WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 I want you to picture something, a specific feeling. 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:05.879 You're driving maybe through a city you don't 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:08.320 know that well, it's loud, traffic's a mess, 00:00:08.539 --> 00:00:11.259 you know, the usual chaos. And then you turn 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:14.380 a corner and it all just stops. The noise fades, 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:18.859 the road is suddenly perfect, the lawns are like 00:00:18.859 --> 00:00:21.940 surgically manicured, and right there stretching 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:25.800 across the road is a barrier. A boom gate. A 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:27.899 boom gate, maybe a little guard booth with a 00:00:27.899 --> 00:00:29.920 guy in a uniform who just kind of stares you 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:32.500 down. It's such an immediate visceral shift, 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:35.659 isn't it? Yeah. You know instantly you've crossed 00:00:35.659 --> 00:00:38.219 some kind of invisible line. Exactly. And that 00:00:38.219 --> 00:00:39.880 line, that barrier, that's what we are going 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:42.380 to obsess over today. We are doing a deep dive 00:00:42.380 --> 00:00:44.399 into the gated community. And I don't just mean, 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:47.000 you know, the Del Bercovista retirement village 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.649 from Seinfeld. Right. We are talking about a 00:00:49.649 --> 00:00:52.329 truly global phenomenon, one that is, I think, 00:00:52.350 --> 00:00:54.429 fundamentally reshaping how we live together, 00:00:54.590 --> 00:00:56.469 or maybe more accurately, how we are choosing 00:00:56.469 --> 00:00:59.070 to live apart. It really is a fundamental shift 00:00:59.070 --> 00:01:01.630 in, well, in the social contract. I mean, for 00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:04.269 centuries, the idea was the open city. The streets 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:06.109 were public space. They belonged to everyone. 00:01:06.370 --> 00:01:10.689 Yeah. But this, this is the enclave model where 00:01:10.689 --> 00:01:12.989 the street itself becomes a private product, 00:01:13.090 --> 00:01:14.950 something you buy. And that's really the core 00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:17.370 question we need to get at today, isn't it? Is 00:01:17.370 --> 00:01:19.930 this product actually worth the price? Is that 00:01:19.930 --> 00:01:22.829 gate a sanctuary that keeps all the chaos out? 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:26.650 Or is it more of a fortress that just locks the 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:29.290 anxiety in? Well, looking at the research we've 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:33.049 pulled together, the answer is it's incredibly 00:01:33.049 --> 00:01:35.569 complicated. Complicated is putting it mildly, 00:01:35.569 --> 00:01:37.069 I think. Yeah. I mean, we're going to see that 00:01:37.069 --> 00:01:39.689 in some places, these gates are purely status 00:01:39.689 --> 00:01:42.370 symbols. In others, they're straight up survival 00:01:42.370 --> 00:01:44.939 mechanisms. And in some really surprising data 00:01:44.939 --> 00:01:46.719 sets we're going to get to later, they might 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:49.280 actually be traps. OK, before we go down that 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:50.540 rabbit hole, and I definitely want to talk about 00:01:50.540 --> 00:01:52.840 the trap aspect, we need to be precise because 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:54.859 I feel like I use the term gated community for 00:01:54.859 --> 00:01:58.000 like any apartment building with a fence. Right. 00:01:58.099 --> 00:02:00.060 And that's a common thing. But the source material 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:02.840 is pretty strict here. So what officially counts? 00:02:03.099 --> 00:02:06.400 So to be really accurate, we aren't just talking 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:08.800 about a building with a locked front door, a 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.669 true gated community. or a walled community, 00:02:11.949 --> 00:02:14.810 as it's sometimes called, has to meet a few specific 00:02:14.810 --> 00:02:17.750 criteria. First, obviously, it's a residential 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:20.889 area. Second, it has to have strictly controlled 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:24.189 entrances. And that's for everyone. Pedestrians, 00:02:24.210 --> 00:02:27.490 bicycles, and especially automobiles. So no cutting 00:02:27.490 --> 00:02:29.590 through the neighborhood to avoid that traffic 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:32.250 light. Absolutely not. And that's the third and 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:35.389 probably most critical feature, the closed perimeter. 00:02:35.849 --> 00:02:37.969 We're talking about actual walls or fences that 00:02:37.969 --> 00:02:40.849 completely encircle the development. And crucially, 00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:43.650 the streets inside are almost always private 00:02:43.650 --> 00:02:45.990 property. Ah, so they aren't maintained by the 00:02:45.990 --> 00:02:47.770 city. No, they're maintained by the residents 00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:50.229 through their fees. The homeowners association, 00:02:50.610 --> 00:02:53.729 the HOA, owns the asphalt. Which brings us to 00:02:53.729 --> 00:02:56.189 the anatomy of these places, because once you 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:58.189 get past that guard, once you're inside the wall, 00:02:58.349 --> 00:02:59.969 it's not just a bunch of houses, right? It's 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:01.830 a whole ecosystem. Well, that really depends 00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:03.900 on how much you're paying. And this is where 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:06.479 the anatomy of an enclave gets really fascinating. 00:03:06.819 --> 00:03:09.120 If you're in a smaller, maybe a lower fee community, 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:11.939 the big amenity might just be a patch of grass 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:13.800 they call a park. And, you know, that feeling 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:16.699 of exclusivity. Just the gate itself is the amenity. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:20.520 Pretty much. Yeah. But when you scale up, it 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.639 becomes civilization in miniature. It's a bubble. 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:26.099 I was looking at the list of amenities and some 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:28.639 of these high end developments and it reads like 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.379 a billionaire's fever dream. I mean, swimming 00:03:31.379 --> 00:03:34.500 pools and tennis courts. OK, sure. But bowling 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:37.280 alleys, bowling alleys, marinas for your yacht. 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:40.879 Full -service spas. I've seen architectural plans 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:43.360 that include on -site fine dining restaurants 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.879 that are exclusively for residents. You can't 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:47.379 even get a reservation unless you live there. 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:50.199 Wow. And the newest trend is co -working spaces. 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:52.819 That makes so much sense. If you're working from 00:03:52.819 --> 00:03:54.979 home now, why would you ever need to leave the 00:03:54.979 --> 00:03:57.259 fortress? That's the entire sales pitch. Self 00:03:57.259 --> 00:04:00.219 -sufficiency. Now, there is a little nuance here. 