Gated communities and city marketing: Recent trends in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Surprisingly little work has examined the role of city marketing in the development and promotion of gated communities. Here, I examine how the municipal government of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico reshaped the town’s spaces, facilitating the emergence of gated communities beginning in the 1980s and continuing today. I argue that, during the last decades, city marketing has been used as a tool by the municipality to attract people who are of a higher socioeconomic class. Here, it is suggested that city marketing is an important factor to consider when analyzing the emergence and proliferation of gated communities. Moreover, the gated communities literature will benefit from examining the role of municipalities in seeking an explanation for this growing urban reality.

► Provides a historical account of gated communities in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
► Explores reasoning behind gated communities in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
► Links city marketing and the recent emergence of gated communities.
► Documents the use of a non-native language, English, in city marketing in Guaynabo.