Under increasing pressure to explain his “$2 million surplus” claim, Mayor Noam Bramson was a no-show for his radio on WVOX this morning.
Sources tell Talk of the Sound that shortly after the scheduled broadcast time, the Mayor was at his desk in City Hall.
Maybe he had laryngitis.
Evaluate Bramson’s Performance Based on His Campaign Promises
Directly Taken from Noam Bramson for Mayor Campaign Palm Card 2007. Has he achieved his goals. Not too early to evaluate his performance
THE BRAMSON PLAN
1.Stengthen our downtown with new retail and sound planning
2. Enhance our public saftey and security
3. Improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods
4. Protect our environment and open spaces
5. Bring our diverse community togther
Editor Comment: #5 is laughable the rest is Noam Speak
Posted by “Keeping an Eye on the Situation” who is just waiting for a registration ok
debate
bob see if you can set up a debate mr. cam vs anthony galletta. on wvox. bob marone will host. what do you think.
I don’t know Marrone or WVOX folks
But I like the idea of a debate.
This is a great issue.
Shows the Mayor making up numbers to boost his cause.
Shows Mayor is directly involved with BoE business
Shows the projections on impact of development on schools is low-balled
Shows the Superintendant has been lying to PTA parents/voters
This issue should be pressed over and over until these guys cough up real answers or admit they lied.
The real import is that any projections on kids living in future development (Echo Bay, LeCount,etc) needs to be revised waaaaaaaaay up — like 400%.
For example, LeCount Place is projected to be 41 kids. It is more likely 150-200 kids.
Shut The Boarders
Ok, so no one is allowed in or out of New Ro anymore. God forbid we increase the population or decrease it for that matter. As per the norm any situation in New Ro is a no win situation.
Press them like a pair of pants but until people start getting politically active and start caring about anything on either side it is a moot point.
Development is Fine, Just be Honest About Impact
The justification for the extremely generous tax abatements has been that high-rise developments would not attract many people that would put their children in New Rochelle public schools. If you look at what was projected for Avalon 1 & 2 and what is actually there you can see that the projections for those developments were far too low. Meanwhile Trump and other developments that were given abatements are expressly promoting the “award winning” and “free” schools as a reason to move into those buildings.
People did express concerns about this. Those concerns were dismissed as the rants of anti-development cranks and not taken seriously by city officials so bent on securing deals with developers they allowed themselves to be taken down the primrose path. Now residents can judge who best understood the implications of making the sorts of deals made by the City. We’ve given away tens of millions in tax abatements and now seeing millions in new costs to the New Rochelle tax payer. Not only are families moving into these new developments but the developers are marketing the buildings to families.
City officials would like to pretend this is not happening or not unexpected. This is just spin. We now have one commenter reporting that Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak got up in front of a group of parents at Trinity School and flat out lied about the number of kids in Avalon 1 & 2 (and apparently Trump as well). Apparently people like Organisciak have yet to grasp that if they say one thing to one group and the opposite to another the Internet allows those people to find each other and compare notes.
In addition to the one comment, I have had three emails from different parents who say they were at a meeting before the school budget vote where Organisciak was asked about the impact of new development on the public schools and said it minimal. Some say he said there were just a few kids, some say he said 2 dozen, some said minimal impact. No one is giving me an exact quote but they all seem to agree that they gist of what they were told is that there were few kids in the Avalon towers and no kids at Trump. We now know that this was untrue on all accounts. I am also told that school board members were there as well. All say Chrisanne Petrone was there (makes sense since she lives in that Trinity district and her child attends Trinity). Also present, according to these sources, was then-president of the BoE Cindy Babcock-Deutsch. I have one person saying that Deidre Polow was there but I cannot confirm that (although that makes sense too since she was running for her board seat at the time).
So, what we apparently have is the Superintendent flat-out lying to parents in front of two or three school board members who said by and apparently said nothing to correct the record. Either Organisciak was lying to them too or they all say by and let him do it. That Chrisanne Petrone would sit there and allow Organisciak to lie to her neighbors and fellow Trinity parents is particularly shocking; either she was complicit in these lies or he lied to her as well. In that case, in a normal district, I would expect to see her confront Organisciak about this at the next school board meeting. Of course, the “board rules” of presenting a “united front” do not allow such disruptive behavior as asking a school official to explain lies told to parents, residents or the press.
In defense of Polow ?
Can’t believe I’m saying this , but , in her defense I haven’t heard her say much about the impact of development. She did say at one of her “campaign” meetings that the district “needs”the extra money in regards to the budget increase , to be able to expand and “attract more families” to the district . Presumably in search of the top notch school system . The quotes are hers and it wasn’t just me at the meeting . So while the rest may be minimizing the unintended (or not) consequence of development , I can tell you now , Ms P is all for expanding the system .
