Monday, July 3, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin Weekly Column.


Mayor’s Column: July 3, 2023.

Today, as walked by some of our very decorative store fronts festooned with red white and blue, it brought a smile of gratitude for our country and the desire to learn more about the origins of the Fourth of July.

Often forgotten in the equation, all of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were truly brave Americans, as they were fully aware that when they penned their signatures in Philadelphia, it was an act of treason, punishable by death.

To a person, they were well educated, propertied and of considerable means and standing who had much to lose, but as they said, “They valued liberty more.” 
The now famous John Hancock; wealthy merchant, Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Second Continental Congress, signed first and so boldly so, “The British Ministry can read my name without spectacles.”

Every one of the 56 Members of the Second Continental Congress who penned their signatures paid dearly.  Nine died of wounds or hardship during the War of Independence; five were in prison for decades, five were captured as traitors and tortured and killed.  Several had wives, sons and even entire families killed. One signer lived to see all 13 of his children murdered.

Every signer was a victim of manhunts with huge bounties on their heads. They lived on the run, leaving prosperous farms, shipping businesses, and law practices. Twelve signers had their homes and property burned to ruins and 17 lost everything dying destitute, yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word.

With poetic justice, on the 50th anniversary of their signing, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the Fourth of July within hours of each other and five years to the day, James Madison also passed on the fourth.

As FDR reminded us over 70 years ago on the holiday, “Those of us who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy today forget that men died to win them.”

Despite all the hardship endured, John Adams felt July 4 must be a festive occasion, and wrote to Abigail that he wanted the fourth, “to be celebrated with pomp and parades, with shows, games, sports, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other.”

We have certainly lived up to President Adams wishes!

On a lighter note, the Fourth of July is the most popular day for barbecuing and Americans spend $6.7 billion on food: the most popular food, not surprisingly being the hotdog, as we will eat 150 million of them on Tuesday with about 86% of Americans planning to celebrate the holiday.

The Fourth is also one of the country‘s most prolific holidays for drinking right up there with Super Bowl Sunday and St. Patrick’s Day with $3 billion spent on beer and wine alone.

Around the holiday, Americans buy more than 6.5 million flags with 99% of them made in China.

$7 billion will be spent on fireworks and not surprisingly, 74% of all fireworks injuries occur within the weeks surrounding the Fourth.

Surprisingly, the Fourth of July was not made a federal holiday until 1870, nearly 100 years after the nation was founded and it was not a paid federal holiday until 1941. During World War II, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution spent the duration in Fort Knox. Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, both documents were packed in 150 pounds of protective gear and escorted via train by the Secret Service to Louisville.

For those who appreciate document edits, after Jefferson wrote the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence, the other members of the draft committee including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman made 86 changes, including shortening the overall length by more than a fourth. 
Jefferson was quite unhappy about the edits, particularly the removal of language condemning the British promotion of the slave trade, even though he was a slave owner and Robert Livingston, though a member of the writing committee, refused to sign the document 
as he believed it was too soon to declare independence.

At the time Benjamin Franklin proposed that the turkey be named the official national bird in the narrative but he was overruled by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson who recommended as a side edition, that it be the bald eagle. 
 
There are actually five references to God in the Declaration of Independence and the stars on the original flag were in a circle so that all 13 colonies would appear equal.

What is probably the most widely held misconception is that the document was actually signed on July 4, 1776.

In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776 a day John Adams believed would be, “The most important epoch in the history of America.” 
Only two men signed on the fourth, one being the famous John Hancock with the other 54 signing over the course of several months not days.

Quotes made by the founders surrounding the creation of the document are timeless and certainly quite apropos.

“For true patriots to be silent, is dangerous.”—Samuel Adams

“If ever the time should come, when vain & aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”—Samuel Adams

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”—Thomas Jefferson

 

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Mayor Mary Marvin: Mayor's Column Week of June 26th.


Mayor’s Column: June 26, 2023.

Our treasured bookstore has just set up a Go Fund Me page with the hopes of generating revenue in order to continue initiatives that will keep the bookstore going and growing.

So far your generosity, just on a person to person appeal basis, has generated $50,000 towards a goal of $150,000. To donate click here to be directed to their Go Fund Me page.

