Gates, sprawl, and 'walking while black'
The nation is justifiably horrified at the recent tragedy in Sanford, Florida, where a stocky, armed, white Hispanic Neighborhood Watch captain followed, shot, and killed a slightly built, unarmed teenager who had taken a walk to buy candy. The shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, has claimed self-defense and has yet to be arrested.
Many have focused on a Florida law that allows wide firearms latitude in any self-defense situation; a lackluster investigation by police; and the racist overtones of the incident. But there is another factor: a poorly planned, exclusionary built environment.
The shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin took place in The Retreat at Twin Lakes, a 260-unit gated development of townhouses that are linked to the rest of the world (or cut off from it, depending on your point of view) by arterial roads with rapidly moving traffic and single-use commercial buildings. The development has a very low of 26. The Retreat at Twin Lakes is in the middle of vast central Florida sprawl—and nearly everybody who has a choice drives.
Those who don’t drive are likely to be on the economic margins or intrepid teenagers—old enough to be on their own but without wheels—who can hurry across huge crossings and ignore conditions that are miserable for anyone on foot. Walkers in this environment are therefore the recipient of pity or suspicion—in this case, the extreme suspicion that resulted in the death of Martin, who was walking to the 7-11 to get Skittles and iced tea on the evening of February 26.
The development’s gate creates a fortress mentality, with some people viewed as legitimate and others as threatening outsiders or interlopers, notes Laurence Aurbach of . The gate is most effective for cars. Pedestrians are able to slip in and out easily through the woody buffer that separates the project from the arterial roads. Pedestrians are most feared by some residents, according to . “It’s a gated community, but you can walk in and steal whatever you want,” said one resident.
The economic downturn is another factor. The Retreat at Twin Lakes is only six years old, but its property values have declined precipitously. Foreclosures forced owners to rent out to “low-lifes and gangsters,” one resident told the newspaper. The development is now “minority-majority”—49 percent non-Hispanic white, 23 percent Hispanic, 20 percent African-American, and 5 percent Asian. This story is partly about what happens to a gated development when residents find themselves on the same side of the gate as people they fear.
Zimmerman reacted with paranoia. He had called 911—often citing minor “suspicious” behavior such as an open window or somebody looking at a house—41 times since January 2011. He was known for circling the small development with his dog, carrying a concealed, licensed 9mm handgun, and questioning anybody who looked to him as suspicious. He was also quite open about his suspicion of young black males—even when he was communicating with African-American residents. Martin was killed for being a young black male on foot, foolish enough to walk in an inhospitable environment to the convenience store for a sugar fix.
The victim could have been anyone fitting the young man's description. The Palm Beach Post quotes another young black resident who chose not to walk in The Retreat at Twin Lakes out of fear of being misidentified as an interloper. "For walks, he goes downtown," the paper reports.
This story is far from over. A call to have Zimmerman arrested is reported to be the fastest-growing petition in Internet history, with 800,000 signatures as of Wednesday. Some are asking for the Sanford police chief to be fired. Others have demanded a change in the Florida law on self-defense shootings.
In all of this agitation, the physical environment that discriminates against, and focuses suspicion on, anyone who doesn’t drive should not be forgotten. It's hard to imagine this kind of tragedy playing out today in the same way on the block of a walkable city or town.
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Comments
fear kills
We need our country to be much less fear-driven than it is.
Well done article
I appreciate this piece. It artfully uses a tragic current incident and highlights the outrageous racism at its core to make a clear planning and development case. As an African American community-based development professional with activist roots, I thank the author.
Excellent article that brings
Excellent article that brings out another part of the story...the retreat into gated enclaves by the fewer and fewer people with any "sucess" in our society.
Excellent piece Rob!
This is what we need people to focus on. It could have been anyone, but the problem is when a built environment(in this case a gate), causes people who are walking and trying to live sustainablity, but also happen to be a minority, to be suspected.
Thanks very much
It's always nice to hear when a piece is appreciated.
In agreement RE Gates, sprawl, and 'walking while black'
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Steuteville. Communities that inhibit interaction, spite pedestrians, oppress visitors, and fail to incorporate traditional design techniques for informal surveillance of the public realm ("eyes on the street") contribute to exacerbated hysteria and paranoia of the "others" that somehow appear, marginalized people that must either be avoided at all costs or "dealt" with. These communities have been designed to preclude community.
