Packed Trains on the Harlem Line After Tragedy at Spuyten Duyvil
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Due to the tragic accident that shut down a portion of Metro North's Hudson line early Sunday morning, commuters on the Harlem line should expect crowded trains this week. In order to accommodate some of the 26,000 commuters who ride the Hudson line, officials have made special arrangements to serve these commuters on the Harlem line – and commuters have already reported packed trains at Hartsdale and Scarsdale stations this morning. One commuter, on a 7 am train from Hartsdale on Monday morning, said that the train arrived almost full and there were few seats available for Hartsdale and Scarsdale commuters.
Service between Tarrytown and Grand Central is now suspended, and may not be restored for a week. Until then, the following special arrangements have been made:
- Free parking is available at the Kensico Dam in Valhalla which is walking distance to the Valhalla Station.
- Additional cars can be accommodated at the Galleria West Parking lot on Main Street in White Plains.
- Free bus service is available between White Plains and Tarrytown stations to allow Hudson line commuters to travel from White Plains.
According to Metro North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders, extra passenger cars are available at Grand Central Station to be added to Harlem line trains if the trains become overcrowded and many of the trains that ran today included extra cars. The current schedule can be viewed here.
The Metro North Commuter Council issued the following statement expressing their concern about safety on the trains.
The Metro-North Railroad Commuter Council (MNRCC) is greatly troubled by this morning's derailment of a New York-bound Hudson Line train. This incident is particularly concerning in view of three major incidents that have occurred on Metro-North during 2013, including the May 17 derailment of a New Haven Line train that resulted in a collision of two trains near Bridgeport, Connecticut, the May 28 death of a track foreman that occurred when a train was erroneously routed onto a track under repair, and the July 18 derailment of a CSX freight train at a location near today's derailment.
The MNRCC calls for a prompt investigation into the cause of today's incident and for the MTA and the Metro-North Railroad to take all necessary steps to ensure that the risk to their passengers from similar failures is minimized. "The riders whom we represent must be assured they are safe when they travel on a Metro-North train, but their confidence in the Railroad has been shaken. Metro-North management must act decisively to ensure that incidents like those that the failures that have occurred this year do not occur again," said MNRCC Chair Randolph Glucksman.
The MNRCC extends its deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in this morning's derailment and its wishes for the full recovery of those who were injured in the incident.
How was your commute? Post your comments below:
A New and Novel Whole Foods Opens in Port Chester
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- Written by Dina Braun
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I was excited to hear that another Whole Foods Market recently opened in the Kohl's Shopping Center right off Route 95 in Port Chester and decided to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised to find many new offerings – including prepared food stations where you can select a meal to take home, an in-house smoker and Whole Food first wood-fired pizza oven. All of these new food stations made it well worth the trip on the highway and I have gone back several times since my first visit.
We didn't get too far inside before we spotted the Coffee and Juice bar where we found a tempting array of freshly baked pastries, coffee, and a variety of pure pressed juice blends. My son tried the pressed orange juice and though the price was steep - $6.00 for a 16 oz. cup, --he truly enjoyed it.
As we made our way past the floral arrangements and fresh produce, we came across wooden crates stocked with a wide variety of home-made pastas including southwestern orzo and whole wheat penne. There were also self-serve bins of domestically-sourced bulk frozen fruit and veggies allowing you to buy just the amount you need.
Along with an impressive variety of fresh seafood, there is a large meat and poultry department with an in-house smoker offering pre-smoked meats including sausage, bacon, turkey legs, wings and meatloaf. I purchased a small sampling of the smoked wings at the food buffet and they were delicious, just the right amount of smoked flavor and tender, moist meat.
Another stand out display in the store is the beer section offering local and American craft beers. Whole Foods works with several local 
breweries including Captain Lawrence who has created a beer just for the Port Chester store. The variety is quite impressive, take a look.
The cheese section of the store is quite large and there are hundreds of cheese options from all over the world. I enjoyed sampling the varieties on hand.