The changes anticipated with this funding infusion include launching an in-store café already in the works; revitalizing the space by removing the drop ceiling to reveal  the original pressed tin ceiling and skylight 10 feet above; replacing  worn carpet with durable hardwood, installing better lighting and most importantly, promoting in-store events, community partnerships and customer loyalty programs  to ensure sustainability.

Events anticipated include more author visits, children’s activities, a nexus for book groups, introduction of monthly new titles and expanding online access and purchase.

The comprehensive business plan calls for an increase in annual revenue of 15% based on similar sized stores with cafés. The café alone should conservatively generate a 5% growth, leaving 10% to be developed through the enhanced programs.

As you may recall, twenty year Village residents, Barbara and Morin Bishop, purchased the 85 year old bookstore just six months before the pandemic struck, virtually eliminating the opportunity for any in-store programs, let alone in store customer purchasing and they have been struggling to recover from this grievous blow ever since.

Let’s be honest, no one gets into book selling to make millions so independent booksellers like the Bishops sell books because they enjoy doing so as they are passionate readers with a deep faith in the value of the written word.

Currently, the landscape is bleak for the small independent bookstore as the behemoths completely invade the space. More than one independent bookstore has closed each week since the pandemic and currently 20% of independent bookstores across the country are in danger of closing. But we need not worry about Amazon as it has doubled its net profit year after year to $5.2 billion compared to $2.6 billion at this time in 2019. Amazon’s Q4 revenue  is also projected to exceed $100 billion for the first time making it one of the very few American companies ever to achieve that alongside only Walmart and Exxon.

So why is it worth it when it seems so much more convenient to order a book at midnight that someone told you about on your way home from work instead of waiting to call Womraths the next morning? On the very well documented financial front and just reaffirmed by the firms Civic Economics, using the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago as a template, trading independent retailers for big box chains unequivocally weakens the local economy.

This occurs because while local stores recycle a much larger share of their sales revenue back into the local economy, most of the dollars spent at chain stores immediately leave the community, sending profits back to corporate headquarters or to distant suppliers.

In contrast to national chains, local businesses conduct all management functions on site, spend a higher percentage of their revenue on local labor, spend more than two times as much purchasing goods and services from other local businesses, use local banks, locally hired accountants, attorneys, designers, and advertise in local media. Approximate 28% of all independent bookstore revenue immediately re-circulates in the local economy compared to that of Amazon, which research documents a recirculating rate of 4%. Or as someone said buy books from people who want to sell books and help your town, not colonize the moon. Bookstores pay into state and local taxes that support our public infrastructure programs. Just a perusal of the Village budget would most certainly attest to that. A book may seem like a small purchase, but whenever you buy locally, you are sustaining your community.

Buying local also means less packaging, less transportation and a smaller carbon footprint and there is no need for two day shipping in cartons when you can pick up your book directly from the bookstore by walking there. Very important to our community in particular, on average charitable giving by local businesses is five times that of chain stores. As you can clearly notice when we have wonderful fundraisers at the schools and churches, the donations are never courtesy of Amazon or even Barnes and Noble.

The hope is that informed people like Village residents will realize the cost and consequences of “convenience “shopping before it’s too late.

Equally important is the non-economic benefits to a community like ours. A revitalized bookstore can be a beacon of the core values of our community: creativity, convening with neighbors, civility and just interpersonal contact as we browse the shelves together in search of something, perhaps not yet known, and enjoying the delights of accidental learning and discovery.

bookstore presents a logical location for community interaction and perhaps making a reader friend in a meaningful face-to-face way. Bookstores are also never a sad place for a community. Part of the new philosophy of bookstores is to become what is now called a “third place”, not home or work or school, but a critical area for relationship building, exchanging ideas, or just relaxing and perhaps becoming a hub for book clubs, story times, author talks, writing workshops or just sometimes a nice quiet place to be alongside the book you are loving.

Neighborhood bookstores also highlight the work of regional and even very local authors and small presses and will also be a window for display of local events.