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:02.840 If you live in a high -rise condominium, a sort 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:05.080 of vertical gated community, you'll almost always 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:07.300 have a cool and a gym. Because you can't build 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:10.060 one in your apartment. Exactly. But in those 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:13.259 huge, sprawling, single -family home communities, 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:16.480 you might not see a communal pool. Because the 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:18.019 assumption is that if you can afford a house 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.420 there, you can afford to build your own backyard 00:04:20.420 --> 00:04:23.040 oasis. So what are the common amenities there? 00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:25.740 It's more about social signaling, the massive 00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:29.060 clubhouse, the golf course, the things that say 00:04:29.060 --> 00:04:32.339 community but are really about status. Okay, 00:04:32.379 --> 00:04:34.889 so we've got the what. But I really want to understand 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:37.410 the why. Why do we build these things? I have 00:04:37.410 --> 00:04:39.189 to assume it's not just because we all secretly 00:04:39.189 --> 00:04:41.889 love to bowl in private. No, it's much deeper 00:04:41.889 --> 00:04:45.089 than that. The economic models, they really break 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:47.149 down into four main categories. And this helps 00:04:47.149 --> 00:04:48.930 us understand the motivation behind the wall. 00:04:49.149 --> 00:04:51.829 First, you've got lifestyle. Think of those huge 00:04:51.829 --> 00:04:54.509 retirement communities in Florida or Arizona. 00:04:55.189 --> 00:04:58.149 Or golf resorts. You're not just buying a house. 00:04:58.250 --> 00:05:01.050 You're buying a prepackaged bundle of activities 00:05:01.050 --> 00:05:03.290 and like -minded neighbors. Right. You're paying 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:06.149 a premium to be around other people who also 00:05:06.149 --> 00:05:08.410 want to play bridge at 2 in the afternoon. Exactly. 00:05:08.629 --> 00:05:12.350 The second model is prestige. This is where the 00:05:12.350 --> 00:05:15.149 gate is basically a velvet rope at a nightclub. 00:05:15.629 --> 00:05:18.370 It isn't really about safety. It's about signaling. 00:05:18.430 --> 00:05:21.009 It's about saying, I've arrived and you, well, 00:05:21.149 --> 00:05:23.500 you have not. The real estate agent isn't selling 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:25.680 a home. They're selling an ego boost with a two 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:28.800 -car garage. Precisely. The third, and this is 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:31.040 the one most people think of, is physical security. 00:05:31.339 --> 00:05:34.199 This is the fear -based model. The gate, the 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:37.279 guards, the camera, it's all explicitly there 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:41.240 to control traffic and theoretically stop crime. 00:05:41.459 --> 00:05:43.379 We'll put a pin in, theoretically. It's a very 00:05:43.379 --> 00:05:45.939 big pin. And finally, you have purpose -designed 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:48.279 communities. These are often built for expatriate 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:50.860 workers. The most famous examples are the oil 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:53.060 industry compounds in the Middle East. They're 00:05:53.060 --> 00:05:55.259 designed to create a little home away from home 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:58.000 bubble for foreigners. There's a distinction 00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:59.879 in the notes here that really, really caught 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:02.000 my eye. And that's the difference between a gated 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.560 community and a closed city. Because honestly, 00:06:04.699 --> 00:06:06.319 to me, they sound like the same thing, a place 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:09.319 I can't get into. They sound similar, but legally 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:12.779 and economically, they are worlds apart. A closed 00:06:12.779 --> 00:06:15.470 city. Think of those secret nuclear research 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:18.470 towns in the old Soviet Union, or maybe a large 00:06:18.470 --> 00:06:21.149 military base. That's public exclusion. Public 00:06:21.149 --> 00:06:23.329 exclusion. Yeah, the guard at that gate is a 00:06:23.329 --> 00:06:25.750 government employee. They're paid by tax dollars. 00:06:25.910 --> 00:06:28.930 The exclusion is a state function. Okay, got 00:06:28.930 --> 00:06:32.350 it. A gated community is private exclusion. The 00:06:32.350 --> 00:06:34.930 guard is a private security employee, paid by 00:06:34.930 --> 00:06:37.689 the residents' fees. The roads are private property. 00:06:38.280 --> 00:06:41.839 And this has some really weird real -world consequences, 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:45.339 especially for, like, public infrastructure. 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:47.639 You're talking about the bus stop issue. I am. 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:50.399 It's such a perfect illustration. In a normal 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:52.879 city, a bus route can evolve to serve the population. 00:06:53.420 --> 00:06:56.379 But a public bus cannot legally enter a private 00:06:56.379 --> 00:06:59.000 gated community without an easement. A formal 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:00.800 legal right -of -way. Which the residents would 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.839 never grant. They rarely do. They don't want 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:04.699 the noise. They don't want the fumes. And frankly, 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:06.259 they don't want the type of people who ride the 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:08.199 bus coming into their enclave. So the bus just 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:10.220 stops right outside the main gate. Right across 00:07:10.220 --> 00:07:12.660 the street from the guardhouse. And it creates 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:16.040 this incredibly stark visual every morning. You 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:18.079 have the domestic workers, the gardeners, the 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:20.339 nannies, the construction crews. They all get 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:22.540 dropped off on the public road and have to walk 00:07:22.540 --> 00:07:25.019 through the checkpoint on foot. While the residents 00:07:25.019 --> 00:07:28.839 glide past in their luxury cars. It's a daily 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:32.879 ritual of separation. And it also, funnily enough, 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:35.759 messes with their utility bills, which I found 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:37.920 kind of hilarious. You'd think these affluent 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:40.279 communities would have all this leverage, but 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:42.879 they often get fleeced. How does that work? It's 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:44.779 all about bargaining power and legal status. 00:07:45.620 --> 00:07:48.399 Because the community is a private entity, Like 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:51.079 a corporation, they often can't rely on the same 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:53.120 government regulations that protect individual 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:55.379 public residential zones from price hikes. They're 00:07:55.379 --> 00:07:57.920 treated like a business. More or less. They lack 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.120 the legal quorum or the standing to negotiate 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.160 those legally fixed public tariffs. So the utility 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.500 company can charge them a higher commercial rate. 