There are several hot and cold prepared foods available including Indian, Italian and BBQ. There are also various food items made to order. Although I have never been overly impressed with the prepared foods in the White Plains location, a few of the stations truly impressed me.
One station is called Fire and Pollo which offers chicken meals built to order. This station has fresh made tortas, tacos, chips, salsa and guacamole. A half chicken meal is $10 and that includes 2 sides and 2 corn tortillas. There is a Chopped, Topped and Wrapped station where you can choose toppings to create a salad, wrap or hummus bowl.
Also appealing is the pizza station that offers both Roman style square flat pizza and traditional round pies from a wood burning fire oven. This is the first wood fire oven for Whole Foods in the tri-state area.
Along with a large display of desserts and breakfast treats, there is a Waffle Bar station offering waffles made fresh to order with your choice of toppings. My boys and I enjoyed a seasonal favorite, a pumpkin waffle drizzled with caramel sauce.
The chefs are making fresh food options daily and there is full catering menu for private events. And if you want to order in advance and drive by, the Port Chester store is offering curb side pick so you don't need to get out of the car.
Although there are currently a few Whole Foods Markets in Westchester County, this store has some terrific additions and makes grocery shopping a fun, and filling family outing.
Whole Foods Market
575 Boston Post Road
Port Chester, NY
(914) 708-1985
Open Monday through Sunday 8 am to 10 pm
If You Build It, They'll Run Away
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This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 by Ronald Binday of Advocate Brokerage in Scarsdale: Westchester County, and Scarsdale in particular, developed from New York's rural and agricultural hinterlands into the city's most beautiful suburbs beginning more than a century ago.
Farms and summer estates gave way to towns and villages where people of taste and refinement built businesses and homes that reflected their best visions of what a hometown should be.
Scarsdale, one 1920s historical booklet notes, was hallmarked by an "attractive, homogeneous Tudor business district surrounded by beautiful private residences." It has stayed that was, pretty much, thanks to citizens and officials who wish to maintain the high standards of construction and aesthetics that have served us so well.
And then there's 1 Palmer Avenue, at our most important central crossroads, the "Five Corners," where we go to shop and dine, and where many no doubt glean their dominant impression of Scarsdale. This location is not the Village, to be sure, but it is our alternate "downtown," and should display the best Scarsdale has to offer.
Instead, it's now overwhelmed by an ugly building that didn't have to be that way.
We all know the story: a highly-praised international architecture firm whose first name on its shingle lives in Scarsdale collaborated with an esteemed local developer, won approval for a multipurpose new building that would replace a tired, old gas station and offer new services to the Scarsdale.
The anchor tenant was to be a Seasons store, a high-end grocer specializing in kosher food, and it would be right across the parking lot from Balducci's, another fine food vendor that serves Scarsdale's discriminating gustatory needs. For the local consumer, the juxtaposition of the stores meant easy, one-stop shopping for all gourmet tastes.
As proposed, the home of Seasons would have closely modeled traditional Scarsdale, with appropriate design accents tracking the Tudor theme prevalent in town, and an architectural aesthetic that would please the eye of neighbor and stranger alike.
Ha!
Those of us who watch Washington these days are familiar with marvelous concept yielding to miserable execution; and so it is in Scarsdale, as well. 1 Palmer Avenue diverges significantly from the plan presented and approved more than three years ago, earning it 11 violations from the Village for departures from what was approved by the Board of Architectural Review. The litany of unsightly discrepancies includes changes to the roofline, railings, windows, doors and lighting – and none of them for the better.
The result today is an empty, nasty-looking monstrosity, out of sync with its surroundings and unlikely to be embraced by the tasteful community it was built to serve.
This building certainly did not take its cue from its neighbors. Caddy corner across the road sites Real Living Five Corners Real Estate in a beautifully restored Italian Renaissance-style building that was formerly home to the Scarsdale Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and a century ago was built as the local depot of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad. Its recent restoration is a testament of love and respect for the building and the town.