The Value of Gating
Unwalkable "gated communities" that are not socioeconomically-integrated and are not connected to denser, mixed-use areas are bad, but I, and other people in the New Urbanism movement, would be wise to not extrapolate lessons from this horrible incident that bolster a case against the typology, particularly since low-density, single-family areas in our neighborhoods will never have the eyes on the street and eyes from the street necessary to keep them fully secure.
The C.P.T.E.D. techniques must shift from surveillance to access control based on the level of land-use intensity and on the relative position of each area along the rural-to-urban Transect. A Neighborhood Watch program that reports suspicious activity, after all, is a good thing, but this Neighborhood Watch captain was clearly going beyond just watching.
We want people to form enough social cohesion to be able to distinguish those who belong to the community from those who are merely visitors. The New Urbanism, as such, is not necessarily incompatible with gating in these low-density sub-urban zones. Handled well, it could actually be beneficial to better integrating regional uses and regional traffic into low-density sub-urban neighborhoods.
The Value of Gating
I don't agree with gating streets, Matt. I think it is corrosive and unnecessary. From a technical standpoint, it damages the street network, reduces choices, and degrades the public realm. Historically there is precedent for walling of entire cities and towns, but that was different. There have been a few recently built places that are otherwise well designed that have been gated, but my impression is that always diminishes them. Gating of the interior of blocks — if the blocks are not too large — is fine, however, in places that require greater security.
Don't buy into racial stereotypes!
The exclusionary environment of a gated community may have contributed to the shooter's sense of entitlement. Racism appears to have contributed to the shooter's unbridled paranoia. Florida's rotten stand your ground law certainly gave the shooter a sense of legal invulnerability. But in citing the economic downtown as a factor in this murder based on the argument that owners had to rent out to "low-lifes and gangsters" and then connecting that to the percentage of Hispanics and African-Americans, you have bought into racial stereotyping or profiling.
So while you can say that racial stereotyping or profiling was a factor in this killing, all evidence is that the African-Americans in this case are fine, law-abiding people, and there is no basis to say that the economic downturn had anything to do with it.
Re: Don't buy in
To be clear, Sam, that characterization was a quote from a resident, not something I agree with. My point about the economic downturn is that it changed the character of the development and fed the fears of some residents — I'm not agreeing with their reaction. So, I agree with what you say.
RE: Don't buy in
If one presumes that the "low-lifes and gangsters" are Caucasians, and that fearful quote emanated from an African-American resident, then the point of that paragraph would be that hindsight is 20-20.
Correction
My fourth sentence should have read 'economic downturn' not 'economic downtown.' Slip of the fingers.
Not Here
Didn't read past the second line. This was one man's actions. You do not help matters Mr. Steuteville by submitting an article such as this.
Since you only comprehend one line at a time.
No man is an island.
Walking While Anything
Consider that the subject gated community has a substantial number of persons of color. They no doubt drive in and out. It is the person of color ON FOOT who comes off as suspicious. Afer all, if you walk somewhere on such a street, you must be a low-life. What if Neighborhood watch people walked the streets? They probably wouldn't. It's a shame that purposeful travel outside a motor vehicle has come to be seen as perverse behavior. And the gatedness certainly enhances that feeling.
Thieves walk?
I find this quote really telling of the neighborhood, and it characterizes the attitudes of many NIMBYs around the country: “It’s a gated community, but you can walk in and steal whatever you want,” said one resident.
Really, someone is going to (1) walk or take transit TO the gated community (probably quite a long trip given the types of streets and transit service that typically connect this type of development), (2) walk into a gated community, hiking through whatever landscaping to bypass the vehicle gate, or squeezing through a narrow pedestrian entrance, (3) break into someone's house, (4) steal their TV, and (5) make that long, ridiculous hike and/or transit trip involving God-knows-how many transfers while carrying said TV and without getting caught? Do people even think before they claim pedestrians are going to shake down their neighborhood? It's preposterous!
I've heard these same arguments from wealthy residents relatively near (but not necessarily comfortable walking distance) various proposed transit alignments as a way of shutting the projects down. No, the westside subway extension in LA is not going to bring "criminals" from South LA to your neighborhood. Nobody is going to get on the green line, make 3 transfers on a trip taking well over an hour and a half, and then walk 2 miles just to break into your MiniMansion in Beverly Hills. You're not that special.