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:08.399 So you pay a premium for the house, you pay a 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:11.519 premium for the HOA fees to maintain the gate, 00:08:11.699 --> 00:08:13.680 and then you pay a premium for the electricity 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:15.639 to actually run the gate that keeps everyone 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:18.100 else out. It's the hidden cost of admission for 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:20.819 that sweet, sweet seclusion. All right, let's 00:08:20.819 --> 00:08:23.860 pack our bags. We have defined the beast. Now 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:26.100 it's time to see where it lives. We are kicking 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:29.639 off our global tour. And I think most people, 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:32.279 myself included, assume this whole story starts 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:35.659 in the suburbs of America. It's the origin story, 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:38.860 for sure. At least for the modern version. Though, 00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:40.659 you know, the very earliest gated communities 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:43.419 in the U .S. actually go back to the 1850s. Really? 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:45.600 Yeah. A place called Llewellyn Park in New Jersey 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.500 is often cited as the first. But those were like 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:52.659 country estates for the robber barons, the ultra 00:08:52.659 --> 00:08:54.980 wealthy industrialists. Not for the average person. 00:08:55.179 --> 00:08:58.360 No. The explosion, the real democratization of 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:00.159 the gate. That's a 20th century story. It's a 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.700 post -war story. And specifically the Sun Belt 00:09:02.700 --> 00:09:06.669 boom. Exactly. Florida, Arizona. Southern California, 00:09:06.730 --> 00:09:09.750 Texas, it's really just a function of land availability. 00:09:10.429 --> 00:09:13.129 It's incredibly hard to gate off a pre -existing 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:16.470 grid of streets in Manhattan or Boston. The city's 00:09:16.470 --> 00:09:18.950 already there. Right. But if you're a developer 00:09:18.950 --> 00:09:22.210 and you've just bought a thousand acres of empty 00:09:22.210 --> 00:09:25.110 desert or swampland, you can throw a wall around 00:09:25.110 --> 00:09:26.830 the whole thing before you even pour the first 00:09:26.830 --> 00:09:29.289 foundation. It's built into the design from day 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:31.509 one. There's a massive number here in the source. 00:09:31.710 --> 00:09:35.730 By 2009, over 11 million households in the US 00:09:35.730 --> 00:09:38.169 were living in gated communities. That is not 00:09:38.169 --> 00:09:40.549 a niche market. That's a significant slice of 00:09:40.549 --> 00:09:42.980 the population. It's huge. But we need to bust 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:45.679 a myth here. We have this image that these are 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:48.720 all bastions of affluence, all mansions. The 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:51.100 lifestyles of the rich and famous idea. It's 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:53.259 just not true. And this is a really crucial point. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.799 Ed Blakely, who is basically the godfather of 00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:58.220 academic research on this topic, he makes a key 00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:00.360 distinction. He separates them into prestige 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.659 communities and security zones. Okay, what's 00:10:02.659 --> 00:10:05.019 the difference? Prestige communities are the 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:07.279 ones you're thinking of. The country club set. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:10.000 But security zones are often much more modest. 00:10:10.490 --> 00:10:12.870 The research shows that gated communities actually 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.429 contain a huge mix of socioeconomic classes. 00:10:15.789 --> 00:10:17.850 There are plenty of middle class, even lower 00:10:17.850 --> 00:10:19.990 middle class gated developments with townhouses 00:10:19.990 --> 00:10:22.889 or apartments. So it's not always about wealth 00:10:22.889 --> 00:10:25.370 preservation. Sometimes it's just about the appearance 00:10:25.370 --> 00:10:27.830 of security for anyone who can scrape together 00:10:27.830 --> 00:10:31.309 the monthly HOA fees. That's it. Exactly. It's 00:10:31.309 --> 00:10:33.610 a product sold to the middle class as anxieties. 00:10:33.750 --> 00:10:36.289 And this, of course, leads us directly into the 00:10:36.289 --> 00:10:38.070 really difficult conversation about segregation. 00:10:38.289 --> 00:10:41.559 Yeah. The main critique is that these communities 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:44.519 balkanize society. They break us up into these 00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:46.980 little homogenous tribes based on income. But 00:10:46.980 --> 00:10:49.139 you found a study that challenges that or at 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:51.700 least nuances it a bit. Well, it has a layer 00:10:51.700 --> 00:10:54.179 of complexity. It was a 2015 study in the journal 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:56.879 Rubin Studies, and it argued that while gated 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:59.259 communities absolutely entrenched social segregation. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.759 that is, class separation, they didn't necessarily 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:05.120 worsen racial segregation in the U .S. Okay, 00:11:05.139 --> 00:11:07.419 my brain just did a little flip. Why? How is 00:11:07.419 --> 00:11:09.759 that possible? Sadly, it's because the neighborhoods 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:12.820 were already so segregated to begin with. The 00:11:12.820 --> 00:11:14.899 demographic patterns of the surrounding streets 00:11:14.899 --> 00:11:17.860 were already racially distinct due to decades 00:11:17.860 --> 00:11:20.379 of other policies and practices. So the wall 00:11:20.379 --> 00:11:23.159 just physically solidified a boundary that society 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:25.179 had already drawn. That's a perfect way to put 00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:27.259 it. The wall didn't create the racial divide. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.580 It just poured concrete over it. That is almost 00:11:30.580 --> 00:11:34.860 more depressing. Okay, let's move south. Because 00:11:34.860 --> 00:11:37.740 if the U .S. story is about lifestyle and anxiety, 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.419 the story in Latin America seems to be about 00:11:40.419 --> 00:11:44.080 something much, much more raw. Inequality. That 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:46.179 is the one -word answer. That is the engine driving 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:48.299 the boom down there. When you look at a country 00:11:48.299 --> 00:11:50.539 like Mexico, for example, the income gap is just 00:11:50.539 --> 00:11:53.220 staggering. You have the global, ultra -rich 00:11:53.220 --> 00:11:55.899 living, sometimes literally shoulder -to -shoulder 00:11:55.899 --> 00:11:58.789 with extreme grinding poverty. And when the state 00:11:58.789 --> 00:12:01.269 can't or won't guarantee your personal safety, 00:12:01.509 --> 00:12:03.870 the market steps in and sells it to you. And 00:12:03.870 --> 00:12:05.909 we see that on a scale that is hard to comprehend 00:12:05.909 --> 00:12:08.149 in a place called Interlomas, which is in the 00:12:08.149 --> 00:12:10.309 greater Mexico City area. It's considered the 00:12:10.309 --> 00:12:12.429 largest concentration of gated communities in 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:14.809 the entire world. How big are we talking? About 00:12:14.809 --> 00:12:17.690 140 square kilometers. Yeah. It's not a neighborhood. 00:12:17.789 --> 00:12:20.870 It's a privatized city -state. So they must have 00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.240 their own everything? They do. The large developments 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.440 have their own schools, their own private water 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:27.740 treatment plants, their own power grids, their 00:12:27.740 --> 00:12:30.740 own private fire departments and ambulance services. