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Issue link: http://digital.hylandmagazine.com/i/117778
EDITORIAL F or most of America's history, affluent citizens resided, prominently situated, on main streets throughout the country, often in the age of horsepower, in close proximity to municipal centers and business for ease of access and to affirm their preeminence. Fences, hedges and sturdy walls might have delineated properties and eventually, with the advent of the automobile, affluent neighborhoods might have moved away from work centers, but only during the last generation have walled, gated, security obsessed communities emerged, often eschewing municipal services, that the affluent have flocked—or fled—to. In tandem with the demise of numerous sectors of the economy and the broad scope of lost leadership positions that resulted, this leadership retreat from the physical center of commerce and culture, whether located in traditional urban centers or in newer suburban centers, does not bode well for society. These gated communities are located beyond the suburbs of the post-World War II period, often in canyons, across rivers and beyond marshlands. Utopia means nowhere: they are nowhere. They are physically beyond. Residents are often or often become emotionally removed from society at large. The rigid, often unimaginative, formation of these gated communities, however luxurious, more often than not lack the massing and irregularity of structures conducive to community. However complex the boards and committees of these gated utopias, they drain our communities of a stratum within the diverse layers of community that, however arduous the events and conflicts of the past might have been, contributed to fostering diverse leadership. HYLAND