Each day Talk of the Sound scours tens of thousands of web sites looking for articles on New Rochelle which are then linked to the site under the Elsewhere on the Web tab on the home page. From time to time, we looking to highlight a few articles from Elsewhere on the Web we think are worth a second look.
Greg Maker, Charlie Johnson and Paige Rentz have a “must read” article up on The New Rochelle Sound & Town Report: City No. 1 in tax challenges. The article provides a comprehensive explanation of property tax assessment and property owners petitioning to reduce their assessment and thus shift the local tax burden to those who do not petition. Unsaid is the clear message, you are a sucker if you own property and do not regularly and aggressively grieve your property tax assessment. The statistics show that New Rochelle is unusual in the amount of tax appeals occurring in New Rochelle, a little under 3 times the next highest municipality (Mount Vernon) and more than 6 times that of Yonkers which has 4 times as many residents:
New Rochelle is No. 1, but this designation may be nothing to be proud of for budget writers. The city leads Westchester County in Small Claims Assessment Review (SCAR) filings for 2010, according to statistics released by the county clerk. The city received 980 SCAR filings in that time, about 150 more than Yonkers over that span. Yonkers has almost quadruple the population of New Rochelle. Comparative cities White Plains and Mt. Vernon only had 337 and 75 SCAR filings respectively in 2010.
Read the entire article here
Dan Wiessner has another timely article on State School Aid flowing to local school districts over at AOL/Huffington Post Patch; New Rochelle is dealing with the prospects of an eight-figure cut in state aid this year based on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget: Local Lawmaker Wants High Cost of Living Factored into School Aid
Assemblywoman Sandy Galef (D-Ossining) this week introduced a bill that would add a “regional cost of living factor” to the aid formula—a move, she said, that would help districts cover higher-than-average costs without paring down staff or cutting educational programs.
“The cost of living has to be taken into account with so many things, and certainly with the education formula,” Galef said. “We just live in a higher-cost region, and the [current] formula doesn’t take into account costs in the individual counties.”
Read the entire article here.
Justin Bank has a nice piece in the Washington Post on “The Day the Music Died”, complete with videos of Don McLean singing American Pie and performances by Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper: The day the music died: Don McLean ode to Buddy Holly and co.
In 1959, on Feb. 3, 52 years ago, a plane carrying rock-and-roll legends Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P “The Big Bopper” Richardson crashed in a a cornfield in Iowa, killing all three and the pilot. It was a moment that looms so large in music history that there are literally thousands of books that discuss the day and its impact.
In New Rochelle, N.Y., a boy was so influenced by the crash that he would grow up and record a song in May 1971 about it. Don McLean’s “American Pie” would receive its first radio airplay on New York’s WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM to mark the closing of The Fillmore East, the famous New York concert hall. Years later, we can still hum along and mourn the loss of “the three men I admired most; the father, son, and the holy ghost.”
Read the entire article here.