We know the pride we all take in all good deeds; as example, our new composting program, doing more recycling, planting trees, reducing our carbon footprint, donating to a charity that needs us or even limiting our tech time. I think the same warm feeling could apply to shopping locally. As you can gather, I feel quite passionate about retaining our local character and ethos via the bookstore. As I said in a recent column, “The Village has many stores, all part of the fabric of our unique small downtown, but some represent more than just a business, an edifice, and represent what a community wants to be. Personally, I cannot imagine our special home without our bookstore. It says something about what we value and hold dear. Our bookstore at 85 years old is iconic, a wonderful throwback, but in so many ways so is our one square mile and perhaps why we treasure it so.”

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Mayor's Column April 24, 2023.


Mayor’s Column: April 24, 2023.

“Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”  Joyce Kilmer

On this Friday, April 27, the entire nation celebrates Arbor Day.

As commemoration, we plan to plant a new beech tree to replace the one we lost to disease on Beechtree Lane, so named for that venerable and exquisite tree.

In addition, Arbor Day will signal the start of our street tree planting throughout the Village.

In the spirit of Arbor Day, the Village will redouble efforts to plant trees lost in the past decade due to storms, as well as trimming and feeding those that survived. We recognize they are our most valuable natural resource as the benefits of trees make them the best bang for the buck in preserving the character and health of our Village.

My colleagues on the Village’s Green Committee feel exactly the same way, and they are writing their column this week about the importance of what truly are the lungs of the planet.

Our double mention just emphasizes the critical need for healthy trees in our Village.

As point of history, the first Arbor Day originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska on April 10, 1872 when an estimated 1 million trees were planted in one day.

The brainchild behind this Herculean effort was J. Sterling Morton, a westward pioneer born in Detroit. Morton was a journalist who soon became editor of Nebraska’s premier newspaper, which became his voice to advocate for families and civic organizations to plant the trees/species they so missed from their home states. 
According to accounts, Nebraska City celebrated Arbor Day with grand parades and school children planting and then caring for the trees they planted.

In 1885, it became a legal holiday in Nebraska, and other states soon followed with 45 of them celebrating by 1920. The first documented Arbor Day worldwide was celebrated in the Spanish village of Mondonedo in 1594 when the entire community planted lime and horse chestnut trees and today 44 other nations worldwide celebrate the holiday.

On April 15, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt issued the, “Arbor Day Proclamation” to the school children of the United States emphasizing the importance of trees and forestry.

Forty nations now have national observances.

We all know that trees are essential as a food source, harboring wildlife, lumber, pulp and take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but did you know that a single acre of trees could produce enough oxygen for 18 people for an entire year and absorb the same amount of CO2 produced by 26,000 car miles? Staying in the energy realm, just three trees placed strategically around a single-family home can cut summer air conditioning needs by 50%.

Trees placed in commercial areas can lower temperatures in a parking lot and break up the black top “heat islands.”

The net cooling effect of just one young healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.

In all facets of the quality of life, the importance of a healthy tree stock cannot be overstated.

Trees absorb odors and pollutant gases and filter dirty particles out of the air. 
Shade from trees also slows water evaporation from thirsty lawns and parks. Trees reduce runoff by breaking rainfall, thus allowing the water to float down the trunk and into the earth below the tree. The slow runoff also prevents erosion by holding soil in place.

Of great importance is the role they play on school property and playgrounds as trees reduce UV -8 exposure by almost 50%, providing protection to children playing outdoors.

Trees on private property also produce great monetary benefit. Studies have demonstrated that 10 to 23% of the value of a residence is based on its tree stock.

More intangible, but so important nonetheless, is the value of trees in marking the seasons, calming a stark landscape, acting as neighborhood landmarks and points of identity. They also serve as symbolic links to the past when other connections have long since gone.

Recent studies also show that being around trees can have a calming effect, relaxing brain waves, and reducing our heart rates while offering our eyes visions of beauty. These varied and truly amazing benefits are why we think celebrating Arbor Day is so important and we encourage you as a family to plant a tree, native shrubs or even a patio container garden this weekend as according to an old Chinese proverb, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Mayor's Column.


Mayor’s Column: April 3, 2023.

I am honestly working as hard as I can to share how the Governor’s “Housing Compact” would not only affect Bronxville but all small communities especially in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties that have rail lines in their municipalities.

