The demographics of a Westchester County village

The impression that I got from Duncan’s article is that the Bedford community were able to successfully implement segregation along economic and social lines. As Duncan states, this was done to significantly protect the social identities of the alpha and beta groups. It seems to be a pretty cut and dried case of the two groups combining to protect the aspects of their community through economic means, namely the enforcement of the local zoning code.

In the late 1930’s, when the zoning was created to protect the community from the suburbs that were starting to grow around New York City, they were clearly intended to separate the community along economic lines. It was probably also intended at the time as a means of controlling any minorities, like the Italians, Blacks, or any other deemed unworthy, since they would be unlikely to ever be able to afford real estate within either the alpha or beta group zones. And, by 1971, the date of Duncan’s study, that had remained largely true, with the white anglo-saxon majority remaining firmly in control of the economic and social aspects of the community. I find this to be extremely interesting since the community is only located 35 miles from New York City, which is considered the great melting pot of America. But, in retrospect, I shouldn’t be that surprised, since at the time, segregation had only just recently been made illegal and culturally unacceptable. But if the segregation were kept quiet and hidden behind economic driven zoning, it was still an acceptable practice. I wonder if Duncan were to do a study of the Bedford village would he find that the community is still so clearly segregated economically, socially and racially. I strongly believe the economic and social lines would still be firmly in place, after all most richer communities will tend to protect the status quo of where they live, the ‘I’ve got mine but you can’t have any’ syndrome. And, the Bedford community has shown that it is leading the way in this field. As to if it is still so clearly separated racially, it may very well be as Annie reports, that the vast majority of the citizenry are white anglo-saxons, but, I would bet that if a racial minority had the money to buy real estate in either the alpha or beta neighbor hoods, there would be nothing to stand in their way. They may not receive the warmest of welcomes socially, but if they were willing to conform with in the social norms of either group, they would most likely accepted within those circles as well since they would have demonstrated their economic qualifications and the willingness to fit in. And , if they were not to be accepted socially, than may not be such a large detriment as Duncan cites the level of neighbor to neighbor interaction amongst the alpha’s and beta’s to be relatively low.

After reading both Bickford’s article and Duncan’s, it seems to me that they show juxtaposed positions of how and why a community may exercise control of who and what is happening within it’s sphere of influence. Bickford makes the argument that a community like Bedford acts to enforce its segregation in quasi-totalitarian ways and that if democratic means were to be enforced, it could be made better. On the other hand, Duncan’s study shows a community using democratic process, has been able to maintain it’s identity.