Duncan's Landscape... A Westchester County Village

This article really sparked an interest for me. As I first started reading it, I began to think about the different villages I have visited and how unfortunately this really does seem to be how our societies are living. It’s not that I never realized it before this article, but for some reason I never really gave it deep consideration.

I’m not really sure where to say that I grew up as far as a type of location. I definitely never considered it the county but I have heard people who have come to visit refer to it as just that, or “the middle of nowhere.” Growing up and attending public school I was exposed to many classes, races, ethnicities, etc. I definitely was not in the alpha group by any means but I wasn’t considered to be in the beta group either. So where did that leave me? Is there possibly an alpha/beta group? This article as well as Bickford’s article would lead us to believe that the answer to that question is “No.”

I married into a family who decided to adopt many children after having three biological white children of their own. Prior to adopting they were probably considered to be on the outskirts of the alpha landscape. Once they began adopting children, who were multiple races, their landscape shifted to beta. They did move to a more suburban area out of the large county landscape they had previously been living, and the organizations they belonged to began to decrease. They were never considered high class and were always working class; however, upon adopting the racially different children, some members of the different organizations they belonged to began to separate themselves from the family. Looking at this situation only reiterates some of the points in these two articles that there is a clear segregation between the areas that we live in.

Prior to reading these articles, I never really thought of the suburbs or the CIDs or PUDs as middle class, and the simplistic buildings located outside of town as the higher class, in fact, I considered them the exact opposite. These articles made me take a step back and reconsider my perceptions. As I began to think about this I realized that the way they are perceived in the articles makes complete sense. To start with we all know that the market for land is astronomical. That fact right there raises red flags when it comes to value of the different properties we are discussing. A simple house on a large acreage property is going to be valued much higher than a “McMansion” located in the suburbs. The aesthetically pleasing large buildings are not what drive the values in our economy today. So, sure you might have a simple house, and you might fight to keep that house and make sure there are no changes in your “neighborhood,” but you will still be the “higher class” that others are striving to become. Others will continue to purchase the large houses that look like a million bucks, and do cost a pretty penny I might add, but their location, or landscape, will still place them in the middle or working class. It’s similar to the idea that you drive by a rundown residence and there sitting in the driveway is a shiny BMW. Today people tend to believe that if they portray to the public that they are well off it will present new and higher opportunities for them.

Unfortunately, as these articles state, this is not completely accurate. Sometimes it does, but more often than others it doesn’t. It has been researched and found that it is very hard for people today to make a step up in the class system. We still have the segregation as these articles point out, Duncan’s more factual than Bickford’s, and it is still hard for some to cross over to another class no matter how hard they work or how much money they have. I liked that Duncan pointed out that although the wait list for the country club is 10 years, if you know the right people, the wait could only be two. Power is who you know in most situations in today’s society.

So I end with this. As I said before, I don’t know which landscape I grew up in. My husband I have not purchased our first house yet, and won’t be looking for another 5 years or so. However, I don’t know where I will end up. I don’t want to be considered in the alpha because I don’t like that it is so segregated. However, I want more than the beta. Like I stated at the beginning of the response, is there a middle to these and if not can we one day create one?

Oh, one more note, I now live about 15 minutes from Bedford and plan to make a trip there, hopefully today, but definitely this week. If I find anything interesting compared to this article I will be sure to post it or let you all in on it when we see each other in Boston.