Gated

The gated community in Hemet doesn't seem like the best place for Eddie and Maria Lopez to raise their family anymore. Vandals knocked out the streetlight in front of the Lopezes' five-bedroom home and then took advantage of the darkness to try to steal a van. Cars are parked four deep in the driveway next door, where a handful of men rent rooms. And up and down their block of handsome single-family homes are padlocked doors, orange "no trespassing signs" and broken front windows.

Joining the ranks of teenage homeowners is "Hunger Games" star Josh Hutcherson, who has bought a place in the Hollywood Hills West area for $2.5 million. Called the Tree House, the 2,000-square-foot-plus house has been home at different times to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and the late actor Heath Ledger. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom house, built in 1951, sits behind gates on nearly a half-acre filled with sycamores. Features include glass walls, polished concrete floors, an office, beamed ceilings and video security.

The houses and manicured lawns slope up the artificial hill edged by unbroken sidewalks and white picket fences, as children play and residents exchange pleasantries. This sprawling subdivision called Bahria Town — "Come home to exclusivity," it boasts — operates its own garbage trucks, schools, firehouse, mosques, water supply and rapid-response force — a kind of functioning state within a nonfunctioning one. And all supplied without the bribes you'd pay on the outside, residents say. "I like living here," said Abdul Rashid, a sixtysomething retired government worker.

The Golden Gate Bridge turns 75 on Sunday culminating with a big festival from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. that day with fireworks, entertainment, exhibits and more. The Golden Gate Festival is free and will stretch along the waterfront from Fort Point to Fisherman's Wharf. Other tribute events happening all week and into summer to mark May 27, 1937, the day the bridge first opened to pedestrians. Here are some good bets for those heading to San Francisco next weekend: --A ferry cruise takes you under the Golden Gate Bridge in a two-hour loop that starts at Pier 43 1/2 and swings out around Angel Island.

Artist Ed Ruscha and his wife, Danna, have sold their Point Dume-area home in Malibu for $4 million. The 1-acre estate includes a gated, one-story ranch-style home that had been updated and two guesthouses. The main house has open-plan living and dining rooms, a breakfast area in the kitchen, an office, a family room and three bedrooms. The master suite opens to a swimming pool with spa. Extensive windows and French doors give the house an indoor-outdoor feel. The primary guesthouse contains two bedrooms and a living room with a fireplace.

The joggers returned Wednesday morning to the winding trails around Lake Hodges, along with the bird-watchers and the hikers swinging their long walking sticks. They came for the same reason as always, to enjoy a rural retreat amid the bustle of suburbia. But the park had changed. Down a worn path and around a bend was where Chelsea King, a high school senior from nearby Poway, was believed to have been attacked, killed and buried in a shallow grave. Her presumed death -- the coroner has yet to positively identify the body -- has shaken people in a place where many felt sheltered against the grimmer side of life.

Regarding "Gated Communities Called Data-Age Foe" (July 17) on telecomputing and information cities: Orange County's gated residential communities are criticized by an urban planner as inhibiting interaction between people involved in similar work. Actually, protected neighborhoods are a response to perceived threats to an "open" lifestyle. Within (and between) these communities, personal interaction is enhanced, not diminished, because people feel safe when venturing beyond their private domain.

Singer-songwriter John Mayer has sold his Pacific Palisades home for slightly less than $1.3 million. The gated, two-story contemporary has an atrium entry and a great room with a media area. Floor-to-ceiling windows flank the fireplace in the living room. Four bedrooms and 23/4 bathrooms lie in 3,648 square feet. The pop-rock-blues musician won the first of his seven Grammys in 2003 for "Your Body Is a Wonderland. " "Battle Studies," his fourth studio album, is a nominee in several Grammy categories this year.

Actor Jason Priestley has put his Toluca Lake home on the market for $2.1 million. A courtyard leads to the entrance of the gated 3,266-square-foot Mediterranean house, which was built in 1990 and recently refurbished. The family room opens to a formal dining room and covered patio. The master bedroom suite includes a stone fireplace and cathedral ceilings for a total of three bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms. There is a swimming pool and a spa. Known in the '90s for playing Brandon Walsh on "Beverly Hills, 90210," the 42-year-old Priestley now stars on the Canadian sitcom "Call Me Fitz.

Actress Sandra Will Carradine has listed her beach house in Carpinteria's gated Rincon Point community for $4.29 million. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage and one-bedroom, one-bathroom guest quarters sit on more than a quarter acre bordering the Rincon Creek estuary and the Pacific. The grounds include a Balinese-style temple, exotic gardens and a koi pond. Carradine spent years enhancing the property, which includes a 200-year-old cypress tree, redwoods, pines, palms, magnolia and olive trees and a rose garden.

