No Place Like Home (click heels three times)

When Guterson says Green Valley is as much a verb as a noun, i think he is referring to the fact that not only is Green Valley a place, or home to many people, but is also a place of being. It has standards it must live up to according to many people's thoughts of what a gated community should be. On page 187, Guterson lists many rules of a gated community in order to "protect property values" this list includes the number of animals a resident may own, the exterior of the house, "plants in your yard, the angle of your flagpole, the size of your address numbers, the placement of mirrored glass balls and birdbaths." To many people, this may seem like an extreme exaggeration, but I know better. I have lived in such communities, and you have to pay thousands of dollars a year so a panel of rich snobs can tell you what you may or may not do with the house you paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for.
The tone of no place like home is extremely sarcastic. Guterson is literally shredding to pieces all people having to do with gated communities, from the builders to the owners. When he is interviewing home owners for example, he makes fun of the fact that they are deathly afraid of people finding out they said the things they did. He makes them seem extremely superficial. Another example is when he is talking about how gated communities really aren't that safe.
I believe that crime will be wherever humans reside. Simple metal structures will not keep out the hatred, jealous, ambitious species we have become, though they try. I live outside of Memphis, which has one of the highest crime rates in the country. My suburb has its stalkers, rapists, and robberies, but it is at a far less rate.