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Project 5
SEGREGATION: NOW KNOWN AS HOA
By Charity A. Hicks
“The consequences of the new separateness and restriction
for public life are serious: contrary to what Jencks thinks (1993),
by making clear the extension of social inequalities and the lack of
commonalities, defensible architecture and planning may only promote
conflict instead of preventing it (Caldeira, 1999, p.104).”
Basically what Teresa P. R. Caldeira is saying in her article from
Theorizing the City: the New Urban Anthropology Reader is by
blocking off segments of neighborhoods where housing developments
are built is only providing more division, and therefore conflict
among communities. In attempting to minimize the influx of poverty
and crime in middle to upper class neighborhoods, builders are
giving limited access to a select few (those whom reside within),
while minimizing an exodus of those who do not qualify to enter
certain regions of their own city. Caldeira (1999) explains that the
above phenomena will only increase diversity and division, and also
increase the likelihood for dissension.
As one can clearly see, HOA dictates who can live in select
communities and who may not; what is even more distressing is that
HOA’s also govern the limited acceptable activities that occur
within their community. Hence, division is heightened between: those
who have and those who have not, cultural diversities and the public
display of such within one’s own yard, and poor minorities versus
wealthier majorities. Cultural diversities are displayed in many
ways within a residents own property boundaries. For example, some
individuals of Hispanic decent may do any one or more of the
following: cars parked in driveway and in the street, and they
may often have many visitors who park up and down the street along
the curb while congregating outside often making plenty of noise.
In the article by Blakely and Snyder (1997), an interesting
point came to the forefront. They argued that although minimizing
crime in HOA communities is one primary function of the
organization, most crime within a neighborhood is committed by
fellow residents. Separating those who have from those who have not
may also encourage crime to facilitate within protected and walled
communities. This is due to the resentment created within the minds
of those individuals who are excluded from participating in regions
of their own community due to pre-established social, racial, and
economic standards. Therefore HOA’s are obviously creating more harm
than not.
CITATION:
Caldeira, Teresa, P.R. (1999). Theorizing the City; the New
Anthropology
Reader. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. |