Gated Gardens

Efforts are also underway to spruce up the facilities. Recent designs look more like private housing; the architecture has become less utilitarian and more environmentally aware. One planned development even has a beach and a boat dock. Still, while such schemes might tamp down resentment felt toward the select few who can afford the gated-access lifestyle on display at Sentosa Cove, they don't change the fact that in Singapore, one of the richest places in Asia, even the middle class are now risking getting off the private-property ladder.

© 2007