And diagonally across the street in a grand and classic Tudor building, elegantly utilized, is Massa, formerly Heathcote Tavern, and before that Charlie Brown's. This amazing building is one of the most stunning in all of Scarsdale, and has a most varied history as a restaurant, tavern and inn, among other interesting uses.
(One caveat is the four-story apartment building proposed as an addition to the Massa property; we sincerely hope that its developer will pay attention to the beauty of its surroundings and Scarsdale as a whole. In any case, the wonderful and historic buildings at the Five Corners deserve to be in better company than the new 1 Palmer Avenue has afforded them today.)
When other projects in other towns have gone astray, we've seen architects, builders and officials point fingers at each other and litigate long into the future about who was responsible and who should pay. We hope that doesn't happen here. What we'd like to see is a building made right; a new facade reflecting community standards, a roof rebuilt to hide the mechanicals that were never supposed to offend our eyes, and a new structure to emerge that adheres to both what was approved and to the spirit of Scarsdale.
The old saying that "if you build it they will come" has obviously not worked with 1 Palmer Avenue, at least for tenants. Instead, those who hate the building have come out to say so, and their public declarations should be heeded.
We live in one of the best communities in the United States. Let's strive to hold onto our standards, and let's make sure that 1 Palmer Avenue is compelled to meet them.
CNC Winners and Scarsdale General Election Results
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Procedure Committee Chairs Eli Mattioli and Howie Nadel announced the winners of the 2013 Scarsdale Citizens Nominating Committee election on November 13, 2013.
The following have been elected to serve three-year terms on the Nominating Committee:
- Edgewood - Elissa Bookner and Charles Chesnut (62 votes cast)
- Fox Meadow - Max Grudin and Joan Mazur Kapner (107 votes cast)
- Greenacres - John Baer and Barry Klayman (103 votes cast)
- Heathcote - David Brodsky and Daniel Finger (59 votes cast)
- Quaker Ridge - Diane Chesler and Julie Weinstein (24 votes cast)
The total vote count was 355 ballots, including mail-ins and those cast at Village Hall.
In addition, Scarsdale Village Clerk Donna Conkling released the voting results from the election on Tuesday November 5. The vote for County Executive was almost evenly split, with Bramson edging out a victory with 52.5% of the vote over Astorino's 47.4%. Among Scarsdale voters former Mayor Miriam Flisser lost in her bid for County Legislator by the same margin, with Boykin taking 52% of the Scarsdale vote over Flisser's 48%.
Here's how the votes went in Scarsdale:
Westchester County Executive
Noam Bramson: Democratic Line: 1,803
Rob Astorino: Republican Line: 1,563
Rob Astorino: Conservative Line: 124
Noam Bramson: World Worker's Party Line: 33
Noam Bramson: Independent Party Line: 36
Total Votes Astorino: 1,687: 47.4%
Total Votes Bramson: 1,872: 52.5%
Westchester County Legislator:
Ben Boykin: Democratic Line: 1,713
Miriam Flisser: Republican Line: 1,519
Miriam Flisser: Conservative Line: 139
Ben Boykin: World Worker's Party Line: 37
Ben Boykin: Independent Party Line: 48
Total Votes Ben Boykin 1,798: 52%
Total Votes: Miriam Flisser: 1,658: 48%
Astorino Re-Elected and Boykin Triumphs Over Flisser
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After a fierce campaign County Executive Rob Astorino won a second term to lead Westchester, defeating New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson by a margin of 10%. With 81% of the vote reported, the Westchester County Board of Elections shows Astorino with 76,088 votes, leading Bramson by 55% to 45%. Despite the fact that Democrats outnumber Republicans by a margin of two-to-one in the County, the Republican County Executive soundly defeated his Democratic opponent.
