Fortifications for All

Many ideas jumped out at me while reading the selection from Susan Bickford's "Constructing Inequality," mostly from my own biased ideas about what a city should be. The most intriguing, however, was the idea of fortification. I suppose I never really put together that a "fort" that a child builds actually comes from the word "fortification" - perhaps because my childhood forts were more about privatizing the inside than prohibiting the outside from coming in (or maybe there can't be one without the other!).

There is a commercial in central Ohio for a large homebuilder, where the various "residents" run down things they wanted in a new home that brought them to this builder. "My own room," "a deck," "cathedral ceilings," a big backyard, a fireplace, lots of windows, hardwood floors - the list is seemingly endless. But its the end of the commercial that really drives it home for me: as a father drives his car down the street one evening, before picking up his sleeping son to carry him inside, he passes what would appear to be a neighbor walking a dog (in the street, because there is no sidewalk). He doesn't wave or acknowledge the woman. Why is this a place where someone would want to live? While listing all of the things these people want in the actual structure of their homes, they never mention anything about the neighborhood. It seems this dream house can be next to the railroad tracks or just below the interstate - and it doesn't matter who your neighbors are, as long as they stay out of your yard and off your deck.

Whew! That rant was just a little off-topic! I think that the idea of fortification doesn't have to be physical. Just owning your little quarter-acre seems to be enough of a fortification for some, while in the city there is less of an option to fortify. Public space intrudes (especially at my house with zero street setback!) right up to the building - while in some suburbs, the lots aren't even violated with a sidewalk. Gated communities further this notion by restricting even who can access the streets.

Fortifications aren't just city versus suburb, all middle-class. I'd like to know some of your thoughts while I think about this further.