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:34.779 They have completely and utterly opted out of 00:12:34.779 --> 00:12:37.259 the public infrastructure of Mexico. But what 00:12:37.259 --> 00:12:39.620 I found so fascinating about the situation in 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:41.960 Mexico is that it's not just the super rich doing 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:44.840 this. You mentioned these legal gray areas. Yeah, 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:47.480 this is the rogue gating phenomenon. It's incredible. 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:49.519 In many working class or middle class neighborhoods, 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:51.960 the residents feel completely abandoned by the 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:54.379 police. So they just they take over the public 00:12:54.379 --> 00:12:56.139 street. They just do it themselves. They just 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:58.379 do it. They'll illegally erect steel barriers, 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:01.740 put up chains with a padlock and maybe hire a 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:04.419 local guy to sit on a plastic chair all night 00:13:04.419 --> 00:13:06.340 and watch the entrance. And the city government 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:09.149 just lets them. The city government largely tolerates 00:13:09.149 --> 00:13:11.230 it. They know the police force is stretched too 00:13:11.230 --> 00:13:14.350 thin and often too corrupt to provide real security. 00:13:14.649 --> 00:13:16.850 Yeah. So they essentially allow the residents 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:19.950 to privatize and secure their own block, even 00:13:19.950 --> 00:13:21.909 if it completely violates urban planning laws. 00:13:22.129 --> 00:13:24.049 That feels like a total breakdown of the social 00:13:24.049 --> 00:13:26.269 contract. The government is basically saying, 00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:28.250 we can't protect you, so good luck, do whatever 00:13:28.250 --> 00:13:30.870 you want. It's urbanism as a survival strategy. 00:13:31.529 --> 00:13:34.110 And we see a much more formalized version of 00:13:34.110 --> 00:13:37.070 this in Brazil with the condominium fechado. 00:13:37.190 --> 00:13:39.929 The closed condominium. Right. This really took 00:13:39.929 --> 00:13:42.830 off during the military dictatorship in the 1970s. 00:13:42.830 --> 00:13:46.309 You had this perfect storm of factors. A massive 00:13:46.309 --> 00:13:49.490 rural exodus into the cities was causing overcrowding 00:13:49.490 --> 00:13:51.610 and strain on services. Crime rates were spiking. 00:13:51.710 --> 00:13:54.870 Crime rates were spiking. And you had a new booning 00:13:54.870 --> 00:13:57.090 car culture among the middle and upper classes. 00:13:57.230 --> 00:13:58.870 So the wealthy did what the wealthy often do. 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:01.779 They fled. They left the chaotic city centers 00:14:01.779 --> 00:14:04.419 for these new, secure, master -planned suburbs. 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:07.620 And the archetype for this is Alphaville, right? 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:10.779 Yes, just outside Sao Paulo. The name itself, 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.620 Alphaville, I mean, it sounds like something 00:14:13.620 --> 00:14:16.240 out of a dystopian novel. It sounds like a place 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:18.639 where they clone people and everyone wears white 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.679 jumpsuits. It's not far off in spirit. It was 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:25.500 marketed as a perfect city, high walls, electrified 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:28.600 fences, private security patrols, absolute control. 00:14:29.019 --> 00:14:32.320 It became the template, the ultimate status symbol 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:35.500 for the upper class in Brazil. It says, I have 00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:38.340 successfully escaped the chaos of Brazil. And 00:14:38.340 --> 00:14:40.220 in Argentina, they have a different name for 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:42.279 them. They call them countries. Yeah, which is 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:45.139 short for country clubs. But again, the social 00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:47.870 dynamic there is really intense. Living in a 00:14:47.870 --> 00:14:51.009 country is an undeniable sign of wealth. But 00:14:51.009 --> 00:14:53.210 for a lot of the rest of society, it's seen as 00:14:53.210 --> 00:14:55.690 incredibly snobbish. There's a real stigma attached 00:14:55.690 --> 00:14:57.970 to the nouveau riches who are seen as hiding 00:14:57.970 --> 00:15:00.730 from the real Argentina behind their walls. There's 00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:02.549 a term the sociologists use here that I found 00:15:02.549 --> 00:15:05.070 really powerful. They call them violent environments. 00:15:05.250 --> 00:15:06.950 Can you explain that? Because usually we think 00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:08.850 of the slum as the violent environment and the 00:15:08.850 --> 00:15:11.269 gated community as the peaceful one. That's the 00:15:11.269 --> 00:15:14.259 paradox. The sociologist isn't talking about 00:15:14.259 --> 00:15:16.580 physical violence, you know, gunshots inside 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:18.139 the gate. They're talking about the violence 00:15:18.139 --> 00:15:20.279 of the architecture itself. The architecture 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:23.879 is violent. Yes. When you build a massive 10 00:15:23.879 --> 00:15:26.919 -foot concrete wall topped with razor wire that 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:29.440 cuts right through the urban fabric, when you 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:32.580 create a hard physical border that implicitly 00:15:32.580 --> 00:15:36.220 says you on the outside are a threat, you are 00:15:36.220 --> 00:15:39.480 not worthy to enter here. That is a form of social 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:42.419 violence. It enacts a brutal separation between 00:15:42.419 --> 00:15:44.879 the elite and the periphery. It's an aggressive 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.639 act of urban planning. It is. It's an architectural 00:15:47.639 --> 00:15:49.960 declaration of distrust. And we see that playing 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:52.539 out across the region from Nordelta in Argentina, 00:15:52.779 --> 00:15:54.980 which is so big it has its own hospitals, to 00:15:54.980 --> 00:15:57.580 new developments in Uruguay, where remote work 00:15:57.580 --> 00:15:59.220 is now making them more accessible to the middle 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:01.340 class. Before we jump across the ocean, we have 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:05.600 to talk about the great outlier. Canada. Ah, 00:16:05.779 --> 00:16:08.990 Canada. Why are you so different? Canada is so 00:16:08.990 --> 00:16:11.730 fascinating in this context because hard gating, 00:16:11.750 --> 00:16:15.110 the actual locked gates across roads, is extremely 00:16:15.110 --> 00:16:17.590 rare, almost nonexistent in major cities. Is 00:16:17.590 --> 00:16:19.690 that just a cultural thing? Like it's too impolite? 00:16:19.789 --> 00:16:22.490 That's part of it, for sure. But it's also largely 00:16:22.490 --> 00:16:25.789 a legal and logistical issue. Municipal planning 00:16:25.789 --> 00:16:28.769 laws in places like Toronto and Vancouver often 00:16:28.769 --> 00:16:31.909 outright ban locked gates on public access roads 00:16:31.909 --> 00:16:35.450 because of emergency vehicle access. Right. Fire 00:16:35.450 --> 00:16:37.309 trucks and ambulances need to be able to get 00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:39.750 through without waiting for a code. So public 00:16:39.750 --> 00:16:42.149 safety regulations actually prevent the security 00:16:42.149 --> 00:16:45.850 measure. Instead, what you see in Canada is implicit 00:16:45.850 --> 00:16:48.929 gating. Passive -aggressive gating. That is the 00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:51.250 perfect term for it. Essentially, yes. Think 00:16:51.250 --> 00:16:53.250 of the town of Mount Royal in Montreal. It's 00:16:53.250 --> 00:16:55.690 a very affluent area. And it's separated from 00:16:55.690 --> 00:16:58.169 the much more working -class park extension neighborhood 00:16:58.169 --> 00:17:02.129 by a long decorative fence along a major boulevard. 