Public opinion notwithstanding, the U.S. Constitution does not enshrine a right to privacy. Yes, it does provide protection against unlawful search and seizure, which implies that unless warranted, homes and cars and laptops cannot be searched, but a sharply worded “right” to privacy can’t be found.
Most of us, however, consider our private lives sacrosanct, except for those details we voluntary disclose to others. Matters of money, sex, political opinion, religious belief – even our favorite color – we consider nobody else’s business unless we offer that information voluntarily. In our digital age and in the midst of a burgeoning surveillance society, however, many of our historical assumptions about privacy no longer apply.
Human beings have always lived together in groups; we are social animals, and forming communities is part of what makes us who we are. Within a family and the confines of a household, privacy is less of an expectation. Those we live with know which cereal we like to eat, our favorite shoes, and whether or not we’ve brushed our teeth. Ideally, parents keep a close eye on the behavior of infants and toddlers, letting little information about them go unnoticed.
Once we leave the confines of home, the nature of privacy changes. On public streets and mass transport and in the workplace we reveal information about ourselves each day; CCTV records us at the ATM, credit card transactions gather information about our consumer tastes and habits, internet use is compiled and affects the type of ads we see while surfing the web, and our movements are tracked through cell phones. Past assumptions about privacy are increasingly outdated.
When we gather together in towns and villages, we must accept responsibility to think about the common welfare, not just our own. We are forced to accept that how we behave is constrained by laws and conventions designed to protect safety, our own and the safety of others. This responsibility does not disappear, even when we are within the confines of our own property. The decisions we make affect others, and if those decisions create unsafe conditions we must correct them, like choosing to grow high hedges next to driveways; this is the price we pay for choosing to live in a community.
The community of Sonoma is currently talking about high street-front hedges in residential neighborhoods. Complaints have been filed about the risk to pedestrians and others when tall hedges obscure sight lines at driveways where they meet the sidewalks. Current city codes require that hedges, fences, and retaining walls at the front of the property line not exceed 42” in height. This regulation is partly a matter of aesthetics, an attempt to prevent the feeling and appearance of a walled-off neighborhood. The greater purpose of the regulation, however, is safety. An auto backing out of a driveway has limited visibility, and a tall hedge adjacent to the end of the driveway makes visibility of pedestrians far worse.
Residents of homes with large hedges abutting the sidewalk argue that such hedges provide privacy, and that they are entitled to it. Even if one accepts front-yard privacy as a legitimate argument, it extends only as far as safety, and unsafe conditions must be cured. Line of sight standards should be enforced, which may mean as little as an adjustment in the position of some hedges. We sacrifice privacy for safety all the time; it’s normal.
A possible compromise in the technological modern age would be to require owners of high hedges that obscure cars backing out of hidden driveways to install warning systems of flashing lights, horns, etc to warn passing pedestrians of approaching doom, as well as alert the drivers of cars leaving the driveway of approaching pedestrians and approaching cars on the street. All installed and maintained at the expense of the high-hedge owner. Privacy in the 21st century, be it a high front privacy hedge in Sonoma, an exclusive mansion high on a hill in a gated community like George Ranch or a pair of cheap calico curtains to cover a streetlevel window in a Manhatten apt., comes at a price, as it always has.
A 42 inch hedge means you have a clear sight line as you walk down to street. You can also greet people who may be in their yards. It means a friendly community. But just imagine how unfriendly the neighborhood becomes with 10 foot hedges. I enjoy walking down Spain St. to the Plaza, St. Francis Solano or Sonoma Market. You can see! How dreary it would be if their were high hedges the length of Spain St. on both sides. Do we want more isolation or a community?