In the interest of full disclosure, the following, in speech like form, is what I have been sharing with other communities as well as organizations that have sought my input.

By necessity, the remarks to follow have been edited based on speaking time limits and the tone and tenor of the audience.

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I will just give you facts, not my view, how this Housing Compact affects a small Village such as mine, which is Bronxville, just under one square mile.

A little background:

In the Governor’s budget, school-aid will increase by 10% to $34.5 billion. Aid to municipalities will increase by zero in all categories of local assistance. It remains flat at $750 million, even though the Governor’s budget has an increase of $7 billion.

Some Food for Thought Re: the Housing Compact

In a New York Times article titled, Hochul’s Massive Campaign Fortune: Here’s Who It Came From, “Governor Hochul received the legal limit in campaign donations of $69,700 from dozens of New York City’s biggest real estate firms, including Vornado Realty Trust. Douglas Durst, who chairs the influential Real Estate Board, personally gave $55,000; members of the Rudin, Tishman and Speyer families collectively contributed more than $400,000.  All of the top executives at Related Companies maxed out in contributions.”

As stated in the Times, “Few industries gave more than real estate and frequently in large amounts and large developers are keenly watching how Hochul will not only approach large state funded capital projects, but the future of the state’s affordable housing law.”

So this is where we are.

Caveat: My community completely understands the need for affordable/workforce housing and wants to be part of a cooperative, collaborative solution. As Martin Luther King said, “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." 

I have been in contact so far with over two dozen Mayors, all of whom are from Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Not one of us has been contacted by the Governor’s office as to how this law might actually play out especially in small communities.

Bronxville: Part One of the program requires a community such as Bronxville to increase housing by 3% every 3 years, which translates into 75 units per cycle. The Governor has stated that, “This legislation is to build housing for employees, this is for families; this is for senior citizens.” Given how the legislation is written, every community could meet their requirement by a developer building above market co-ops or condos, clearly not meeting the affordable objective. Given our density, which is the highest in Westchester along with Pelham and Tuckahoe, even to do that would require us to tear down existing structures and/or violate our own local zoning. But important: no affordable housing is required in Part One.

Should we miss this deadline, a mechanism will be triggered by the state for mixed income, multifamily projects, notwithstanding any local zoning, planning or land-use regulations to the contrary for the developer who steps in. This includes no height, parking, historical or environmental concerns.

We are also part of the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) compulsory new zoning law requiring the Village to pass a density law allowing 50 units per acre in the half-mile radius surrounding our train station. As written, 2/3 of Bronxville would be a transit oriented development site.

A Village of 6600 people and 2650 homes and a school capacity near 1500, the new law would allow the building of 10,000 potential new housing units. The cost of this TOD mandate would include the Village’s expenses for water and sewer service, police coverage, fire protection, road construction, parking and the education of students.

The Governor has offered $250 million statewide to help cover these costs. As example, our neighbors in Mount Vernon need this amount just to fix their current aging water/sewer infrastructure.

To be conservative, this amount of money could probably assist one medium sized city in the State, resulting in the largest unfunded mandate in State history.

As the flooding is so constant in Bronxville, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation designated our area their next to study and assist. While we are fighting hard for flood monies on the one hand, the lack of any environmental reviews would allow high-rises to be built on these same floodplains.

Like many other communities in Westchester, our infrastructure is over 125 years old and we live in a Town that’s over 350 years old. We are going to be bonding millions of dollars just to give the current residents the water and sewer services that are needed for a healthy environment.

A community with 2650 housing units expected to absorb 10,000 more units by legislation is incomprehensible.

I will end with the words of Nelson Mandela who said, “Lead from the back and let others believe they are in the front”, and less gently, the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, “You do not lead by hitting people over the head; that is assault, not leadership.”

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Mayor's Column Week of March 27, 2023.


Mayor’s Column: March 27, 2023.

Per New York State procedure, the Village has filed a 2023-2024 tentative budget.

As currently proposed, the budget requires a tax rate of 3.589 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation resulting in a 2.39% increase in real property taxes for the next fiscal year.

