http://www.thepolisblog.org/2010/10/shifting-urban-development-towards.html
http://www.villageforum.com/
This article I stumbled across in the somewhat addicting Polis blog is about the logical but scary next step after gated communities. We discussed in class the idea of gated communities within gated communities but the VillageTown takes us straight to Stepford. I’m also including the website dedicated to making these village towns a reality, note the particular creepiness that is the section labled “You and Us”
“We call ourselves Stewards because we are here to serve. There is no developer. Instead the VillageTown Stewards and Company establishes an organizing company whose role is to enable and empower you. Our success will be measured on how well you do; on how many VillageTowns are built. The net profits of your VillageTown stay with it to provide for your long-term economic, social and cultural wellbeing.”
Technically, these are not gated communities or suburbs, supposedly they are an alternative built on “the natural process of human growth” but in reality they are really just the next step up. The VillageTown actually removes the need to interact with anyone outside the village town, not even the money escapes.
In addition to the sheer creepiness of it all the Polis article mentions worries about what will happen to the already existing built environment when everyone moves to their own little stepford communities as well as how diverse a community can be when the starting cost on a proposed house in these areas is $250,000. Unfortunately I think the VillageTown simply expands on the current ideas behind gated communities and exists only because of the growing paranoia as it is shown that the outside world can make it past the gate. The question is, will the outside world still be able to make it past 325 acres of greenbelt without a car?
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