EDITOR’S NOTE: City of New Rochelle announced today that The State of the City will be rebroadcast today on Cablevision/Verizon beginning at 8 a.m. and then every other hour until 10 p.m. Communications and Marketing Manager Kathy Gilwit cautioned that the video was edited due to a technical glitch. Gilwit hopes to have the video on the City’s web site later today and a better edited version of the speech available online by the end of the week.
Despite the economy, Mayor Noam Bramson of New Rochelle claimed the State of the City is “strong.” Citing a responsible city budget which cut spending $3 million this year, he added that the Federal Stimulus Package will help the city. Among the “wide ranging strategies” he proposed were reduction of energy costs. Another was being granted the ability to increase the utility tax to 3% to achieve a 7% reduction in taxes. He suggested that employee raises, especially police and fireman, be deferred because the alternative would be damaging cuts in the budget.
Bramson claimed “smart growth” with development will attract investment to the city’s central core, especially by increasing density, while growth in other neighborhoods will be limited and controlled. Claiming the Le Count Square project, the largest in the city, was “bipartisan,” he said Echo Bay was a century in the making and the proposed developer is committed to moving forward. Bramson added the “risk takers deserve our support now more than ever.”
Residents, he suggested, should support the restaurants, artists, and retail businesses in the city. He felt waiting to act is the worst thing we could possibly do. Citing the study which stated New Rochelle was the best place in New York State to raise children, he vowed “we will succeed.”
Reaction to the talk follows.
Lou Trangucci, Councilman District 2, does not believe in increasing density because density equals more children in the schools. He has previously gone on the record on this issue because the schools are already at full capacity. Adding density is going to cause problems for taxpayers, especially if another school is needed. He asked the representative of the developer for Echo Bay, Abe Naperstek, if Forest City would contribute to building a new school if it was needed and he replied, “NO.”
Ines Candrea felt if Bramson claims the city is trying to weather the economic storm, why were our taxes raised this year? Residents still have to pay their taxes and it’s not easy to pay everything today. Sewers should be our first priority. With all the building going on we need sewers that can handle the city’s needs.
Lou Felicione stated this was a well planned speech but it had no substance. New Rochelle is not New York City. “Let’s keep our city a suburb. People here want to live in a suburb. You can’t change a suburb into a major city unless you have major infrastructure changes.” Our sewers were not considered. More people mean more schools, reduction in the size of our ball fields, and a host of other problems.
Lorraine Pierce felt that Mayor Bramson’s suggestion that our police and firemen “bite the bullet” and freeze their salaries but not take a pay cut himself was ludicrous. After all, he is a part time mayor and his salary under the circumstances is quite high, especially in these critical economic times. The mayor should be the first one to step up to the plate and lead by example, cutting the exorbitant raise he received last year.