A Last Word on Hedges

When Greg Goldin spoke to me for his piece “The Paradox of the Hedge” (Home Design Issue, May 22), I was pruning the roses in my hedge-free front garden on one of Venice’s walk streets. He had immediate access to me--no tall gate with an intercom entry, no dense wall of ficus or 6-foot-high lattice covered in heavy vines.

Longtime residents of our Venice walk streets have watched with concern as this once-open community of artists and middle-class families has drifted toward becoming an impersonal enclave of insular, wealthy strangers. Ironically, most newcomers are drawn to the neighborhood’s unique park-like gardens, and yet often their first act upon arriving is to withdraw themselves and their garden behind an impenetrable hedge or high-trellised fence. Incrementally, the walk street, once a community pathway among gardens, is becoming a narrow, dark tunnel along a parade of unwelcoming fancy gates.

As Goldin pointed out, there are two sides to the hedges tale. I only wish he had included the perspective of the rest of us whose neighborhoods are being so profitably mined by urban designers. Meanwhile, you can still find me--see me--in my garden, sometimes sitting on my front stoop.

Christine Culler

Venice