Anyway, great article. The built environment doesn't make deranged murderers act and it doesn't create racism out of nothing, but it does create an environment of exclusion, fear, and distrust that supports this nutter's "vigilante patrols" and invites all the victim blaming floating around the news (see: Geraldo Rivera's claims that minority teens shouldn't walk around wearing hoodies).
Error in piece
"....where a stocky, armed, white Neighborhood Watch captain followed, shot, and killed a slightly built...."
Zimmerman is hispanic.....
Not white?
I think that some of the coverage of the killing in Florida did not initially make it clear that Zimmerman is Hispanic. In any event, a Hispanic person can be white, so the reference to Zimmerman as white was not necessarily an error.
Re: white or Hispanic
Phil is right, Hispanic can be white, but the media seems to be using "white Hispanic" now to describe George Zimmerman, so I changed the description in the first paragraph from simply "white" to "white Hispanic." Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic — although it is unclear how she would be classified racially.
Oh Lord, I cringe everytime I hear the "Zimmerman is Hispanic" c
Oh Lord, I cringe everytime I hear the "Zimmerman is Hispanic" claim.
Hispanic is not a race. I repeat, Hispanic is not a race.
A Hispanic person can be white. (the vast majority of Argentines and Uruguayans are white, and most Cuban-Americans are white)
A Hispanic person can be black. (Colombia and Cuba have large black diasporas)
A Hispanic person can be mestizo (mixed Indian and European descent. The vast majority of Mexicans and Venezuelans are mestizo).
A Hispanic person can be Indian. (the majority of Bolivians are Indian)
A Hispanic person can be mulato (mixed African and European descent, like most Dominicans).
Hispanic is not a race.
Nor is it a single culture or ethnic group.
It just means that your origins are from a Spanish-speaking country.
The Spanish Empire ruled over several countries, cultures, and ethnic groups on five continents. Many of those countries eventually adopted Spanish as their main language.
The bias in this article is blatant
using such terms as are used in this article are a blatant display of the bias of the author. why this article focuses on race is rather obvious, but the facts are not yet in, and as the author points out, even a month later information continues to come out. This is not a racial issue, nobody but those involved knows what actually happened. To assume otherwise is blatant prejudice.
gated?
From the information that I have been able to gather about this place, it IS mixed race. One source I read stated that it is 47% white and the rest Hispanic and African American...but still gated. What are the facts? You state none. At a time of such pervasive techno-information, it is shameful that people don't dig into the acutal facts first.
Race and Walkability Research - Where's the Trayvon Variable?
http://www.ifeellikebustinloose.com/2012/03/race-and-walkability-research-wheres.html
Strained Logic
The author begins with a weak hypothesis and proceeds to backfill with unfounded biases and preconceived notions.
The final sentence kills his whole argument.
No, it's not hard to imagine to imagine this kind of tragedy playing out .... on the block of a walkable city or town. Go visit rundown-though-walkable areas of L.A., Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, St. Louis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and many more.
Here are neighborhoods eminently "walkable". And here you will find scores of young lives ruined, often violently lost, on a daily basis. Many factors, well documented by thousands of studies, contribute to the social malaise found here. One would be hard pressed to find any comparable, authoritative research to bolster the author's views on the interplay of gates, walkability, and criminal manslaughter.
It's unclear what the the author means by "playing out in the same way", but hiding behind that qualifier won't wash. Whether or not a degree of neighborhood paranoia exists in that particular gated community is Sanford may be worth examining. However, wildly extrapolating an assumption of that mindset's contribution to this particular case, to race relations in general, to gated communities everywhere, to neighborhood watches, to gun ownership, or to the absence of "walkability", truly borders on the absurd.
This kind of loosey-goosey thinking wouldn't pass muster in a Sociology 101 classroom, much less in a court of law or, more to the point, before a responsible planning commission seeking to understand the social implications of alternative plans for the physical environment.
One may dislike gated communities, or believe that the shooter is an unbalanced individual, but please, don't try to tar the broader society with the same brush. You come off looking like a bit of a nut, a characterization that planners don't need to reinforce.
Re: Strained logic
Thanks for your comment, David.
