ABSTRACT
Residents of Bedford tend to have very strong place-based identities. The town is known throughout the New York metropolitan area as one of the most beautiful, and consequently one of the most expensive, outer suburbs. Residents not only have an emotional stake in preserving the look of the land, but also a very large financial stake as well. While there exists among residents a general consensus on the broad narrative structure of Bedford, the details are very much open to interpretation. Hence, as the two opening quotations suggest, one woman’s dream house is another woman’s nightmare. Although both expressed to us a wish to shut the door on new development, for the long-term resident, new houses not only spoil previously cherished views, but by the very fact of being new, they inauthentically represent Bedford in her mind.
