Comments on: The World’s Strangest Housing Communities

By: Fatu

Fatu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:12:15 +0000

in saopoulo Alphaville sign is very big and very good.

By: TGGP

TGGP — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:10:19 +0000

Hooray for walls and gated communities! Good fences make good neighbors.

By: Joanne McNeil

Joanne McNeil — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:06:16 +0000

You may be right, in which case you are lucky the world is paved with so many favorable offerings.

By: Peter St. Onge

Peter St. Onge — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:25:46 +0000

Nice post. I don’t quite get the disapproving tone at the end; Kitty Genovese? Hitler? Kind of non-sequits.

There is research that homogenous communities feature more political participation, more charity and more community involvement. Neglected moral calculus my butt.

So if homogeneity is not per se evil, I’d say that planned communities are wonderful; vive la difference. Now I’m just waiting for the gated communities themed on Star Trek or the court of Louis XIV…

By: Joanne McNeil

Joanne McNeil — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:52:17 +0000

Thanks Mallory for the kind words! That house sounds fascinating. I considered including religious communities, but the most famous ones (Waco, Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, etc) don’t last very long.

By: Mallory

Mallory — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:52:28 +0000

Great post — reminded me of a place down the road from where I grew up in Santa Fe. It’s not technically a “housing” community as it is just a single big white house, very incongruous with the rest of the city, but it is gated and something of a home to a community — it’s an “I AM” Sanctuary dating back to the 40s. Not many believers there now, most having relocated, but a strange, strange history and there is still some activity at the house I think (it’s all under the auspices of the St Germaine Foundation).
Also, I love this site!