The authors also administered an opinion of community residents in association with the Community Association Institute of Alexandria, Virginia. In lifestyle communities, the exclusiveness, or prestige, maintenance free living, opportunities for exercise and reputation seem to be important factors in assessing the reasons for choosing to live in the community. Some argue that they are involved with the outside community and activities within the community. However, the author's survey indicates involvement is certainly not significantly greater than one would find in any community. One reason for limited activity is the expression that retirees tend to avoid long term commitments to serve on boards and committees.
Comments also reflect antipathy toward the surrounding community.
The reality is that the gated community residents enjoy a higher level of community services than their ungated neighbors. The consequences are seen in the clean, green, uniform architectural idiom and components of the visual quality of many if the gated communities. Solicitations and traffic are usually limited to residents and guests. However, these gates and walls do not seem to create a sense of community within, or neighborliness, and clearly tend to separate residents from the wider community. The gates are denoted as protective barriers of status to residents of prestige communities.