As written not as delivered.
Thank you, Deputy Mayor Stern for extending greetings and recognition to all of our distinguished guests.
Big thank you to the Boys & Girls Club of New Rochelle. For Briana Cassidy for setting us up with the Star Spangled Banner. To TRIFECTA! And of course, Harmony Hopwood.
Good evening, esteemed guests, fellow citizens, and colleagues. My name is Yadira Ramos-Herbert, I am a mother, a community organizer, a lawyer, and I am honored to be your Mayor.
I am incredibly humbled that you took the time out of your schedule to hear my inaugural state of the City address. Thank you for your interest in our city.
Tonight, I can’t help but think about time; how ever-present yet fleeting it is. How there seems to be so much of it and so little of it. How we must maximize it as a community to make every second count, to build on our strengths and incredible foundation to usher New Rochelle into its next chapter.
When I think about time, I think about July 2007. It was the very first time I stepped foot on this block. My husband and I were newly married, renting in Queens, and looking to purchase our first home. We worked on the East Side as lawyers and it was super important for us to live walking distance to a train station and near a downtown with restaurants and activity.
Now, it’s December 2007 and we just closed on a townhouse, right next door to where I’m standing. We were so excited and felt that we landed in a city that was on the precipice of hitting her stride. But that’s the thing about time – 2008 happened, and the progress we saw stalled.
Fast forward to 2015, we’re still on Prince Street – right next door, but now we’re the parents of two young children. I started noticing the City was hosting community meetings and looking for input about a redevelopment project. And while I can’t remember all of the details, I raised my hand at that meeting at Bethesda Baptist Church and asked for a park for our kids and for a clearer, safer route to walk to the train station. That one meeting turned into more meetings, and more action and more engagement and led to this tremendous moment where I stand before you as the Mayor of New Rochelle.
A lot has happened to our city since those early meetings nine years ago. Take a walk downtown or kayak in the sound. Take a look to your right if you are headed home from the City and decide to take I-95 to exit 16. You can see it – we have a new and impressive skyline – the skyline essentially helping to serve as a visual representation of that growth.
We’ve also endured as a community, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and entering the national stage in a moment of global crisis and uncertainty. But together, we showed our resilience and lived up to our New Ro Strong name.
In conversations with neighbors and friends, I know there is work to be done. Even with the impressive foundation we have achieved, there is still more to be accomplished: we aren’t finished.
The City’s bold and forward-thinking economic plan has bolstered and set an impressive foundation for our City. Let’s recap the economic landscape that is crucial in shaping our journey forward.
The state of the New Rochelle economy is strong. Over the past year, we’ve increased our rainy day fund – a critical pool of resources for our city – by more than $2 million. We’ve also seen that more and more people are choosing to spend their money in New Rochelle, showcasing the vibrancy of our city and how we continue to attract people to our great city.
And that’s just the beginning.
As the first chart demonstrates, development is an investment in our city’s future. Just take a look at the chart: you can see the difference in revenue the lots associated with our 32 approved development projects would generate over the first 20 years if those projects had never been approved. Left untouched, these lots would have generated only $30 million dollars in revenue over 20 years, but as a result of the City’s development program, these same lots will now generate $260 million dollars in revenue over the same period of time allowing us to make much needed investments in our city.
This revenue potential sets the foundation of even more growth. There is still an exponential generation of financial income anticipated in the years to come. In short, the groundbreaking initiative of form-based zoning has proven to be a visionary leap forward for our city, yielding dividends that give us as a city the opportunity to invest in and empower our community. We are able to optimize the downtown revitalization while also actively increasing revenue in a manner that does not require an increase in property taxes.
But it’s not all about building for the sake of building. Through these efforts, we are also addressing one of the most pressing challenges in our city and our region: housing. One of the most popular questions I get is: are people actually moving into these buildings? The answer is a resounding yes!
In our downtown we have authorized 10,000 residential rental units and 400 residential condominiums. Just about 65% of the units are constructed and the leasing rate is 84%. Let me repeat – 84% of all new units on-line are leased.
Of these units, approximately 1,288 are designated affordable in the 30%-80% range of the Average Median Income – nearly double the number of affordable units required under the City’s code. We have completed 12 housing lotteries, with more in the pipeline. We’re building for the people of New Rochelle.
And in support of homeownership, our Down Payment Assistance Program has now provided four families with the up to 20% of the down payment they needed to get keys in their hands, paving the way for greater financial stability.
Finally, with our designation last month as a Pro-Housing Choice Community, the City of New Rochelle is now eligible to apply for programs that are part of $650 million in State funding that is available, supporting the City’s commitment to responding to the housing shortage New Yorkers are facing.
While development of housing continues to be a priority, we understand that people don’t just live in buildings, they live in neighborhoods that meet their many diverse needs. This coming year, we are excited to launch a set of initiatives that were developed in collaboration with the Retail Taskforce, aimed at revitalizing our City’s retail landscape. The strategy incorporates a variety of interventions designed to attract quality tenants and revitalize storefronts. We aim to create a vibrant, attractive, and economically viable retail environment in Downtown New Rochelle.
