In an opinion piece for Better! Cities & Towns, Robert Steuteville argues that the Sanford, Florida, case is partly about what happens to a gated development when residents find themselves on the same side of the gate as people they fear.
The recent killing of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by an armed neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida has become a nationwide news story over the past week. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense and has yet to be arrested, which has sparked outrage in cities across the country, and online.
Robert Steuteville sees a reason why he believes planners should be taking notice of the case - the role that "a poorly planned, exclusionary built environment" has played in causing the tragedy.
Steuteville describes the community in which the killing took place - the Retreat at Twin Lakes, a 260-unit gated development of townhouses - and points out the reasons why its auto-oriented layout and context makes pedestrians the object of "pity or suspicion."
For Steuteville, "Martin was killed for being a young black male on foot, foolish enough to walk in an inhospitable environment to the convenience store for a sugar fix...In all of this agitation, the physical environment that discriminates against, and focuses suspicion on, anyone who doesn't drive should not be forgotten."
Thanks to Robert Steuteville
Read the full story: Gates, sprawl, and 'walking while black'
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