In real dollars, the effect is thus:

  • At the village median property assessment of $2,500,000 with a tax rate of 3.589, the tax increase in real dollars would be $210 for a home of that value making a total median Village tax bill $8972.50.

Chief components of the budget include:

  • A total general fund appropriation of $19,486,740 representing an increase of $997,100 or 5.39% from the 2022-2023 adopted budget.
  • Non-real property tax revenues of $6,781,740 representing an increase of $418,500 or 6.57% above last year.
  • Use of $700,000 from the unappropriated fund balance.
  • Use of tax stabilization funds of $125,000 from our tax stabilization reserve fund.
  • A real estate tax levy increase of 4.67% (in excess of the allowable tax cap levy)
  • A taxable value of $3,301,663,900, representing an increase of $72,891,325 from last year.
  • A general fund contribution of $1,558, 588 to the library fund representing an increase of $71,729 or 4.8% above last year.
  • The result is an unassigned fund balance as of May 31 projected to be 43% of operating, exclusive of use of $700,000 for the 2023-2024 fiscal year and another $375,000 assigned for tax stabilization to be applied over the next three years.

The budget accounts for above average expense growth in employee benefits, principally retirement contribution, healthcare premiums, and Worker’s Compensation premiums, which are offset in part by strong non-real property tax revenue growth from sales tax and building permits.

The budget also includes reduction in use of unassigned fund balance by $75,000 while also requiring the use of tax stabilization monies to be applied equally over the next three years to offset debt service growth until the next bond is paid off in 2026.

Most importantly, this budget ensures that healthy fund balance remains intact enabling the Village to borrow for future capital needs at the lowest possible interest rates while allowing for maximum flexibility for its use.

To that end, the budget includes an extensive list of capital projects, either currently underway or planned for prioritization.

They include:

  • We continue our aggressive maintenance of our 125-year-old water delivery system. Starting on planned Phases 4 & 5, we will be cleaning, televising, repairing, replacing and re-lining sewers throughout the Village.
  • On the stormwater front, we will also be adding more catch basins and expanding our water conveyance systems.
  • To accomplish all of thiswe have taken on debt of $2 million. But thanks to our excellent fund balance, we received an interest rate of 1.7%.
  • Quite visible, we are upgrading the entire intersection at Midland Avenue and Pondfield Road. The supply chain finally came through with the regulation mastheads now required by the State of New York and we have, as part of a walkability initiative, widened the sidewalks around the intersection, created bump outs to slim down the size of the road, fixed the curbs and will be adding a pedestrian push button signalization system.
  • The intersection at Gramatan Avenue and Pondfield Road will also have new traffic signals consistent with state requirements. The entire project will cost approximately $1.2 million.
  • In an effort to maximize our precious open space ,we will be improving Dogwood Park (the parkland straddling both Kensington  and Sagamore Roads), with a new sprinkler system, topsoil, seeding, new trees, and curbing as well as improving drainage on the Sagamore Road side.
  • At other end of Sagamore Road, we will be adding two new play structures in the park to replace some well-worn equipment at the cost of $150,000.
  • We are also spending the same amount of money as part of a public /private partnership at Maltby Park to enhance that entire open space with play equipment, landscaping, benches, and picnic tables.
  • Capital funds will be spent on bank stabilization at the two Bronx River water outfalls near Scout Field with a goal of mitigating area flooding.
  • As for physical needs, the Village is purchasing a needed new garbage truck, a pickup truck for the DPW, one new police car and a sewer jet cleaner so we can clean our sewers going forward without hiring outside companies.
  • On the security front, we will be upgrading our entire existing camera infrastructure as well as purchasing an additional license plate reader.

We anticipate our public works equipment to last much longer going forward now that we have a new closed garage to store this very specialized equipment.

This is just a preview of projects as we hope to add as many more as possible as money and time permits.

Any thoughts you have for capital improvements needed around the Village are so welcome.

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Mayor's Column March 6, 2023.


Mayor’s Column: March 6, 2023.

My column this week could be aptly titled:

What is going on in Albany?