Obviously criminal manslaughter, murder, and crime of all kinds take place in neighborhoods walkable and unwalkable, and I didn't make any argument to the contrary.
I was referring specifically shooting and killing by a neighborhood watch volunteer — somebody who thought he was working on the side of the law but was tailing anybody who looks suspicious and then ultimately shooting one person as those suspicions got out of control. That is hard to imagine in a normal, walkable neighborhood today. It simply does not happen that I am aware of. In a less isolated, more walkable neighborhood it is close to impossible for a neighborhood watch volunteer to maintain that level of paranoia.
I made no argument about race relations in general or gun ownership.
I maintain that walkability and gates are factors in how residents react to outsiders, and to how pedestrians are viewed, and that, specifically, they were factors here. They are obviously not the only factors, and I make that clear as well. You are free to disagree.
Gated???
I seem to recall this problem occurring in the1980s. However, the setting wasn't a gated subdivision. Instead, it was urban neighborhoods in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst. Just another reminder that senseless harassment that escalates out of control can happen in any location, urban or suburban.
Black and Living in a gated community
This story also reminds me of an almost similar encounter that I had in a gated community where I lived. I was a member of the social commitee board and was trying to get my neighbors to participate in a raffle to raise funds for the activities we were having. I had made a gift basket for the raffle and was going door to door to show the neighbors the basket as well as collect for the raffle $1 dononation. I was also well known to most of the neighbors because I was an active real estate professional of the community and they have had advertisement from me always. I had also attended HOA meetings being on the social commitee. My neighbor(white) two doors front my house decided to call the neighborhood watch person who called the police. He(the police) tracked me down in the community and his encounter with me was as if I was a theif. He walked around my mercedez benz and spoke out loudly and very demeaning to me stating that he received a call that I was going around the neighborhood and entering the garages and stealing the neighbors garage door clickers. At his first response I laughed profusely because I really thought he was just joking but what pursued cause me to really wonder about everything. I wanted to know who had given him that information but he told me he was not willing to disclose and that he could arrest me for trespassing. I explain to the officer that I live in the community, showed him the evidence of the basket and the money but the officer's ego took over, he searched my car and then asked for my driver's license. One of my neighbor was actually with me. I was standing in her driveway when this took place. I asked the officer to allow me to make a call inside my neighbors home to my husband but he refused me that previlege. I then had to get my neighbor to walk to my house which was a couple homes away to bring back my driver's license which was inside my home. My neighbor went to get my bag with the drivers license and the officer literally held me hostage in the drive way of my neighbor until she came back. He even called for another officer, when I showed the drivers license to the back up officer when he said I could leave. they gave me no explaination for the exitement and the show they put on. It was really embrassing and degrading to me.
Now here is my point, if I had been rude to the officer or talk back to him or let my ego override his I could either be handcuffed or be shot dead. I immediately realized what was happeing and so I kept calm because I absolutely did nothing wrong. A report was made, I went to the police station to get a copy, however, the report the officer made was completely different from what really happen. This is the kind of situations that happen when people are too quick to jump to judgement and especially those who feel they have power with a gun. We may never know what happen with Trayvon experience but I do feel that someone had a ego trip and also that the sterotype mindset played a part in this incident. I have experienced this type of situation many times but I believe that when things like these happen we just have to be cognizant of where we are , evaluate the situation immediately and deal with it as easy as possible. We cannot allow our emotions to take over because the truth will come out. The truth did come out in my situation because I later learnt that the officer knew the residents who called him. The neighbor found no clicker missing. The officer never apologized for his behavior but time will tell.
I feel very sad about the Trayvon situation but this happen all the time in America. It is as if America is divided by the color of the skin instead of the content of the character. Where are we? How and when will we get it together? This is a great country and actually a melting pot of other people making their contributions with their gifts and talents to this country as they come from all over the world. My question is where is this idea that some race is superior to others we all one nation under God. This is what the pledge says the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA- Black or White it should make no difference we should all be treated farely and have respect for each other.
Re: Black and living in a gated community
Thanks for your story. I particularly note the part about the written report bearing little resemblance to the actual event. The officer had an incentive to spin the report to cover his ass. That also is the case with George Zimmerman — whether he did so or not, but I strongly suspect that he did. Trayvon Martin is not around to tell the story from his point of view.