Gates

We moved into our neighborhood just in time to be in the midst of a controversy. The neighborhood feels pretty safe to us so far, but our quiet residential street and others nearby are having gates installed at the ends, either with a lock or a full-time watchman controlling who gets in. It's all pretty low-key, but it understandably rubs many people the wrong way, seeing as these are public streets. What we're hearing from the neighbors who are not fans of the gates is that the people on the block who are most fearful about crime just ramrodded the project through.

In addition to making the neighborhood feel less relaxed and friendly, the gates pose a real threat to people who operate small businesses on the affected blocks. Little cafes and grocery stores of course depend on spontaneous foot traffic, which is greatly diminished by the gates. We're especially concerned for the owners of Yemaya, a hip and tasty vegetarian-friendly restaurant two blocks from us that just opened four months ago and is about to be cut off from the surrounding neighborhood. It's hard to imagine them surviving behind locked gates.