Bottom line, the initial goals of the downtown revitalization are working. Revenue is not only up but there is a plan for continued fiscal growth beyond taxing residents, and people are indeed moving into our amazing City.
Because of our strong financial position, the City was able to undergo an innovative approach to addressing climate and environmental concerns, like flood mitigation. In addition to being asked if people live in these newly erected buildings (and now you know the answer is YES!), the second question I am asked is related to flooding. Make no mistake, climate change is real, it’s here, and we are feeling its impacts acutely. Once-in-a-generation storms and extreme weather are happening multiple times a year. I’ve spoken with residents who have shared that even the thought of a rainstorm triggers significant anxiety and has a significant impact on their quality of life.
We take these concerns seriously. Last year, New Rochelle undertook a groundbreaking analysis of all of the watersheds within the City. The analysis was a collaborative effort involving community participation and expert evaluations by engineers, proudly funded in part by the City of New Rochelle and also supported by various grants issued by our federal and state colleagues in government.
Through this very comprehensive study, the City identified more than 100 projects totaling $350 million aimed at addressing and alleviating the widespread flooding that has adversely affected our community.
These initiatives aim to employ diverse engineering approaches to offer respite to numerous households where rainfall has evolved from a minor inconvenience to a source of genuine concern regarding the integrity of their dwellings. Our incredibly talented Department of Public Works team, led by Will Melendez, recently identified nearly a dozen projects that span the entirety of our City. These projects seek to utilize various engineering methodologies such as stormwater improvements, increasing undersized culverts, and stormwater piping upgrades.
The strength of our economy also allows us to invest in what makes New Rochelle so special: our people.
Let’s start with our youth. By employing a multifaceted approach encompassing recreation, summer employment opportunities, health and wellness initiatives, and strategic collaborations with entities such as the School District, Boys and Girls Club, Iona University, Monroe College, and the Community Justice Center, over $6.7 million has been dedicated to nurturing our future leaders.
Of course, let’s again give a round of applause to the youth who helped open today’s program and who joined us here tonight.
We have also been able to provide support for small businesses. Over the past three years, the City has created numerous events such as the New Rochelle Street Fair, Holiday Market and Taste of Union that give existing and emerging business owners an opportunity to showcase and grow their companies. The City is also sponsoring grants to restore and renovate commercial storefronts as renovated facades stabilize property values and leverage new investment in businesses and the neighborhood. We have hosted seminars on critical topics including Access to Capital, Business Certification, E-Commerce and social media strategy. Our small businesses are the beating heart of our local economy and supporting each other has always been the New Rochelle way. I would like to thank the New Rochelle Downtown BID and our Chamber of Commerce for their partnership on this front.
Everything that I have just shared is thanks to the tireless efforts of those who came before me, who laid a strong foundation for this City. We have the strength, resilience, and innovation to lead the region and the state and be a model for others. We have made our mark in our forward-thinking form-based code zoning legislation and are on the map as the fastest growing city in New York State. In fact, earlier this week we were privileged to host over two dozen real estate and planning professionals from all corners of the industry, from across the US and Canada, as part of the Urban Land Institute’s 2024 Spring Conference, who came to our downtown to see what is becoming known as the “New Rochelle Model”. Now we have a chance to leverage that foundation to develop and implement visionary policy – if we are brave enough to do so.
Over the last 100 days, I have had the honor and privilege of working with our City Council, the elected representatives from each of the City’s districts who each bring to the table a vision and perspective of how to move the City forward. I would like to ask my colleagues, Councilmembers Lopez, Tarrantino, Peters, Osinloye, Kay and Stern to stand. The community brought us together to work together to bring our city forward. What do we all have in common? A healthy, thriving, and prosperous community that is proud of its diversity and feels supported by their government.
Everyone deserves more opportunities for homeownership.
Everyone deserves to be prepared for the impacts of climate change.
Everyone deserves to live in a community that’s healthy and thriving for people of all ages in a manner consistent and responsive with the needs of where they live.
For all of this to be true, we have to push ourselves. Push ourselves to examine affordable housing needs and how we get more affordable housing options available. We need to push ourselves and figure out forward-thinking and flexible processes for downtown parking and explore the deepen relationship between existing and potential entrepreneurs with their City government in a way that allows the businesses to thrive. There needs to be a deliberate and robust partnership with the School District and Library to provide support and resources to our children. We need to continue supporting programs like Opportunity Youth Part and My Brother’s Keeper, and our arts organizations like New Rochelle Council on the Arts. And intentionally partner with Iona University, Monroe College and Montefiore to forge deeper partnerships that help our community is critical.