Of course, the Governor Hochul’s “Housing Compact” and its implications for our Village is our number one priority, and we work daily with our Westchester colleagues to voice our opposition. As I have said many times, the concept of expanding affordable housing is beyond laudable but the execution in this plan is devastating for small communities throughout Westchester and Long Island in particular. Our legislators have been beyond supportive in uniting with us in opposition but my greatest concern is the unprecedented influence the New York City representatives have in Albany on our Governor, as they delivered a campaign victory and now loom large in influence. My prior column on the proposed Housing Compact can be found here.

Though by far the most consequential legislation in terms of consequence for the Village, there are other proposals in Albany that affect the Village.

As example, school aid across the state, increased by 10% to $34.5 billion but municipal aid increased zero for the fourteenth straight year in the budget and remains at a static $750 million. The same is true for transportation funding, the Pave Our Potholes Program and the Extreme Weather Recovery Fund. In essence, per the state budget the Village is on its own for repairs and maintenance even though overall the budget was increased by a whopping $7 billion.

In a positive development, in the area of criminal justice reform, the Governors’ Executive Budget proposes to give judges more discretion to set bail by removing the requirement that at the time of arraignment, they must apply the “least restrictive standard” for certain offenses.

The executive budget also increases a “violent crime initiative “by $110 million to $337 million to address gun violence and various adult and youth prevention plans throughout the state. Another $40 million would also added to hire hundreds of new prosecutors to support district attorneys in developing crime strategy and reducing case backlog. 
 
Again on a positive front for the Village in this Executive Budget as in so many in the past, the Governor has proposed changing the current 9% fixed interest rate on all municipal court judgments or accrued claims to a formula fixed to the market rate. If enacted, this would not only generate savings for local governments, but would also remove the incentive for plaintiffs to unnecessarily delay proceedings. The proposed change would simply conform the formula used by a vast majority of the rest of the states.

Similarly hopeful; is a proposed change to the Civil Service system to speed up the process of recruitment examinations as well as offering tests online with immediately scoring.

As background to understand the civil service law presently in action, if the Village needs a new police officer, we “canvas” the current list of test takers. By law, the top three scorers, whether they have the personal skills, interest in small-town policing or personality/character is irrelevant as they must be hired before we can “reach” the next 4 to 100 applicants.

Everyone must play a waiting game, either hoping someone hires them, or they take themselves off the list. That can extend from months to a year plus. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that the exam is given so infrequently  that a need  to hire a qualified police officer that meets the Bronxville requirements can literally take years.

In addition to legislation percolating in Albany, it is also important to take the temperature of our State and understand its health.

After attending a meeting with Comptroller DiNapoli, I learned we are at a 4.3% unemployment rate with 2 million or 87% of the jobs lost during Covid returned to the economy.

Sales tax revenues statewide are up 12% but this number is most reflective of inflation and a 20% increase in New York City tourism post pandemic.

 

Our New York State Employees’ Pension Fund is funded at 102.9%, the only state in the union funded above 100%. Last year it had a 9% rate of return with half of the pension money invested in the stock market.

Sadly, closing with bad news, we have $1.6 billion in new Medicaid costs and Governor Hochul just added some of that burden as a trickle down to the counties with Westchester getting an unexpected $40 million in new expenses, which will be reflected in our county taxes.

According to Moody’s, we are also the second most indebted state in the country, just trailing California.

I end with an unfortunately apropos quote by Mark Twain who said, “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”

 

 

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Bronxville Insider: Mayor Mary Marvin: Weekly Column.


Mayor’s Column: January 23, 2023.

A proposal to add a new crosswalk on the Route 22 corridor has generated much discussion of late.

In a quest to keep the conversation going, the Trustees and I want to clarify a few points.

The proposed Route 22 crosswalk is just one of many in a continuum of “walkability” initiatives that the Village has undertaken over the past 3+ years to accentuate our small size, ease of access and desire to have less vehicular traffic.

Other initiatives have included the redesign of the West Side Traffic Circle, the improvements at the Masterton Road/Midland Avenue intersection, the soon to be installed pedestrian buttons at the reconfiguration of the Pondfield Road/Midland Avenue intersection and the new sidewalk connecting Avon Road to the Tuckahoe Village line.