In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Astorino called for fiscal responsibility, an issue that resounded with voters who pay the highest county taxes in the country. He said, "The days of unrestricted tax and spend have to end. We are hemorrhaging jobs to other parts of the country. That will only stop when we get a grip on over spending and over taxing. We have reduced the county tax levy and added 27,000 jobs in the county. Westchester is open for business."
Conceding defeat, Bramson said, "I'm too old to cry, and it hurts too much to laugh ..... Running against a well-liked and well financed incumbent
is a tough challenge." He told the group that he "will return to a job (he) love(s) ... serving the people of New Rochelle." He added, "The regret I feel is not for myself. I regret that I was not able to bring home a victory and make a difference for all of the people of our county. Our values do not rise and fall on one victory, or one defeat – they endure for every season and every debate."
The key issues in the campaign were taxes, the affordable housing settlement and to a lesser extent social issues such as gun control and abortion rights. With many questioning the role of county government, Astorino's ability to cut the size of the government and mandate county employees to contribute to their health care costs in his first term may have swayed voters to give him a second term. The Bramson campaign blamed Astorino for losing $7.4 miillion in HUD Community Block Development Grants as punishment for failing to comply with the terms of the Affordable Housing Settlement. Yet fears over federal challenges to local zoning code appear to have trumped concerns about the loss of federal funding.
Democrat Andy Spano, who held the job of Westchester County Executive for twelve years, from 1998 – 2010, widely expanded the scope of county government and perhaps voters feared that another Democrat would fund increases in social services resulting in even higher taxes.
In the race for County Legislator for District 5, White Plains Councilman Ben Boykin scored a big win over former Scarsdale Mayor Miriam Levitt-Flisser. Running on the Republican ticket, Flisser failed to benefit from County Executive Astorino's popularity and received only 39% of the 9,642 votes cast to Boykin's 5,846. A known quantity in White Plains, Boykin may have benefitted from voters in White Plains, who outnumber Scarsdale voters and cast approximately 8,534 total votes (as of Wednesday morning 11/5). Flisser may also have been one of the last victims of Hurricane Sandy as many in Scarsdale were unhappy after the storm left Scarsdale without power for up to 13 days and attributed some of their suffering at the time to the Mayor.
Following the good news, Boykin sent Scarsdale10583 the following: "I want to thank the voters of Scarsdale, White Plains and West Harrison for electing me to serve as your next County Legislator. This is our victory. We won because we focused on and discussed the issues that are important to residents of District 5. We have an outstanding team of supporters who worked to ensure our victory. I am excited to represent and work for each of you as your County Legislator."
Commenting on the election, Scarsdale's David Brodsky said, "Whether you were a supporter of Astorino, Bramson, Boykin or Flisser, you had to be impressed by the sophisticated ballot-splitting skills of the voters in our area of Southern Westchester. To have about 16% of the voters first choose Astorino, a Republican, and then go down the ballot and choose Boykin, a Democrat running against Republican Miriam Levitt-Flisser, is rare, indeed. What it means is probably too hard to discern yet without a detailed Scarsdale and White Plains vote breakdown but at the very least it reflects that Astorino was able to overcome the disadvantage of registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans, reflecting a bipartisan appeal that was hard to foresee."
The Scarsdale vote tally is not available as yet as the voting machines were impounded after the vote. According to Scarsdale Village Clerk Donna Conkling, "An Order was issued yesterday by the Honorable Lewis J. Lubell, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester, relating to the General Election for the office of Supreme Court Justice for the 9th Judicial District. The voting machines and ballots were impounded in Westchester County, as well as Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland and Orange Counties. The Westchester County BOE was not able to give me a breakdown of the votes cast for each candidate in Scarsdale as they had not yet received our voting machines back to their facility. Although you see that there is a tally on their website for the elections that were held, you will notice that they do not break down the numbers in each Town for County Executive, for example, but only the races for each Town or City's local elections."
When the Scarsdale numbers are released we will provide an analysis of how you voted.
What is your interpretation of the election results? Post your comments below.
