I did some research and learned some interesting stuff...
The closest one to my house if just across the property line and is in little danger of damage from winds as it's shape is a little different than most. I found out why - it's a Chanticleer, not a Bradford. For most purposes, the Chanticleer seems a far superior choice. Same flowers, will get taller but not too wide and has a lot of smaller braches at more of an upward angle. My previous next door neighbor did prune it.
Bradfords are bad news. I don't understand their popularity at all, especially since the Chanticleer is an option. If the tree has several large horizontal branches in close proximity to each other (most of them seem to look this way), it is pretty much on borrowed time unless you do some dramatic (read UGLY) pruning. The main reason I don't have a lot of pear wood is because I haven't put the effort into it; I just need to be a bit more industrious and follow up quickly. I live in a nice neighborhood with covenants and downed trees must be dealt with ASAP. People usually call a service within a day.
Pruning large branches on a Bradford is damage control. Most of the pruning should be done in the first 5 years.
We just recently had a 15' Yoshino Cherry planted out front. We decided against pear mostly because of the problems we have seen around here but also because there are so many. Knowing what I do now, I might have also considered the Chanticleer Pear, but I think we still would have gone with the cherry.
So now that I did a little research, I am reluctant to do much with the info with respect to Bradfords. Most of them are doomed already and I don't want to get blamed if I prune one and then it dies anyway or because the "one across the street" looks nicer and lives on without pruning.
EDIT - In case I am scaring any pear tree owners, "doomed" doesn't mean it will absolutely come down in the next breeze, just that the odds are a lot higher that it won't survive a storm than for most trees.