All sections of the Village continue to be explored comprehensively to facilitate increased “walkability” – consistent with our planning goals identified in the Village’s Comprehensive Plan which was updated in 2020.

The Route 22 corridor was a logical additional focus as this northeast quadrant, lying north of Pondfield Road and east of Midland Avenue, has the least walkability infrastructure in the Village. The Village also retains a right of way easement at the intersection of Paddington Circle and Ridgecroft Road to facilitate pedestrian passage through these neighborhoods.

As guidance, the New York State Department of Transportation recommends crosswalks every quarter-mile through similarly situated residential areas and there are no crosswalks within the half-mile stretch on Route 22 between Pondfield Road and Tanglewylde Avenue under consideration.

Similar to other projects in process throughout the Village, some completed, others in mid or early stages, the crosswalk concept at Route 22 has been long under discussion. As far back as 2015, residents have asked for a crosswalk in this corridor and in December 2020, citizens requested a meeting to further advance the request.

Bolstered by a petition, signed by 60 families, from this time forward, the issue has been discussed in various outlets including: Board of Trustee public meetings, the minutes that follow and are published on the Village website, the Village newsletter - “One Square Mile”, Mayor’s Columns, as well as at an open public Town Hall meeting on October 2021 with no dissention voiced.

Simultaneously, under the walkability umbrella initiative, Village government did, and continues to, advocate for safer pedestrian crossings at both the intersection of Route 22 at Pondfield Road and at Tanglewylde Avenue.

In addition to an earlier County funded study, the Village employed Toole and BFJ Traffic Engineers to not only review the crosswalk concept, but to brainstorm concepts for creating safer routes to the Bronxville School, in particular in this corridor, with safety the primary focus. These professional teams devised conceptual ideas, including striping walking lanes in the direction of the school and creating no parking zones throughout. The entire Board of Trustees resoundingly and unanimously rejected those proposals/concepts for the corridor in question. We recognized that they were very safe concepts, but that they did not fit the neighborhood. Toole Associates offered additional safe passage proposals, concentrating on the Elm Rock Road corridor. They included raised bumps or “jellybeans” and striped pedestrian lanes. Like the previous suggestions, they were resoundingly rejected.    

Net net, what is the only issue under discussion at this juncture is a delineated crosswalk from Dusenberry Road to Elm Rock Road (or some other location) and possibly an extension of sidewalk. Nothing else is on the table.

Recognizing that this is the most collegial of Villages and a place where people expect to be heard, and rightly so, the Trustees and I have acknowledged that we should have given formal, individual notice to residents in the Elm Rock Road environs so that any local dissenting views could have been recognized earlier in the process. As a group, we apologized and acknowledged our error.

As a result, in respecting the uniqueness of the unity and neighborliness of our small Village, the Board of Trustees have put on hold/pause any work regarding a crosswalk on Route 22 until after the following:

  • Retaining a traffic engineer to evaluate all prior studies and conduct an independent review including New York States findings regarding our request to reduce the maximum speed limit to 25 m.p.h.
  • Prior to said study, we as a Board of Trustees, plan on issuing a Village wide survey soliciting further community input on the topic with a distribution date of next week.
  • When the surveys are tabulated and the independent traffic review is submitted, we will hold a second Town Hall meeting to present the analysis.
  • In essence, we are asking the seminal questions:

* Is there a type of crosswalk that will improve safety for     pedestrians crossing Route 22 in the half mile stretch between    Pondfield Road and Tanglewylde Avenue?

* If so, is there sufficient demand for such crosswalk?

* If answered in the affirmative, where is the ideal placement of    such crosswalk?

The bottom line is the Village will never install any crosswalk that is not supported from a safety perspective by an independent traffic engineer and the New York State Department of Transportation which ultimately controls Route 22 as it is a state road.

In the interim, we welcome feedback/conversation and we are all available to meet in person, by zoom or by phone.

Mayor Mary Marvin

Deputy Mayor Robert Underhill

Trustee Helen Knapp

Trustee William Fredericks

Trustees Mary Taylor Behrens

Bronxville Insider: Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin Weekly Column.

Mayor’s Column:  July 3, 2023. Today,  as  I  walked  by  some  of our very decorative store fronts festooned with red white and blue, it br...