What's the deal with all these gated communities?

[SHELLY]

My only concern is how we'll have pizza delivered in the evening if we ever order pizza to be delivered. (I think we'll figure that one out).

I don't think pizza delivery will be much of an issue because--as Joe put it--pizza delivery guys in SoWal will be as rare as rocking horse manure. With SoWal's cost of living, how...pray tell...is a guy who makes $8.00 and hour and will be spending north of $2.50 per gallon (yeah, I think gas is going up too) going to live in the hood--tips aren't THAT good in those gated communities. Even in the "lower-to-mid-upscale" communities pizza places are offering $$$ sign-on bonuses for drivers to no avail. So I reckon it won't be delivery, it will be DeGiornos from here on out.

(Then again, there's always the chance that Dr. Botox's teenage son can deliver pizza in dad's Porsche Carrera 911 after school to make some extra pocket change on the side. :roll: )

 

[Cil]

A challenge to the ideas of openness fostered by New Urbanism.

Yes.
New Urbanism is devoted to place-making, and small-town walkability, then there is this other vacationing mindset which wants to completely get away from the outside world: no traffic, no riff-raff.
Cars are an annoyance to both of these schools of thought.
I can really understand how someone would want to reduce traffic where they live, and would be interested in exploring ways to accomplish this.

 

[SHELLY]

Yes.
New Urbanism is devoted to place-making, and small-town walkability, then there is this other vacationing mindset which wants to completely get away from the outside world: no traffic, no riff-raff.
Cars are an annoyance to both of these schools of thought.
I can really understand how someone would want to reduce traffic where they live, and would be interested in exploring ways to accomplish this.

It already was accomplished--we called it "the early 1950's."

 

[Beach Runner]

I too hate the gates - but when I brought it up at a homeowners meeting once - I was told without the gate we had too many people going to the beach and parking in our area including peoples driveways and parking spaces.

That's exactly why our neighbors want to add a gate. There are too few public beach accesses. One of our neighbors is a contractor, so we always have our walkover back up less than a week after a hurricane. Then non-owners try to use our walkover because it's the only one around. The streets south of 30-A are so narrow that there's hardly enough room for the owners and their guests to park, much less outsiders. There's also a boatload of new developments north of 30-A with no beach accesses other than the few public ones. So they try to use the one we paid for. And additionally, what if a non-property owner trespasses on our private beach access, falls, and gets injured? Does that mean a lawsuit? The gates barring non-owners from using our privately-paid-for access prevents those hassles. Why should my neighbors and I spend about $10K each in the past year for a private access when the county hasn't provided enough public accesses, not to mention our additional boatload of tax dollars to pay for our share of the rebuilt public accesses?

 

[Miss Kitty]

BR...please just put a lock and key on that access and that way the outsiders will not mistake it as public.

 

[Rudyjohn]

BR, you don't keep a shotgun at this house too, do you?

 

[Mermaid]

Methinks Donna's excellent post deserves re-reading. Exerpt below:

"The sad thing about gated communities and "no trespassing" signs at the beach is that it flies in the face of the past spirit of the place. People always walked past your house or cut through your property on the way down to the beach. That was one way we made new friends or invited people to dinner when you bagged too many fish. You went to the beach to mix it up with people, not to get away from them."

 

[GVM]

'Be darned....I'm missing that 'spirit' thing. Lots of folks have walked through my property to get to the beach...but I've never been offered a "hello", "thank you" or "kiss my fanny"...much less any fresh fish.

 

[Beach Runner]

BR, you don't keep a shotgun at this house too, do you?

When I'm alone, I always have a gun with me - except on school property. That's illegal, even if it's in the trunk of my car. I'd be pretty vulnerable if my car broke on the way to the beach and I couldn't call for help. It's hard to get a cell signal in south Alabama.

Just like GVM's experience, I'm always courteous to the people who trespass in our beach neighborhood and say hello, but they never respond and rarely acknowledge my presence. They know they're trespassing and thus are trying to be invisible.

 

[SHELLY]

South Walton is changing...all this talk of "gates, trespassing, outsiders, riff-raff" and the need and desire for gated and locked communities blocking access to the beach reminds me of what happened in the earlier days of Destin--and we all know how well that turned out. It's like deja vu all over again.

P.S. Of course one way to get around all these locked gates and blocked beach entrances would be to stomp through the dunes.