading to the middle class," says Ed Blakely, co-author of Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States and the dean of the Milano Graduate School at New School University in New York. About 40% of new homes in California are behind walls, he says. Most subdivisions approved by Palm Beach County, Fla., in the past five years are gated."