00:17:02.330 --> 00:17:04.750 But it's not locked. No lock. No guard. You can 00:17:04.750 --> 00:17:06.910 just walk around it. But it creates a powerful 00:17:06.910 --> 00:17:09.990 psychological barrier. It subtly signals this 00:17:09.990 --> 00:17:11.789 is a different kind of place. You don't really 00:17:11.789 --> 00:17:14.190 belong here without physically stopping you. 00:17:14.289 --> 00:17:16.349 Which is almost more effective in a way. It relies 00:17:16.349 --> 00:17:19.089 on people internalizing the rule and policing 00:17:19.089 --> 00:17:21.589 themselves. It's exclusion with a polite Canadian 00:17:21.589 --> 00:17:24.650 accent. OK, let's go to part two of our tour. 00:17:24.809 --> 00:17:27.890 We're heading to Asia, Africa and Europe. And 00:17:27.890 --> 00:17:30.430 we have to start this leg in Kakistan because 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:32.710 the scale of what's happening there just it just 00:17:32.710 --> 00:17:35.230 blew my mind. We have to talk about Bariatown. 00:17:35.890 --> 00:17:38.109 If you think the American Sunbelt developments 00:17:38.109 --> 00:17:41.890 are big, Bariatown is a behemoth. It's not just 00:17:41.890 --> 00:17:45.069 one place. It's a series of massive, privately 00:17:45.069 --> 00:17:48.410 owned cities. The developer is the largest private 00:17:48.410 --> 00:17:50.950 real estate entity in all of Asia. What are we 00:17:50.950 --> 00:17:53.450 talking, asset -wise? The last valuation I saw 00:17:53.450 --> 00:17:56.630 put their assets at around $30 billion, with 00:17:56.630 --> 00:17:59.069 a B. That's the GDP of a small country. And it 00:17:59.069 --> 00:18:01.069 operates like one. It's a state within a state. 00:18:01.670 --> 00:18:03.769 Inside Bariatown, they are currently building 00:18:03.769 --> 00:18:06.869 the largest cricket stadium in Pakistan. They've 00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:09.089 already built the Grand Jamia Mosque, which is 00:18:09.089 --> 00:18:11.269 the third largest mosque in the entire world. 00:18:11.430 --> 00:18:13.450 But the real luxury there, the real selling point, 00:18:13.589 --> 00:18:15.410 it isn't the cricket stadium, is it? It's the 00:18:15.410 --> 00:18:17.490 infrastructure. That's the ultimate status symbol. 00:18:18.009 --> 00:18:20.809 Pakistan is a country struggles with severe chronic 00:18:20.809 --> 00:18:24.349 energy shortages. Load shedding, rolling blackouts 00:18:24.349 --> 00:18:26.869 are a part of daily life for millions. Bariya 00:18:26.869 --> 00:18:29.450 Town has its own power generation plants, its 00:18:29.450 --> 00:18:32.269 own private electrical grid. When the rest of 00:18:32.269 --> 00:18:35.349 Lahore, Karachi goes dark, Bariya Town stays 00:18:35.349 --> 00:18:38.190 lit. That is such a powerful, almost medieval 00:18:38.190 --> 00:18:41.089 image. The castle staying lit while the countryside 00:18:41.089 --> 00:18:43.509 is in darkness. It's not just security from crime. 00:18:43.569 --> 00:18:46.170 It's immunity from state failure. It is a completely 00:18:46.170 --> 00:18:49.529 customized reality. Yeah. And we see a different 00:18:49.529 --> 00:18:52.710 but equally powerful kind of customized reality 00:18:52.710 --> 00:18:54.869 in China. The tale of two Chinas, basically. 00:18:54.890 --> 00:18:58.450 Exactly. On one extreme, you have the ultra luxury 00:18:58.450 --> 00:19:01.470 compounds for the new elite. Places like Clifford 00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:04.579 Estates in Guangzhou. We're talking 247 guards, 00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:07.920 but also facial recognition systems just to get 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:10.319 in your own driveway. Very high tech, very exclusive. 00:19:10.579 --> 00:19:12.579 And on the other extreme. On the other end, you 00:19:12.579 --> 00:19:14.740 have something much darker. You have the sealed 00:19:14.740 --> 00:19:17.759 villages specifically for migrant workers. In 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:20.480 places like Beijing's Daxing District, the government 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:23.019 itself has built walls and gates around entire 00:19:23.019 --> 00:19:25.660 neighborhoods that house the rural migrants who 00:19:25.660 --> 00:19:27.859 come to the city for work. Wait, so this isn't 00:19:27.859 --> 00:19:29.559 rich people walling themselves in. This is the 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:32.359 government actively walling poor people in. That's 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:35.319 precisely what it is. The official party line, 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:37.819 the rationale they give, is crime reduction. 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:40.599 They put out statistics saying it drops crime 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:43.859 rates by 73 percent. But critics have a different 00:19:43.859 --> 00:19:47.019 take. Of course. Critics argue it has very little 00:19:47.019 --> 00:19:49.259 to do with crime and everything to do with social 00:19:49.259 --> 00:19:52.420 control. It's about tracking a transient population, 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:55.680 segregating them from the real citizens, and 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:57.500 making sure they can be monitored and managed. 00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:00.819 That is a chilling inversion of the entire concept. 00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:03.259 The gate stops being a symbol of freedom from 00:20:03.259 --> 00:20:05.480 the outside world and becomes a tool of containment. 00:20:05.819 --> 00:20:08.240 It completely blurs the line between a community 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:11.670 and a camp. Let's shift to the Middle East. Saudi 00:20:11.670 --> 00:20:14.069 Arabia has a long history of this, largely because 00:20:14.069 --> 00:20:16.369 of the oil industry, right? Yes. The Western 00:20:16.369 --> 00:20:19.150 compound is a staple of life there for expatriates. 00:20:19.289 --> 00:20:21.690 Originally back in the 70s and 80s, it was really 00:20:21.690 --> 00:20:24.450 just about providing a cultural bubble, a place 00:20:24.450 --> 00:20:27.130 where an American or British oil engineer's family 00:20:27.130 --> 00:20:30.369 could live by familiar Western norms. Where they 00:20:30.369 --> 00:20:32.309 could have a swimming pool, women could drive 00:20:32.309 --> 00:20:34.470 inside the walls, that sort of thing. Exactly. 00:20:34.470 --> 00:20:37.690 But then history happened. The late 90s and early 00:20:37.690 --> 00:20:41.509 2000s. A wave of targeted terrorist attacks against 00:20:41.509 --> 00:20:44.349 Westerners in the kingdom completely changed 00:20:44.349 --> 00:20:47.529 the nature of these places. The gates went from 00:20:47.529 --> 00:20:50.690 being decorative entryways to full -blown military 00:20:50.690 --> 00:20:52.970 fortifications. What did that look like? We're 00:20:52.970 --> 00:20:56.029 talking concrete blast walls, multiple checkpoints, 00:20:56.230 --> 00:20:58.589 marksmen on the roofs of buildings, and in some 00:20:58.589 --> 00:21:01.029 cases, Saudi National Guard armored vehicles 00:21:01.029 --> 00:21:02.990 permanently stationed at the entrance. That's 00:21:02.990 --> 00:21:05.430 not a community. That's a bunker. It's a fortress 00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:08.170 lifestyle. It reflects a very specific, very 00:21:08.170 --> 00:21:10.029 high stakes threat model that you just don't 00:21:10.029 --> 00:21:12.150 see in most other parts of the world. Now, for 00:21:12.150 --> 00:21:15.230 a moment of almost unintentional comedy, let's 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:18.150 go to Indonesia. You flag this as the public 00:21:18.150 --> 00:21:20.630 rule paradox. I find this absolutely fascinating. 