Want to say happy birthday to the Golden Gate Bridge ? There's an app for that. OK, not quite, but the National Parks Conservancy had a free GoGGBridge app created to help celebrate the big day. (An Android version is to be released before the bridge's birthday on Sunday.) Here are some of its fine points and some of its lesser points. --A tap of the finger can make you a GG Bridge expert. The Nuts & Bolts facts include the bridge's length (1.7 miles long), weight (887,000 tons)

The Angels Gate lighthouse, graced by its distinctive vertical black stripes, gleams brighter at the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor today after an extensive restoration project. "Ain't she pretty?" asked Allan Johnson of the Cabrillo Beach Boosters Club, brushing his fingers across the octagonal base of the structure that has shined a reassuring beacon for coastal skippers entering the harbor for 99 years. On the eve of Thursday's unveiling forU.S. Coast Guardbrass and other dignitaries, San Pedro civic leaders made a final inspection of the cast-iron, wood and stucco tower that rears 73 feet into the air above the end of the breakwater, two miles offshore.

Visitors to the Golden Gate Bridge often pose a strange request: They want some of the bridge's International Orange paint. During construction, consulting architect Irving Morrow chose the color. He thought it would reflect nicely off the waters of the Golden Gate Strait below and blend well with the Marin headlands to the north. "I get asked all the time, 'Can I have a little bit of that paint? I want to paint the fence in front of my house,'" said Mary Currie, public affairs director for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which operates the bridge.

As its 75th birthday fast approaches, the Golden Gate Bridge is getting a little birthday present. Even though about 40 million vehicles cross it each year and visitors come in droves daily to admire and photograph it, the spectacular span has never had a visitor center. That is, until this month. "The bridge experience up to this point has just really been self-guided and a photo opportunity," said David Shaw, vice president of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. "Now there's this bridge pavilion, which is a really nice welcome center.

Collective Brands Inc., which owns footwear brands such as Sperry Top-Sider and Keds as well as the retailer Payless ShoeSource, will be split in two by multiple buyers in a purchase valued at $2 billion, including debt. Wolverine Worldwide, Blum Capital and Golden Gate Capital formed an acquisition company to buy Collective for $21.75 a share. The deal was unanimously approved by Collective's board and is expected to close by early in the fourth quarter. The price represents a 104% premium on Collective's 30-day average stock price before Aug. 24, when the company first announced that it was looking into a strategic and financial shift for its operations.

Offering dance styles as varied as pure classical and contemporary and jazz, the Laguna Dance Festival is presenting an array of dancers from around the country this weekend. "This is the most expansive program we have ever had," said Jodie Gates, founder and artistic director of the festival, which is in its seventh season this year. Over four performances beginning Thursday, dancers from the New York City Ballet, the Colorado Ballet, San Francisco's Smuin Ballet and innovative companies including Philadelphia's BalletX and the River North Dance Chicago will perform in the intimate Laguna Playhouse.

Musician Shannon Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars has purchased a bank-owned house in the Sunset Strip area for $900,000. The gated contemporary Mediterranean features a family room, an office, two fireplaces, a master suite with a sitting area, two other bedrooms and three bathrooms in about 2,600 square feet. Stairs off the back of the house lead to a wrought-iron enclosed swimming pool. Leto, 41, is the drummer for the rock band, whose latest album is "This Is War" (2009).

Bob and Carol Dawson love living in Baja California, but the region's violent reputation has put them on the defensive. They have been called delusional and reckless -- all because they choose to live in an oceanfront gated community about 30 or 40 miles and a world away from the U.S. border. Americans living in this part of Mexico are often grilled, half-jokingly, about their sanity. They get asked whether they've seen decapitated heads rolling down the street. Friends wonder whether they wear bulletproof vests or drive around in armored cars.

Actor Dan Cortese and his wife, DeeDee, have sold their house in Malibu for $2.6 million. The Mediterranean-style home, built in 1997, is in a gated community on more than three-quarters of an acre. The 6,322-square-foot house has a sweeping staircase entry, five bedrooms and six bathrooms. The actor, 44, starred in the TV series "Rock Me, Baby" (2003-04) and "Veronica's Closet" (1997-2000) and appeared in the 1995 season of "Melrose Place. " He hosted "Money Hungry" (2010)

Actress Priscilla Barnes, who was cast as a replacement roommate in the '80s sitcom "Three's Company," must have taken her role as a renter to heart. Barnes and her husband, Ted Monte, have become first-time homeowners with the purchase of a gated compound in Glendale for its asking price of $689,000. The property is more than a third of an acre and includes a main house, a guesthouse and stables. The main residence contains two bedrooms and two bathrooms. There is one bedroom and one bathroom in the guesthouse.