Guerillas watch over LAs gated communities
Regine Debatty, 27 Apr 05
In Los Angeles, Heavy Trash, a coalition of anonymous architects, designers and urban planners, have erected orange viewing platforms outside the gates of three upscale LA neighborhoods to protest what they see as a disturbing proliferation of gated communities.
"We feel that gated communities are becoming popular at a very alarming rate, and that 10 to 20 years from now, people will realize that the gates are an anathema to a democratic, open society, and that they instead make for a more fearful society," said a Heavy Trash member.
We in the Third World are familiar with gates where the few wealthy superich oligarchy lives surrounded by teeming masses of dirt poor living in slums.The superich, surrounded by maids and personal guards ,commute behind armored cars and live behind 10 foot high walls.
Living in fear. Surrounded by potential robbers and kidnappers. Being superich in the Third World is hard work. Luckily, there are those mansions in the Canada or New Zealand "just in case'.
Posted by: kroni on 27 Apr 05
I liked the old project they did (http://www.heavytrash.blogspot.com/2005/04/stair-to-park.html) more. They built a 700 pound stairway into a park, that the city had built fences around to keep out homeless people. Good concept, but it seems to me that the cities just going to end up spending more money to remove these things. I wish the site had some information about what happened to the installations. Haha, much more intelligent than that stupid (http://www.democracymeansyou.com/wehatefreedom/index.php) protest.
Posted by: Matthew Broudy on 27 Apr 05
anybody else get that "didn't i read about this in snow crash" feeling when they go by a gated "community" (with no community at all)?
i wish i had a copy of the death and life of great american cities with me so i could quote something relevant out of it.
Posted by: greg ehrendreich on 27 Apr 05
don't you get one of those "life is starting to look more like snow crash" feelings when you go by one of these proto-burbclaves?
when do we get the good parts, though...
i wish i had a copy of the death and life of great american cities so i could quote some extremely relevant passage.
Posted by: greg ehrendreich on 27 Apr 05
d'oh i double posted because the page didn't refresh and i didn't see it so i thought i'd screwed up. sorry.
Posted by: greg on 27 Apr 05