00:21:20.910 --> 00:21:24.130 So in Indonesia, developers build these lavish, 00:21:24.130 --> 00:21:27.329 exclusive gated communities. But there is a national 00:21:27.329 --> 00:21:30.049 regulation that says any social facilities inside 00:21:30.049 --> 00:21:33.539 a residential development. Parks, sports grounds, 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:36.440 community halls, even mosques must eventually 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:38.240 be handed over to the local government for public 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:41.059 use. Wait, wait. So you buy a million dollar 00:21:41.059 --> 00:21:43.559 house in an exclusive gated community for the 00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:47.039 privacy. But the law says any random person from 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:49.119 the outside has to be allowed in to use your 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:52.960 tennis court. Technically, yes. The gate is there, 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.140 but the legal requirement punches these invisible 00:21:56.140 --> 00:21:59.200 holes in it. It creates this constant simmering 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:01.779 tension between the residents, who think they 00:22:01.779 --> 00:22:04.180 bought a private club, and the local public, 00:22:04.339 --> 00:22:06.460 who legally have a right to access the space. 00:22:06.660 --> 00:22:08.599 I can only imagine the neighborhood Facebook 00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:11.019 group drama that causes, who are these people 00:22:11.019 --> 00:22:13.400 in the swimming pool? It totally undermines the 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:15.819 entire value proposition of the gate. It's a 00:22:15.819 --> 00:22:18.279 mess. Okay, let's move on to Africa. And South 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:21.039 Africa is probably the most cited, most studied 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:23.460 case of this phenomenon outside the United States. 00:22:23.500 --> 00:22:25.799 It is absolutely central to the academic literature 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:28.299 on this. After the end of apartheid in 1994, 00:22:28.599 --> 00:22:31.319 the number of security villages, or complexes 00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:33.859 as they're called there, just, it's absolutely 00:22:33.859 --> 00:22:36.759 mushroomed. Mushroomed implies they popped up 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:39.119 practically overnight. In many places they did. 00:22:39.380 --> 00:22:43.599 And the driver was just visceral, palpable fear. 00:22:44.089 --> 00:22:46.509 Fear of the country's very high rates of violent 00:22:46.509 --> 00:22:50.309 crime, for sure, but also a very specific fear 00:22:50.309 --> 00:22:52.869 related to property rights. The fear of squatters. 00:22:53.089 --> 00:22:55.710 Exactly. Developers and homeowners are terrified 00:22:55.710 --> 00:22:58.630 of land invasions or squatters occupying a property 00:22:58.630 --> 00:23:01.210 because the legal eviction process can be incredibly 00:23:01.210 --> 00:23:03.410 difficult and can take years. So the wall goes 00:23:03.410 --> 00:23:07.029 up first. The wall is a preemptive legal defense. 00:23:07.609 --> 00:23:10.569 You wall off the empty land before you even build 00:23:10.569 --> 00:23:13.089 the house to establish ownership and make sure 00:23:13.089 --> 00:23:15.339 no one else can claim it. And the proximity there 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:17.519 is just so stark. You have these first world 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:20.259 islands of incredible wealth surrounded by a 00:23:20.259 --> 00:23:22.960 sea of severe urban poverty. That's what the 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:24.920 urbanist Vanessa Watson calls the African urban 00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:27.099 fantasy. And you see it in Nigeria, too, with 00:23:27.099 --> 00:23:29.420 these massive estates like Gorimpa. It's an attempt 00:23:29.420 --> 00:23:32.599 by developers to build a new Dubai or a new London 00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:35.779 inside a city like Lagos or Cairo that is still 00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:37.440 struggling with the most basic infrastructure. 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:40.539 And it just widens the gap. It limits class interaction 00:23:40.539 --> 00:23:43.259 to almost hero. The only time the rich and the 00:23:43.259 --> 00:23:45.960 poor meet is when the poor are serving the rich 00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:49.519 inside the walls. Finally, let's swing by Europe. 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:51.980 Why is it the odd one out in all of this? It 00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:54.880 really is the great exception. Hard, physical 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:58.740 gating is just very, very rare in most of continental 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:01.279 Europe. There's a much stronger tradition of 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:03.819 urban planning, a sense of the right to the city. 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.440 The idea of a private individual blocking off 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:09.240 a public street is culturally and often legally 00:24:09.240 --> 00:24:12.819 offensive in Paris or Rome or Berlin. But the 00:24:12.819 --> 00:24:15.299 U .K. is dipping a toe in the water. A little 00:24:15.299 --> 00:24:17.240 bit. But it's interesting to look at the marketing. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:19.200 In the U .S., they sell you community. You know, 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:21.079 come join our neighborhood, have a BBQ with the 00:24:21.079 --> 00:24:23.559 Joneses. Right. In the U .K., when you see these 00:24:23.559 --> 00:24:25.980 small, gated developments, usually for Premier 00:24:25.980 --> 00:24:28.640 League footballers or young city bankers, they 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:30.339 don't sell community. They sell asset protection. 00:24:30.660 --> 00:24:33.200 It's an investment strategy. It is. The pitch 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:35.859 is, buy this flat, it won't get burgled, so your 00:24:35.859 --> 00:24:38.660 resale value will remain high. It's a much colder, 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.170 more financialized transaction. And we can't 00:24:41.170 --> 00:24:42.970 end our tour without at least mentioning Russia. 00:24:43.170 --> 00:24:46.450 The ultimate oligarchy. The source material brings 00:24:46.450 --> 00:24:49.809 up OZERO, which was the cooperative formed around 00:24:49.809 --> 00:24:52.670 Vladimir Putin's dacha back in the 90s. I feel 00:24:52.670 --> 00:24:55.329 like calling Putin's compound a gated community 00:24:55.329 --> 00:24:58.210 is a bit like calling the Pentagon an office 00:24:58.210 --> 00:25:00.549 building. It's certainly in a league of its own, 00:25:00.609 --> 00:25:03.549 but it operates on the exact same core principle. 00:25:04.219 --> 00:25:06.799 Total, absolute separation from the laws and 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:09.519 realities that govern everyone else. So we've 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:11.880 toured the entire world. We have seen the high 00:25:11.880 --> 00:25:14.099 -tech walls in China, the blast shields in Saudi 00:25:14.099 --> 00:25:16.319 Arabia, the passive -aggressive fences in Canada. 00:25:16.579 --> 00:25:18.970 Now we have to ask the big question. The one 00:25:18.970 --> 00:25:20.750 that actually matters to the millions of people 00:25:20.750 --> 00:25:23.509 living in these places. Do the fences even work? 00:25:23.750 --> 00:25:26.190 And this is where we get to the paradox of security. 00:25:26.589 --> 00:25:28.690 And honestly, this is where the story gets really, 00:25:28.750 --> 00:25:31.190 really disturbing. Okay, so the proponents, the 00:25:31.190 --> 00:25:33.410 guys selling the condos, they have a very clear 00:25:33.410 --> 00:25:35.970 and simple theory. It's called defensible space. 00:25:36.549 --> 00:25:38.569 Right, this comes from the architect Oscar Newman. 00:25:39.250 --> 00:25:42.769 And the idea is, on its face, very logical. If 00:25:42.769 --> 00:25:45.049 you restrict access to a space, you reduce the 00:25:45.049 --> 00:25:47.109 number of people in. If you reduce the number 00:25:47.109 --> 00:25:49.250 of people, you can recognize strangers instantly. 00:25:49.609 --> 00:25:52.089 If you can recognize strangers, they can't commit 00:25:52.089 --> 00:25:54.329 crimes without being noticed. It sounds like 00:25:54.329 --> 00:25:57.230 pure common sense. Fewer people, less crime. 00:25:57.450 --> 00:25:59.910 It does. But then you have the counter -argument 00:25:59.910 --> 00:26:03.029 from the legendary urbanist Jane Jacobs. She 00:26:03.029 --> 00:26:06.049 argued for the exact opposite. She championed 00:26:06.049 --> 00:26:08.549 the idea of eyes on the street. More people is 00:26:08.549 --> 00:26:11.799 safer. Precisely. She said that safety doesn't 00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:14.099 come from walls and guards. It comes from people. 