Love thy neighbor

Everyone wants nice neighbors, but one community in Orange County, Calif., is taking things too far. The developers of Ladera Ranch are part of a dangerous trend of developers trying to build communities that divide people based on demographic research. In an attempt to build a better community, the developers of Ladera Ranch have actually created dangerously insular micro-communities that threaten to further polarize America.\nLadera Ranch now houses more than 16,000 people who are divided up into mini-communities designed to appeal to not just a certain demographic, but a certain personality type. The developers ask prospective residents not just how much they make and how many bedrooms they want, but what their views on abortion, religion and the environment are. Based on their answers, people are steered toward the section of Ladera Ranch that corresponds to their values -- environmentally conscious houses for the eco-conscious, traditional family-friendly houses for the conservative and religious, showy McMansions for the status conscious.\nAt first blush, this sounds innocent enough. People are rightly seeking a sense of community and Ladera Ranch promises that. You get to live with people who are more likely to share your interests and values. Hopefully neighborhoods will resemble an earlier era when neighbors talked regularly, watched each other's children and held block parties. However, I believe danger lurks beneath this utopian vision.\nBy sending religious conservatives to one neighborhood and liberals to another, you are promoting segregation based on beliefs. This kind of separation means that people never have to question their assumptions or think about new issues. They can live safe with their prejudices because everyone around them shares the same prejudices. This cuts both ways. Conservatives never have to face the issue of gay rights, and liberals can go on thinking all Christians are intolerant psychos. Imagine if Jim Crow laws were never questioned in the American south because racists were never confronted.\nThe polarization of America into "red states" and "blue states" has been much discussed. Many fear that Americans are becoming increasingly intolerant of people who don't think like they do. The more diverse our society becomes, the more some people retreat into insulated bubbles, secure in their own beliefs. Designing a community that helps people isolate themselves is dangerous and has political repercussions.\nAt one time many American realtors kept blacks out of certain communities, a practice that is now illegal. Today, America's developers are trying to keep conservatives and liberals and the religious and non-religious apart. If this trend is allowed to continue, we won't just have those red states and blue states, we'll have red streets and blue streets. Pretty soon the bitter divisions of national politics will be repeated at the local level. Instead of designing a better community, developers, like those who created Ladera Ranch, may actually increase the ruptures in American society.