Manufactured communities shun intersections

Via Bacon's Rebellion comes this WaPo article on residential developers' new strategy of manufacturing communities for people with common values. Using psychographics, developers are creating residential communities that are intended to attract similar types of people. The developers are calling this "neighboring."

There are a few party-crashers, like the Hummer owner who settled down in the tree-hugger neighborhood, but for the most part, people of like minds are congregating into these communities. I wonder what Frans Johansson would think of them.

Would living in one of these psychographically segregated communities make you less innovative? What does this mean for the virtual communities that so many associations strive to offer? Or for my belief that you can't create community?

What if we did this in the office? Right brainers over here, left brainers over there. Extroverts get 3-foot cubicle walls. Introverts get the 6-footers.

Tagged: Association; Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive; communities; community; Frans Johansson; Hummer; innovation; neighboring; psychographics; residential