Are they trying to keep people out or in? I don't get gated communities with all their restrictive HOA rules. The only reasoning I can think of for them is that the richer a person gets the more paranoid of others they become. Am I missing something?

into a second or third world country. Go to Mexico sometime. All the rich folks live behind walls.

into a second or third world country. Go to Mexico sometime. All the rich folks live behind walls.

It's unfortunate. I'd like to see a poll that shows who these people are voting for for president.

Gay-ted communities for the Alan Keys's & such...

it's cartoon "History of the gun in America" pretty much nailed it. Fear=Consume Goods

into a second or third world country. Go to Mexico sometime. All the rich folks live behind walls.

Clearly a third world country exists within the borders of the US- that idea has been bandied about at least the last 20 years.

OF course, if you watch the evening news, your own city is a terrifying place.

What cracks me up are the gated golf communities out in the middle of nowhere-

into a second or third world country. Go to Mexico sometime. All the rich folks live behind walls.
Yeah...that's what I was thinking. When we vacationed in Jamaica they had guards stationed on the beach with machine guns. Everytime you wandered too far down the beach they warned you that they would no longer be there to protect you. Sure enough...about 3 minutes down the beach the old rastas come out of the woodwork hoping to sell you ganga or coke or whatever. Never did feel threatened by any of them, but then again I don't think I'd wander there after dark either. You have to use some common sense.

Rastas don't sell Coke. Dreads do, go up to the Maroon Country or Port Mariah True Rastas are quite righteous. Beware of Dreadlocked Ninjamen! Just Baldheads in disguise.

What cracks me up are the gated golf communities out in the middle of nowhere-
Exactly! One of our kids attends a nearby Montessori school in Boulder. Most of the parents who send their kids there are pretty well-to-do and he gets invited to parties at their houses regularly. Last weekend we drove him to a house outside of Boulder (Wagon Wheel Gap in the Lee Hill area for those that know the area). Once we left the main road we drove for about 10 minutes up the mountain through narrow twisting turning roads and then came to a gate where you needed to know the code or call for someone to open up. We drove through that for another 10-15 minutes passing 3-4 houses along the way and eventually came to their house where we had to call them to open yet another gate to let us into their property which was another few minutes down a long driveway. What I kept wondering was who in their right mind would bother going all that way up a mountain to hassle them?

Rastas don't sell Coke. Dreads do, go up to the Maroon Country or Port Mariah True Rastas are quite righteous. Beware of Dreadlocked Ninjamen! Just Baldheads in disguise.
Dunno...this was an old dude in dreads who seemed to come out of the jungle and made a smoking motion and a snorting motion and said "ganga, coke?" while plaintively looking at us and whether we could be persuaded to try his wares.

funny thing is most the Caucasian Gun Deaths in America occur in areas like this.

In defense of HOA rules, if not necessarily gates: People are selfish yahoos, one and all. What's one man's pleasure is another man's horror. The HOA rules are just that, rules, to set the "floor" below which no neighbor may go. No b!tchin' camaro on blocks in the grass, no homage to the state of texas made of rocks for landscaping, no pink houses, no weeds-fer-lawn. When you buy in, you agree to live within the standards as do your neighbors for the peace and harmony of all. Upside is it definitely preserves your home's value (as opposed to my previous non-HOA house where my neighbor left his curtis mathis console TV in his driveway for three years), in exchange for a loss of personal housing individuality.

In the olden days when we all went to the same church and whatnot, these rules were unnecessary because peer pressure could be brought to bear in other ways. These days, with a more transient population that stays plugged into the tube rather than on the front stoop talking to neighbors, there's a lot less of that peer pressure influence. Hence, your neighborhood weed nazis.

Oh, and be nice to those volunteer HOA board members and officers. In all likelihood they are unpaid volunteers with the most thankless job on the planet.

They sequester themselves with all these absurd rules then gnash their teeth at each other for breaking them.