Does every child cost 20,000
Seriously, Does every kid in school cost 20,000 dollars a year. So adding one more child will raise the cost by that much. Is there no shared cost of anything as to where one child does not make an impact. Is everything broken down to a per pupil rate? Does a teacher make more money in school year if they get a mid term transfer student? That 20,000 per student has to be explained as well
$20,000 is a “simple average”
The school budget for 2009-10 is $229,000,000.
The number of students in New Rochelle schools is about 11,500
229mm/15,500=19,913
Based on this, short hand for the cost-per-pupil of our schools is $20,000 per kid. OK?
So adding one kid to one class theoretically does not mean an extra $20,000 in cost as seems to be the point behind your question. You could argue it is zero or almost zero if that kid does not push class size over the top. But, there are limits to classroom size under the union contract so if a class is at the limit already then adding one more kid would require adding an entirely new class. The cost of that one kid would then be much, much higher than $20,000 because you are adding a new teacher, more physical space, computers, etc.
For special needs kids the costs are much higher than the average.
For out-of-district kids the costs can be five times more because you may be paying a private school tuition and even, in some cases, room-and-board and travel expenses.
Look at 1 student against $229mm is not very instructive. Looking at larger groups, like 80 kids at the Avalon towers, tells you more because you start to get sample sizes that are more significant. 1 kid may cost you a few thousand or a hundred thousand depending on their needs and other factors. But with 80 kids you are likely seeing a sample of the entire population and so 80 kids at 20k is about right ($1.6mm).
So where is the argument in the southend
Townhouses galore are being built inthe south end and not much is being said about school children there. So what is being sai is that it is ok for houses to have kids but not apartments. Mayor Bramsons mom moved out of her house to the Avalon and i am sure the empty nest that was her home now has kids in it. Where does that factor in. This argument will go in a circle.
South End Argument ?
There has been heated debate to burb the explosion of building in the south end . There has even been moratoriums against building over a certain size . Some of the sizes of the new stuff has been reduced as a result . Moreover you don’t see the obscene increase in density here considering maybe , for a given area you’ll see 3 or 4 units where perhaps a 2 family stood . That’s much different than adding 100 or 200 or even 300 units where there was’nt any housing to begin with . The south end , in my opinion , does need to be reexamined again to gain control of out of scale and inappropriate design . It’s a beautiful and sadly some garrish stuff has made it’s way through the zoning process . The lesson , if there could be one is , we all need to get involved at the most local level to make the whole city better . City council is overwhelmed , to say the least .
Typical babble
This is a clear case of making the exception the rule. Most people in favor of obscene development which is greater than 20 stories try to support their argument with an isolated incident like this. The Avalon’s, the Trump & New Roc City were all geared towards “people with disposable income”. Now these mega-skyscrapers advertising is geared toward families; citing the “free” public school system and “free” all-day kindergarten. We all know nothing is free but when you consider that ZERO DOLLARS are paid to the school district from a building with a PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) it makes sense. The reality is that the millions of dollars these buildings should pay the school must be absorbed by the remaining property owners. In addition the cost of educating any students from these abated buildings must also be absorbed to the tune of $20,000 per student. We need to focus on the majority and not the exceptions. Don’t allow arguments like this to cover up the truth.
Bob, You are asking a
Bob, You are asking a proffesional politician to be honest about the impact. Seems somewhat impossible to me. Mayor Bramson has been looking to drive his political career to Nita Loweys seat in congress on the one mantra.
“Look at me I fixed the 6th largest City in NY”
When you look at what will actually be left in his wake I figure he is not going to be able to use this tag line.
He can blame it all on a Bad economy but when you look at what he has brought without due dilligence you start to see he has done harm that will take 20 years to overcome. His choice of developers and his desire to do it at any cost over the backs of the tax payers will prove him to possible although ellequent one of the worst mayors this City has ever had. He has chosen to develop at any cost to the Tax payer and the City with no regard to what will be left. We have projects in various stages of empty with a group of projects that won’t ever come up out of the ground.
What Bramson has done will hurt New Rochelle for many decades. While his voting partners Sussman and Fertel don’t connect any of this speaks to the level of how ugly the political process is in this once lovely small city. The burden the tax payers will be left with might cause further decades of problems.
And in the end I bet we will be able to visit Sussman Park or Fertel Square within 10 years to honor the ultimate following of Boy Wonder over the cliff.
Mr. Cam
Mr. Cam has become awfully sensitive about evrything.
Debate ? Better yet , Mr Cam vs Frank
I think Frank would “play” better for the media . There’s already a “thing “between them .