00:26:14.380 --> 00:26:16.859 It comes from the shopkeeper sweeping his stoop, 00:26:16.900 --> 00:26:19.640 the grandmother looking out her window, the constant 00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:22.559 random flow of pedestrians walking by. They are 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:24.619 the natural surveillance system of a healthy 00:26:24.619 --> 00:26:27.019 city. So if you build a wall and you eliminate 00:26:27.019 --> 00:26:29.380 all that random pedestrian traffic. You remove 00:26:29.380 --> 00:26:32.819 the ice. You create a sterile dead zone. And 00:26:32.819 --> 00:26:35.200 if a criminal does manage to get inside, there's 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:37.720 nobody there to see them. And the actual data, 00:26:37.940 --> 00:26:40.700 the hard numbers, they seem to support Jane Jacobs, 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:42.980 don't they? Tell me about that study from South 00:26:42.980 --> 00:26:45.380 Africa. This is the one that should be on a billboard 00:26:45.380 --> 00:26:48.420 outside every new development. It's a study by 00:26:48.420 --> 00:26:52.680 Britske, Landman, and Cohn from 2014. They looked 00:26:52.680 --> 00:26:56.319 at burglary rates in the city of Twine, which 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:59.480 includes Pretoria. Now remember, the number one 00:26:59.480 --> 00:27:01.839 reason people buy into these complexes in South 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.680 Africa is to avoid burglary. It's the entire 00:27:04.680 --> 00:27:06.960 sales pitch. It's the entire reason for their 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:08.839 existence. The study found that the density of 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:12.259 burglaries was four times higher inside and immediately 00:27:12.259 --> 00:27:14.400 around the gated communities compared to the 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:18.319 rest of the city. Four times higher. That is 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:21.500 a catastrophic, unbelievable failure of the product. 00:27:21.619 --> 00:27:24.400 It's shocking. It's a finding that is so counterintuitive 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:27.220 that you have to read it twice. So why? How is 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:29.559 that even possible? Well, let's sit like a criminal 00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:32.119 for a minute. If you are a professional burglar 00:27:32.119 --> 00:27:34.839 and you're going to risk going to prison, where 00:27:34.839 --> 00:27:37.410 do you go to work? Do you go to a poor neighborhood 00:27:37.410 --> 00:27:39.509 where there's very little to steal and a lot 00:27:39.509 --> 00:27:41.190 of people sitting on their porches watching everything? 00:27:41.349 --> 00:27:44.089 Or do you go to the place that has explicitly 00:27:44.089 --> 00:27:47.430 advertised itself as a warehouse of concentrated 00:27:47.430 --> 00:27:49.829 wealth where everyone leaves for work at the 00:27:49.829 --> 00:27:52.650 same time and which is surrounded by a nice high 00:27:52.650 --> 00:27:55.049 wall to hide you from the street? It's a honeypot. 00:27:55.150 --> 00:27:58.250 The wall is a billboard that says good stuff 00:27:58.250 --> 00:28:01.609 inside. It's a target rich environment. And once 00:28:01.609 --> 00:28:03.690 you breach that perimeter, and there are many 00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.210 ways to do it, you can bribe a guard, you can 00:28:06.210 --> 00:28:08.450 follow a resident's car in, you can just cut 00:28:08.450 --> 00:28:10.769 the fence in a poorly lit area. Once you are 00:28:10.769 --> 00:28:14.109 inside, the walls and the lack of public traffic 00:28:14.109 --> 00:28:16.069 start to work for you. Because nobody from the 00:28:16.069 --> 00:28:18.450 outside can see what you're doing. Exactly. You 00:28:18.450 --> 00:28:21.329 are hidden in plain sight. Police patrol cars 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:23.890 can't just randomly drive by on their beat. They 00:28:23.890 --> 00:28:26.779 need permission to enter private property. you 00:28:26.779 --> 00:28:28.960 have effectively created a private hunting ground 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:30.759 for yourself. That is absolutely terrifying. 00:28:30.859 --> 00:28:33.099 You pay all this money to lock yourself in with 00:28:33.099 --> 00:28:35.500 the very threat you are trying to escape? And 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:37.519 that's not even considering the insider threat. 00:28:37.700 --> 00:28:41.059 These communities rely on... Armies of low paid 00:28:41.059 --> 00:28:43.940 service workers, guards, gardeners, cleaners, 00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:47.019 domestic help. They have intimate knowledge of 00:28:47.019 --> 00:28:49.740 the resident schedules, the security gaps, the 00:28:49.740 --> 00:28:51.740 blind spots and the camera coverage. And when 00:28:51.740 --> 00:28:53.559 you have that level of inequality right there, 00:28:53.660 --> 00:28:56.119 a wall is just a minor inconvenience. It's not 00:28:56.119 --> 00:28:59.140 a real barrier. It's just a challenge. So not 00:28:59.140 --> 00:29:01.880 only does the gate often fail to stop crime, 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:05.119 but it has this wider corrosive social cost. 00:29:05.779 --> 00:29:09.000 The researcher Saitha Lowe talks about its negative 00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:11.799 effect on net social capital. What does that 00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:14.079 mean? It's the idea that when the affluent and 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:16.240 the influential withdraw from the public sphere, 00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:18.900 that public sphere begins to collapse from neglect. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:22.539 If the wealthy don't use the public park, they 00:29:22.539 --> 00:29:24.859 don't vote for the taxes to fund the public park. 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:27.079 If their kids are in private schools inside the 00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:28.859 walls, they don't care if the public schools 00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:30.720 are falling apart. If they have private security, 00:29:31.019 --> 00:29:33.200 they don't care if the police force is underfunded 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:35.640 and ineffective. So the city outside the wall 00:29:35.640 --> 00:29:38.359 gets worse and more dangerous, which makes the 00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:41.059 people inside the wall even more afraid. So they 00:29:41.059 --> 00:29:43.660 demand higher walls and more guards. It's a death 00:29:43.660 --> 00:29:46.539 spiral. It's a vicious cycle of fear and withdrawal. 00:29:47.130 --> 00:29:50.269 And it depletes the social capital, that basic 00:29:50.269 --> 00:29:53.029 layer of trust and interconnection between citizens 00:29:53.029 --> 00:29:56.450 that actually keeps the city safe and vibrant 00:29:56.450 --> 00:29:59.430 in the first place. This anxiety, this idea that 00:29:59.430 --> 00:30:02.130 the perfect safe community is actually a trap. 00:30:02.309 --> 00:30:04.589 It's not just in the academic data. It is all 00:30:04.589 --> 00:30:07.470 over our culture. We are obsessed with the idea 00:30:07.470 --> 00:30:10.750 of the rot behind the perfect facade. Pop culture 00:30:10.750 --> 00:30:13.130 absolutely loves to tear down the gated community. 00:30:13.450 --> 00:30:15.809 It's a favorite trope for exploring hypocrisy 00:30:15.809 --> 00:30:17.950 and hidden darkness. Let's start with the zombies. 00:30:18.029 --> 00:30:20.009 You have to start with The Walking Dead. A classic 00:30:20.009 --> 00:30:22.259 and perfect example. In the comics and later 00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:24.880 in the show, Rick Grimes' group finds this perfect 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:27.279 looking gated condominium development. It's got 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:29.880 walls. It's got fences. It should be the safest 00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:32.519 place on Earth. But it's not. It turns into an 00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:35.460 absolute death trap. First, because it's already 00:30:35.460 --> 00:30:38.180 infested. But more philosophically, because the 00:30:38.180 --> 00:30:40.940 gate makes you soft. It creates a false sense 00:30:40.940 --> 00:30:43.559 of security. You stop paying attention. You stop 00:30:43.559 --> 00:30:45.420 being vigilant. And that's when you get bitten. 