I hope to one day take my family on a downtown walk seeing the ground floor of our beloved downtown activated, our Main Street abuzz in retail and services, and Black Box Theater alive and utilized as a way to draw people from the region to our City.
In the face of development, we will make sure we invest in our people to ensure a robust and vibrant workforce where people can work and live in the community they call home. We want to work towards improving our relationship with the labor community. We will give the community direct decision making power over how parts of the City budget can be used via participatory budgeting. We will make sure we modernize and improve our communication that allows residents to learn more about the happenings of our city and ways for them to share information with the City.
And while some of these changes take time, our immediate future has some really great opportunities that if executed in partnership with some of the Council’s vision, will really bring the community together and still continue to set us apart in the region. Let’s start right outside of this building with the LINC.
The LINC, just a few steps away from where we are gathered, will reconnect a historically African-American neighborhood that was fragmented and severed due to the construction of a highway through the community. The plan is to right-size Memorial Highway and transform it from a six-lane road into a local street and linear park. The LINC will provide a vital connection between downtown, the train station, the library, and Lincoln Avenue. The LINC will create safe, attractive pedestrian crossings, bike lanes, and new recreation and park space to help surrounding residents and business owners benefit from the downtown revitalization and economic growth, and build backlinks that were broken when the highway spur was built in the 1960s, replacing a burden on the community with a unique green-space asset. New Rochelle will join the prestigious list of cities around the globe who are leading the way for a green, people-centered future.
To date we have received $41.7 million dollars in grants to support this project from our state and federal partners. If we leverage our professional staff’s expertise with the Council’s policy objectives in mind, this project can truly help remedy antiquated and racist urban planning policies of the past, incubate Black owned businesses, provide jobs, and robustly implement green infrastructure to help remedy the impacts of climate change. It will build our community together but also allow us to shine well beyond the New Rochelle borders.
And our future also includes a robust, once in a lifetime renovation of the New Rochelle train station. The center of the City’s downtown revitalization, the New Rochelle train station is the busiest station along the Metro-North New Haven Line in New York State outside of New York City (currently approx. 6,000 outbound riders per weekday), and is the only Amtrak stop in southern Westchester County servicing the Northeast Regional Line. In just a few short years, New Rochelle will be the first Metro North stop in Westchester County to provide direct access to Penn Station.
Our historic train station deserves a wonderful makeover. We need to improve connections to the downtown, the west end, and the east end and design it in a way that provides local services and convenience including retail, dining, and improved pedestrian safety and access, while also creating a sense of arrival and place including wayfinding, a multi-use plaza, and green space.
With thanks to our development team and local entrepreneurs like A’DZine, Casaramoa and most recently Cafetero, we have been able to spruce up the inside of the station and give our community a glimpse into the future. We recently received $1,000,000 from Senator Schumer which will allow for the final design and preparation of construction documents to make the Master Plan a reality and allow us to seek construction partners. If we merge the foundational design elements of the train station with the goals of the Council, we position the redesign of the train station not only to once again build community, but also to allow us to stand out in the region.
Speaking of redesign: Let’s talk about where we stand. Just a few years ago, this site was a rather run down, street level parking lot. Behind it was a beloved but aged single story, windowless Boys and Girls Club. Today, as an example of community-oriented development we stand on the site of a two story state of the art clubhouse, parking and 179 units of true workforce housing. I know we will work towards ensuring more community-oriented development where all can feel a part of the future of New Rochelle.
Before I close, I need to also acknowledge the remarkable contributions of other key City departments who are also a key to our foundation as a City. The New Rochelle Police Department admirably responded to 43,510 calls last year, consistently displaying professionalism in their interactions with the community. Likewise, the New Rochelle Fire Department heroically addressed 27,750 calls for service and protection. Outside of flooding, our dedicated Public Works bureaus work tirelessly providing important services and supporting our public infrastructure. Our Clerk’s Office professionally and precisely responded to 10,730 inquiries for various forms of documentation, while our Parks and Recreation office, renowned for their contributions to our youth and senior programming, enriched our community with so many special events and wonderfully maintained our parks, playgrounds, community centers, beaches, athletic fields, marina, and open spaces. Our Department of Buildings conducted over 4,500 inspections and issued 1,990 permits to applicants.
I highlight these numbers as a way to give texture to the depth of engagement they have within our community. It’s also imperative to highlight the collaborative efforts of our Finance, HR, Law, IT, Communications, and all City departments who provide service in ways that might not be readily apparent to the community but are key parts of the engine that keeps our city moving. Each of these departments and individuals epitomizes professionalism and an unwavering dedication to delivering exceptional service. Each of them also contribute to the community’s sense of trust with our government and serve as key parts of our foundation – their service lets us dream about the next chapter.
Friends and neighbors, while I am thrilled to report the State of the City is strong, let us embrace the promise of progress, the pursuit of excellence, and the power of collaboration.
Together, we will start New Rochelle’s next chapter charting a course towards a future where prosperity is not just a vision, but a reality for every citizen