A newspaper reports that it is hard to access the California suburb of Bradbury:

There’s no shopping to speak of and there are barely any sidewalks to stroll on. Bradbury is almost entirely comprised of gated sub communities and homeowners associations, SFGate reported.

If you don’t already have a friend that lives there, it’s not wise to go up to someone’s house looking to make some. That’s because the town has an ordinance banning people from walking up to front doors and knocking without permission.

And since its founding in 1957, a time when the suburbs were expanding in Southern California, Bradbury and the residents who live there have said they don’t even want cars passing by to stop for even the briefest moment, urging them to keep driving.

The town is so locked down that most of the public roads that abut its borders are dead ends or run straight into tall, guarded gates with signs that read ‘Royal Oaks’ and ‘Bradbury Estates.’

The landscaping also does quite a bit to send the message that outsiders aren’t welcome, with most homes being shrouded by towering hedgerows and bushy trees.

Why? This is an small exclusive suburb. These are scattered across the American landscape where wealthy homeowners have their own community. According to the US Census, the community has 921 residents, the median household income is over $158,000, the population skews older, more than 90% of homes are owned, and over 80% of homes are worth over $1 million. The community’s website starts with text saying “Preserving Rural Tranquility” and features numerous images of the landscape and horses.

One thing wealth can do is enable people to live exactly where they want. This often involves living near other wealthy people. And this can mean putting distance or barriers between those with money and others. It sounds like this community has a variety of methods to discourage visitors who might threaten that rural tranquility, including gated subdivision, large landscaping features, no soliciting, and no sidewalks.