GATED COMMUNITIES ARE UNDEMOCRATIC---POSSIBLY ILLEGAL

Why can my tax dollars go places in Lexington I can't???

I have gone to some gated areas in our town, talking to the gatehouse guard
about entrance--and while I almost always had a reason for admission, I
have been turned away. This galls me. As a taxpayer (and you, too) I help
pay for: the roads in such communities and their upkeep, fire and police
protection for its members. My tax dollars enter; why can't I?

The same is true of some areas in Lexington, one near where I live, where
street parking is restricted to those who live along that street. Again, I
helped pay for those streets, curbs and sidewalks; I help pay for fire and
police protection; why shouldn't I be able to park there? (Has this ever
been tested in the courts?)

I have resisted offering a motion to my own neighborhood association (whose
streets are much narrower, with higher traffic than the nearby area!), or
suggesting to the Fayette County Neighborhood Council that all 130 of its
member groups do the same. That would just be ridiculous and tie up parking
even worse than now. But, why do we allow it anywhere?

That approach, and of "gated communities" in my book are fundamentally
UN-democratic and highly exclusionary. It is "us against them" and the basis
for the exclusion is, 99.44% of the time, money. Not my idea of the American
way of life.

Gated communities should not be permitted unless they are willing to pay
totally for streets and fire and police protection; and all the other civic
amenities our taxes support. I could not argue against that; thogh I think
it is still UN-democratic. And, as Grouch Marx once said: (read gated community
for club); "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a
member!"

I'm just sayin'...