The Editor,
Having coined the phrase, "Good fences make good neighbours," Robert Frost would probably be shocked by the counterpoint to his notion that has emerged in neighbourhoods across Richmond.
The fences and gates that are being erected around the proliferating mega pseudo-mansions are simply extensions to a style of architecture that is designed, to begin with, to facilitate cloistered indoor living and which, as any sociologist, architect, or town planner would tell you, does little to encourage interaction and socialization between neighbours.
And nothing so emphatically says, "keep away, don't bother us, don't come here, I don't want to have anything to do with my neighbours" as the concrete, brick and metal walls that confront us as we walk our streets.
I recently had a conversation with a fellow who lives in Washington State on a street that has no fences between properties - only a vast, block-long expanse of lawn dotted with shrubs and flower beds.
Evidently, the home owners were in agreement about not building fences because they thought a fence-free environment would support the lifestyle they aspired to. They placed a high value on such things such as constant interaction and familiarity with neighbours, everyone helping and looking out for each other, shared celebrations and social activities, children enjoying and learning from an enriched social environment, and the establishment of lasting friendships.
I could only listen with envy as I reflected on the fact that all the things my American neighbour was so content with and proud about in relation to his neighbourhood were rapidly being annihilated from mine.
Of course, communities evolve and conditions change, but as a designer and educator, I was taught, and in turn tried to teach my students, that we should always strive to ensure that change leads to improvement - that the new should be better in every possible way than what was left behind.
If I was still teaching, I would probably be inclined to show my students the neighbourhoods of Richmond, with their countless unoccupied giant houses, subdued streets and absence of children, as examples of what not to do when your goal is to design interactive, vibrant, diverse and humane communities.
Ray Arnold Richmond
