Writer, journalist, and editor from Western Pennsylvania. Founded the journal Annals of Americus; published by The Atlantic, Esquire, Forbes, and Guernica, among others. Currently at work on No Place for Disgrace, a collection of nonfiction stories about the death and life of the American suburb.
“In an affluent neighborhood, the gate represents a way to reduce and/or deter crime — primarily burglary and the theft of valuables. It feeds into an upper middle class paranoia that faceless strangers want to take what you have earned. But what happens if this concept is embraced by distressed suburban communities as a way to minimize violence? The gate then represents a different, more dire mentality. It’s a genuine protective measure adopted as a reaction to the encroaching chaos. And short of arming the residents or forming a militia, how is a community like East Hills supposed to weather violence that’s become so common?
On the ‘fortress’ mentality of gated communities and survival in the fading American suburb.
Violence, Tragedy in the Cul-de-Sac On the ‘fortress’ mentality of gated communities and survival in the American suburbs. Last night shots were fired in a cul-de-sac in East Hills, a first-ring suburb outside of Pittsburgh. Though it’s an area that’s become known for violence and drug trafficking in recent years (see here), what transpired last night is still shocking. According to the Post-Gazette: A baby was killed and two women were wounded at a picnic in East Hills, when gunfire exploded Tuesday evening. The shooting happened around 7:30 p.m. off the 2300 block of East Hills Drive in the Second East Hills housing complex, where a group was picnicking in a cul-de-sac. Possibly three gunmen got out of a vehicle and began firing at the crowd of people, police spokeswoman Diane Richard said. City homicide detectives do not believe that the victims were the intended targets, she said. No arrests had been made late Tuesday night. The comments from Claudia Wells, however, a pastor at Grace and Truth Church, which holds services in the East Hills Community Center, speaks of a rehabilitated community still struggling with a legacy of violence: “Our community has come a long way out of the darkness. … It was a war zone.” [[MORE]] Wells’ other quote in this story, however, really struck me. It says the most about the magnitude of the problems facing East Hills and other suburbs gripped by violence, drug trafficking, and poverty — issues that were once considered strictly urban in nature: “We’re not going to tolerate this. If we have to gate this community, we will.” Her comments place the concept of a gated community in an all new context. In this case, Wells is suggesting that gates could be used to keep the violence out. Which may very well be a solution, though it’s unlikely East Hills has the neighborhood infrastructure (i.e., homeowner’s association, etc.) to institute or maintain such security measures. But there’s also an ominous undercurrent at play here, the notion of creating what’s sometimes referred to as a “suburban fortress.” In terms of a traditional gated community, a fortress mentality is adopted by developers as a way to protect high-value properties in affluent suburban neighborhoods. These communities are sometimes even referred to as guard-gated communities, because, much like in a war zone, they feature a security staff and a physical checkpoint. In an affluent neighborhood, the gate represents a way to reduce and/or deter crime — primarily burglary and the theft of valuables. It feeds into an upper middle class paranoia that faceless strangers want to take what you have earned. But what happens if this concept is embraced by distressed suburban communities as a way to minimize violence? The gate then represents a different, more dire mentality. It’s a genuine protective measure adopted as a reaction to the encroaching chaos. And short of arming the residents or forming a militia, how is a community like East Hills supposed to weather violence that’s become so common? In many ways too, a fortress can become a prison. In first-ring suburbs like East Hills, where violence, drug trafficking, and poverty have taken hold, the concept of the “suburban fortress” may be one glimpse at what the future holds. Most likely, it is not. Even though a gate is built to keep people out, it can’t just as easily be kicked down. (Photograph: Lexi Belculfine/Post-Gazette. Caption: Police at the scene of the shooting Tuesday on East Hills Drive.)

Violence, Tragedy in the Cul-de-Sac

On the ‘fortress’ mentality of gated communities and survival in the American suburbs.

Last night shots were fired in a cul-de-sac in East Hills, a first-ring suburb outside of Pittsburgh. Though it’s an area that’s become known for violence and drug trafficking in recent years (see here), what transpired last night is still shocking. According to the Post-Gazette:

A baby was killed and two women were wounded at a picnic in East Hills, when gunfire exploded Tuesday evening.

The shooting happened around 7:30 p.m. off the 2300 block of East Hills Drive in the Second East Hills housing complex, where a group was picnicking in a cul-de-sac.

Possibly three gunmen got out of a vehicle and began firing at the crowd of people, police spokeswoman Diane Richard said. City homicide detectives do not believe that the victims were the intended targets, she said. No arrests had been made late Tuesday night.

The comments from Claudia Wells, however, a pastor at Grace and Truth Church, which holds services in the East Hills Community Center, speaks of a rehabilitated community still struggling with a legacy of violence: “Our community has come a long way out of the darkness. … It was a war zone.”

Read More

“Murder is our national sport. We murder tens of thousands with our industrial killing machines in Afghanistan and Iraq. We murder thousands more from the skies over Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen with our pilotless drones. We murder each other with reckless abandon. And, as if we were not drenched in enough human blood, we murder prisoners—most of them poor people of color who have been locked up for more than a decade. The United States believes in regeneration through violence. We have carried out blood baths on foreign soil and on our own land for generations in the vain quest of a better world. And the worse it gets, the deeper our empire sinks under the weight of its own decay and depravity, the more we kill.
Chris Hedges (via azspot)

(via theamericanbear)