After my mom died, my father remarried at age 75 and moved into my stepmother's house in a gated community. He didn't play golf and scorned most of the neighbors (very comfortable, mindlessly conservative Republicans, nearly all). The gate broke one day and they had a meeting to talk about assessing the owners to pay for a new one. It was a pretty substantial expense, and he gave a stirring talk about how it was wrong and elitist to isolate themselves from the problems of the community, they should show their concern by working to improve the world, not lock themselves away from it, etc. Then he went outside and somebody had come in through the broken gate and stolen his car.
The cool part was that he collected on the insurance and bought a new one, and about two months later the Calif. Highway Patrol called and said they'd recovered it. Somebody had turned it into a lowrider, complete with hydraulics, chain steering wheel and neon lights under the rocker panels. I was always disappointed he wouldn't drive it that way.

A buddy of mine lives in a very swank, very pretentious gated community that straddles the Boca Raton/Delray Beach city line. The people who live on the Boca side actually look down their noses at the Delray folks.

I guess those mindless conservatives had quite a laugh when dear old dad went to find his car. Hey people are entitled to live how they want. It wouldn't be my choice to buy into a community that tells me what I can and cannot do, but these people chose to live there in that manner. It didn't seem to bother dad that stepmom lived there. Is she a mindless conservative too?

It wouldn't be my choice to buy into a community that tells me what I can and cannot do, but these people chose to live there in that manner.WHy <i>buy</i> in when you can vote for politicians who will give it to you for free along with a tax-cut to sweeten the deal?

Are they trying to keep people out or in? I don't get gated communities with all their restrictive HOA rules. The only reasoning I can think of for them is that the richer a person gets the more paranoid of others they become. Am I missing something?

I hate them and my small neighborhood is surrounded by three gated communities. My best friend lives in one less than two blocks away. When we ride I make him meet me because the gate is such a pain in the @ss.

Nah, I'd rather get it the way Cory's dad did. Marry into it like John Kerry! LOL!!!

Anyone quoting the great high epopt Dobbs is alright by me.

Kerry was born rich. And I'm sure he can spot your type a mile away. LOL!!!!!!

Exactly! One of our kids attends a nearby Montessori school in Boulder. Most of the parents who send their kids there are pretty well-to-do and he gets invited to parties at their houses regularly. Last weekend we drove him to a house outside of Boulder (Wagon Wheel Gap in the Lee Hill area for those that know the area). Once we left the main road we drove for about 10 minutes up the mountain through narrow twisting turning roads and then came to a gate where you needed to know the code or call for someone to open up. We drove through that for another 10-15 minutes passing 3-4 houses along the way and eventually came to their house where we had to call them to open yet another gate to let us into their property which was another few minutes down a long driveway. What I kept wondering was who in their right mind would bother going all that way up a mountain to hassle them?

Unbelievable! When I was a kid in Boulder back in the 60's, the biggest problem we ever had was chasing the hippies out of our back lot whenever they came into town for a concert! Boulder used to be just about the safest town in the country.

IMHO, the whole phenomenon of gated communities is the height of selfishness. People would rather spend lots of money so they can stick their head in the sand than to deal with the problems that breed crime. I'd also bet that the people in these communities are about 90% republican....

Unbelievable! When I was a kid in Boulder back in the 60's, the biggest problem we ever had was chasing the hippies out of our back lot whenever they came into town for a concert! Boulder used to be just about the safest town in the country.

IMHO, the whole phenomenon of gated communities is the height of selfishness. People would rather spend lots of money so they can stick their head in the sand than to deal with the problems that breed crime. I'd also bet that the people in these communities are about 90% republican....


I wouldn't be one bit surprised that they were heavily republican- but eventually they'll be forced to return to the city or endure well over an hour's commute each way.

Locally, as we now have outer-outer-outer-outer ring suburbs, and the 7 county metro area became 9 counties became 11 counties became 13 counties, the inner and near inner city neighborhoods are becoming more and more regentrified- sometimes as neighborhoods, and other times as walled-off (maybe a moat) faux-vintage $500,000+ townhomes or refurbished warehouse lofts.