00:30:45.539 --> 00:30:47.740 Then you have the whole genre of social satire. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:50.660 The Stepford Wives is the ultimate text here. 00:30:51.069 --> 00:30:53.150 The idyllic community where everything is perfect 00:30:53.150 --> 00:30:55.829 because the women are robots. Or you get the 00:30:55.829 --> 00:30:58.049 Truman Show vibe. There's an old Twilight Zone 00:30:58.049 --> 00:31:00.609 episode called Evergreen that the source mentioned. 00:31:00.809 --> 00:31:02.890 Oh, I don't know that one. It is so creepy. It's 00:31:02.890 --> 00:31:06.650 this perfect manicure -gated community. But when 00:31:06.650 --> 00:31:09.109 teenagers get rebellious or don't fit the mold, 00:31:09.329 --> 00:31:12.089 they're taken to a special factory and turned 00:31:12.089 --> 00:31:14.630 into fertilizer for the immaculate green lawns. 00:31:14.710 --> 00:31:17.990 That is not subtle. No, but it speaks directly 00:31:17.990 --> 00:31:20.720 to that deep fear of conformity. The fear that 00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:23.359 in order to live in these perfect places, you 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:25.579 have to kill a part of your soul. You have to 00:31:25.579 --> 00:31:28.400 become fertilizer for the system. Even SpongeBob 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:31.000 SquarePants got in on this. Squidville. It's 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:33.220 a brilliant episode. Squidward finally escapes 00:31:33.220 --> 00:31:36.079 SpongeBob and Patrick and moves to a gated community 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:38.880 populated only by other squids who are just like 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:42.319 him. It's his paradise. For about a day. He plays 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:44.299 his clarinet, he rides his bike, he enjoys the 00:31:44.299 --> 00:31:48.960 peace. But then... The days start to blur together. 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:51.700 The crushing uniformity and boredom drive him 00:31:51.700 --> 00:31:54.200 insane. He starts playing with a reef blower 00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:57.640 just to feel something, anything different. Even 00:31:57.640 --> 00:32:00.140 Squidward needs a little chaos in his life. We 00:32:00.140 --> 00:32:03.660 all do. Humans crave variety, spontaneity. The 00:32:03.660 --> 00:32:06.480 gated community by its very nature offers uniformity. 00:32:06.539 --> 00:32:08.960 And ultimately... That's boring. There's also 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.740 a powerful class commentary in film. Parasite 00:32:11.740 --> 00:32:13.700 is the one everyone knows now, but the notes 00:32:13.700 --> 00:32:15.980 mention a Mexican film, Lozona. Yeah, Lozona 00:32:15.980 --> 00:32:18.279 came out years before Parasite, but it hits on 00:32:18.279 --> 00:32:20.359 a lot of the same themes. A group of poor kids 00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:22.299 from the slum next door break into a wealthy, 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:25.019 gated community. It results in a death, and the 00:32:25.019 --> 00:32:27.240 residents decide to handle it themselves, turning 00:32:27.240 --> 00:32:29.759 it into a private lynch mob. Wow. It's brutal. 00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:32.640 It shows the raw violence that is simmering just 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:35.119 beneath the surface of that polite, exclusionary 00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:38.819 lifestyle. And sometimes real life mimics art 00:32:38.819 --> 00:32:41.839 in the most bizarre way. I love the Back to the 00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:44.579 Future story. The Hilldale paradox. It's perfect. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:46.880 So for anyone who doesn't remember, in Back to 00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:50.000 the Future Part 2, Marty McFly goes to the future, 00:32:50.099 --> 00:32:53.940 to 2015, and his future self lives in a subdivision 00:32:53.940 --> 00:32:56.559 called Hilldale, which has become this run -down, 00:32:56.559 --> 00:33:00.099 dangerous place. Right. But the real -world location 00:33:00.099 --> 00:33:02.180 where they filmed those scenes, the development 00:33:02.180 --> 00:33:05.039 kind of Arbor Oaks in El Monte, California. was 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:08.039 actually a very nice, open, middle -class neighborhood. 00:33:08.299 --> 00:33:10.680 But because of the movie, fans started flocking 00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:12.960 there. Tourists, people trying to find the McFly 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:14.519 house. They were constantly driving through. 00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:16.920 So what did the real -life residents of Arbor 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:19.799 Oaks do to stop the unwanted traffic? They gated 00:33:19.799 --> 00:33:22.019 it. They built a wall on the gate to keep the 00:33:22.019 --> 00:33:24.579 fans out. The fictional story about the future 00:33:24.579 --> 00:33:27.079 of their neighborhood literally caused them to 00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:30.039 build the future. The movie was satirizing. That 00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:32.420 is the perfect, beautiful encapsulation of this 00:33:32.420 --> 00:33:35.259 entire phenomenon. It's always a reaction. It's 00:33:35.259 --> 00:33:37.279 a reaction to a threat, whether it's real or 00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:39.599 perceived. It always is. So let's try to bring 00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:42.019 this all home. We have traveled from the $30 00:33:42.019 --> 00:33:45.400 billion private states of Pakistan to the fearful 00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:48.660 security villages of South Africa. We've seen 00:33:48.660 --> 00:33:50.880 that the world is in many ways chopping itself 00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:53.759 up into these little fortified islands of affluence 00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:56.299 and anxiety. And we've seen again and again. 00:33:56.859 --> 00:33:58.819 That the promise of the gate, the promise of 00:33:58.819 --> 00:34:02.460 safety, of community, of peace is very often 00:34:02.460 --> 00:34:05.319 a mirage. It just makes me wonder if the hard 00:34:05.319 --> 00:34:07.559 data from places like South Africa shows that 00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:10.099 burglary rates might actually be higher. And 00:34:10.099 --> 00:34:12.119 if psychologists tell us it can make us more 00:34:12.119 --> 00:34:14.679 anxious and fearful. And if urbanists say it 00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:17.730 ruins the social fabric of the city. What are 00:34:17.730 --> 00:34:19.590 we really buying? I think you've hit the nail 00:34:19.590 --> 00:34:21.349 on the head. We're buying the performance of 00:34:21.349 --> 00:34:23.590 safety. We're buying a feeling. It's security 00:34:23.590 --> 00:34:26.429 theater. We pay for the fancy gate and the guard 00:34:26.429 --> 00:34:28.849 in the crisp uniform to wave at us so we can 00:34:28.849 --> 00:34:31.130 pretend for the few minutes we're driving down 00:34:31.130 --> 00:34:33.469 our private street that this scary, unpredictable 00:34:33.469 --> 00:34:35.989 world isn't out there. We're buying the ability 00:34:35.989 --> 00:34:38.530 to turn a blind eye. That's it. You're paying 00:34:38.530 --> 00:34:41.090 a premium for the luxury of not having to look 00:34:41.090 --> 00:34:44.579 at the problems of the wider society. But as 00:34:44.579 --> 00:34:46.880 the walls get higher and the gates get stronger, 00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:49.440 you have to ask yourself a really fundamental 00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:52.380 question. Are we keeping the world out or are 00:34:52.380 --> 00:34:54.980 we just locking ourselves in? Something to chew 00:34:54.980 --> 00:34:57.139 on the next time you punch that four -digit code 00:34:57.139 --> 00:34:59.820 into a keypad. Or wait for that striped arm to 00:34:59.820 --> 00:35:02.900 slowly lift. Thanks for joining us on this tour 00:35:02.900 --> 00:35:05.139 behind the walls. We will see you on the next 00:35:05.139 --> 00:35:06.380 deep dive. Stay curious.