BTW- I'm not joking about these brick walls surrounding them...

I'm wondering who will buy some of the "abandoned" million to multimillion dollar free-standing homes NOT in gated communities that were built about 10 years ago. Anyone that can afford something like that can afford to buy new, and those houses don't have all that much character.

My type? What's my type Czar? And while you're at it, tell what your type is. Oh wait I seem to remember. You work in a bookstore and live in suburbia away from the unwashed masses of inner city Oakland.

Oh I didn't know Kerry was a Silver Spooner. Isn't that what Bush gets trashed for being? Kerry's family may have had money, but he married two wealthier women than he.

Unbelievable! When I was a kid in Boulder back in the 60's, the biggest problem we ever had was chasing the hippies out of our back lot whenever they came into town for a concert! Boulder used to be just about the safest town in the country.

IMHO, the whole phenomenon of gated communities is the height of selfishness. People would rather spend lots of money so they can stick their head in the sand than to deal with the problems that breed crime. I'd also bet that the people in these communities are about 90% republican....
Boulder proper is pretty safe. I live on the north side of town. I rarely lock my front door except when I go to bed at night and when I'm home I leave my garage door open. Sometimes with multiple bikes visible. Never had a problem with theft. Most of the gated communities seem to be outside of Boulder proper--the Niwot/gunbarrel area being one and the mountain communities being another. Maybe it's the California influence? Dunno. I suppose those out east of town are worried about all the illegals that moved here to work at the pack plants in Longmont. Wouldn't want the unwashed masses pissing on their golf courses or stealing from their massive castles that they built in their own honor.

I guess those mindless conservatives had quite a laugh when dear old dad went to find his car. Hey people are entitled to live how they want. It wouldn't be my choice to buy into a community that tells me what I can and cannot do, but these people chose to live there in that manner. It didn't seem to bother dad that stepmom lived there. Is she a mindless conservative too?


No kidding, she's absolutely wacko. One of the things they had to work out before they got married was Rush Limbaugh: She thought he was Christ incarnate, and my dad told her he couldn't stand the sound of the guy's voice, let alone his politics. She used to go next door and listen with a neighbor.
My dad died about a year ago, after eight years of marriage, and I stayed with them when he was in his last couple of days. One night she had a few drinks and told me, very conspiratorially, that "the only problem with California is that the liberals and Bill Clinton want to educate every (black person) and (child of Hispanic heritage) in the state."
"Ahh," I said, "would it be good to keep 30 or 40 percent of the population illiterate? Wouldn't it be better to educate them, so they can get jobs, pay taxes, contribute to society?'
"Well, you're talking like a LIBERAL," she said. Then she voted for Arnold, who immediately laid off a whole bunch of health care workers including the hospice nurses who had come in every day for a month to take care of my father, and somehow she blames the liberal for THAT, too.
You'd like her. She's your kind of old crazy person.
"

it's how the survive the 'cognitive dissonance' created by their own hypocracy. I mean was there anything in the last fewyears that made you want to puke harder then Nancy Regan at a stem cell research fundraiser?

Oh, and be nice to those volunteer HOA board members and officers. In all likelihood they are unpaid volunteers with the most thankless job on the planet.

As one of those board members of a home owners association, thanks for the comment. You bring up good points. My neighborhood isn't gated, but we do try to enforce a modicum of standards. Everyone who buys into the neighborhood makes a choice to abide by the rules.

Personally, my next home purchase will be downtown instead of in a development, but I see many good aspects to both. The gated communities do reduce solicitations. As for safety, I think it is a false sense of security because I still see electronic security systems on homes in gated communities. In fact, I tend to see them in greater proportion.

Hahahahaha!! Doggie, you live in an HOA comminity? You talk about liking and appreciating those rules, yet you constantly disregard any here. I find it rather ironic that you would subscribe to such an homologous and staid lifestyle considering your usual aberrant posts here. You are not the quixotic soul you would have us believe! :p Personally I tought you to be one of those b!tchin' camaro lawn parkers! LOL!!!