I Live Here Westchester NY

Send us Fan Mail New York shut off its unemployment insurance system at 5 p.m. on November 2 to replace a 50-year-old platform, and the Labor Department says the upgrade will take 9 to 12 days. What claimants and employers in Westchester County can and cannot do, what the department has and has not said, and what to watch next. Also: Veterans Day and property tax exemptions. In This Episode (0:00)...

Send us Fan Mail At 14, Sonya Duggal was a student in Ardsley frustrated by how climate change was taught in her earth science class. She started EcoVoices as a magazine to amplify youth voices. She says it has grown into a climate literacy initiative with a global pamphlet series, a network of 20 youth ambassadors, and virtual workshops for students at Beautiful Feet Ministries in Uganda. Now 15,...

Send us Fan Mail White Plains has accepted the final environmental study for Farrell Estates at Ridgeway, a plan for 99 houses on the former Ridgeway Country Club. The site covers 129.68 acres that a state notice calls environmentally sensitive. What the record shows, what it does not, and why accepting a study is not approving a plan. Also: the Westchester County budget deadline. In This Episode...

Send us Fan Mail Why did scanners across Westchester County reject ballots on Election Day? According to the New York State Board of Elections, a change affecting one contest in one municipality left Election Day machines elsewhere in the county on the original programming. This special Monday edition looks at the public record: the county's emergency ballot count (26,929 scanned through 1:30...

Send us Fan Mail Hudson, Harlem or New Haven: which Metro-North line is the best for Westchester County commuters? By the MTA's own on-time data, the highest and lowest of the three lines are 0.2 percentage points apart over the past 12 months. This episode looks at the numbers, why the biggest swing was one rough winter and not any one line, and why, on overall on-time rate, the data can&apo...

Send us Fan Mail Eddie D started Tri-State StandUP because Westchester had nowhere to try stand-up. He now books pop-up comedy nights in a coffee house in Rye, a lounge in Mount Vernon and the 19th Hole in Ossining. He also tried a hard location in White Plains for four months before going back to the pop-up model. Eddie takes Jim through the first open mic he ever worked, why Westchester doesn’t...

Send us Fan Mail Lennar's plan for 102 townhouses in Pleasantville has a new filing and a public hearing behind it. According to the Examiner News, the project also depends on a Foxwood Condominium property-transfer vote, and its vice president says a vote at the November 10 meeting is unlikely. What changed, what the Examiner reports, and what neither the village nor the paper says. Also: th...

Send us Fan Mail On January 1, Westchester County takes over running its Youth Detention Facility with county employees. The county released the announcement jointly with Together for Youth, and it gave no cost, no hiring number and no count of young people held. This episode covers the 2027 county budget, which had not been released as of October 30, and what to ask the Board of Legislators. Sepa...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Montez is the founder and general director of Taconic Opera, a Westchester company that has staged opera since 1997. Before that, he sang about 60 leading roles, including at Lincoln Center and San Francisco Opera. Montez talks about walking onto the Lincoln Center stage and not being able to hear himself, the touring life that made him leave the top opera houses, and the hiri...

Send us Fan Mail Polls across Westchester County are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. today, and if you are in line at 9 p.m., you can still vote. What to know about finding your assigned polling place, when ID can come up, what is on your ballot, and who to call if something goes wrong. Also: the county's expanded property tax exemption for low-income seniors. In This Episode (0:00) Cold Open (0:1...

Send us Fan Mail Three major polls put Gov. Kathy Hochul ahead of Bruce Blakeman by 11 to 14 points as of October 30. In New York's 17th Congressional District, which includes part of Westchester County, the one poll from a news organization has Cait Conley and Rep. Mike Lawler within 2 points. We found no public poll for the 16th District or for Westchester State Senate, Assembly or County L...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County just put a number on its film and television boom: $1.85 billion in economic impact in 2025, the biggest figure the county has ever published and double 2024. This episode goes inside five years of the county's own data — the 86% one-year jump in jobs, the 2022 peak and strike-year collapse the headlines skip, and why the county's own tax-and-fee tally...

Send us Fan Mail Greenburgh dropped its $1 million insurance requirement for Halloween street closures, but organizers still have to sign an agreement meant to limit the town's liability. What the town and the supervisor say, and what we could not find. Also: the county's second video on how beach water is tested. In This Episode (0:00) Cold Open (0:21) Deep Dive: Greenburgh's Hallo...

Send us Fan Mail A 23-house project in Mount Pleasant has been under review for five years. Mount Pleasant amended its steep slope rules in September, and the town's planning consultant says the plan must be resubmitted. The developer's attorney says it should be judged as filed. What is settled, what is not, and what to watch. Also: 250 years since the Battle of White Plains. In This Ep...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County is offering up to $10 million to repair existing affordable apartment buildings, and any owner who takes the money must extend affordability for 50 years. Who can apply, what the money covers, the December 1 deadline, and what the county's announcement does not say. Also: Westchester County takes over running its Youth Detention Facility on January 1, 2027....

Send us Fan Mail Five of the 17 seats on the Westchester County Board of Legislators list only one candidate on the ballot, according to The Ballot Brief. Who they are, what the count can and cannot tell you, the full early voting schedule, and what we could not verify. Also: the county's final two Household Recycling Days, in Peekskill on November 1 and Rye on November 7, and a guide to our...

Send us Fan Mail In the 17th Congressional District, both major candidates have taken in about $10 million in total receipts this cycle, while some Westchester state candidates have reported about $6,000 in contributions. In the 40th State Senate District, public matching funds are about 46% of one candidate's money and 24% of the other's, by our math. Federal figures run through Sept. 3...

Send us Fan Mail New York has announced that SUNY Reconnect, its free community college program for adults, will open to people who already have a college degree, starting with the spring 2027 semester. We explain what the state says, what Westchester Community College in Valhalla has and has not published, and what to ask before you plan around it. In This Episode (0:00) Cold Open (0:20) Deep Div...

Send us Fan Mail A 208-apartment building in Yonkers has city approval, but its developer says construction cannot start until a second building is approved. We walk through the Bridgewater project's second building, the financing condition the developer described to the Yonkers Planning Board, and what the reporting does not say. Bridgewater South would add 177 apartments, with 18 priced as...

Send us Fan Mail Early voting in Westchester County opens October 24. Shu Yang of Elections Simplified says his own ballot ran seven pages of names he mostly did not recognize, which is why he and a small team built a voter guide that lists candidates' track records. Jim asks how it works, where AI fits, and what it can and cannot tell a voter.  In This Episode (0:00) Why Jim invited Shu on (...

Send us Fan Mail The Social Security Administration announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027, and we calculate it adds about $15.5 million a month in benefits across Westchester County. We walk through the county's 184,955 beneficiaries, what the Medicare Part B premium could take out of the raise, and why the official 2027 premium is still to come. The Social Security Administrati...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins proposed a $435.7 million capital budget for 2027, with $75 million for housing and $5 million for flood mitigation. We walk through where the money goes, how the proposal compares with last October's, and what the Board of Legislators does next before the end-of-December deadline. The capital budget covers borrowing for physical proje...

Send us Fan Mail The share of apartments set aside as affordable varies from one recent Westchester project to the next. In four recent mixed projects in Yonkers, North White Plains and Port Chester, about 1 in 10 apartments is set aside as affordable, 180 of 1,709 by our math (one of the four is a proposed tower). Three other projects are billed as affordable housing throughout. The surprise: for...

Send us Fan Mail Voter registration, mail and online ballot applications, and the start of early voting all land on Saturday, October 24 in Westchester County. We walk through the deadlines before the November 3 general election, the 25 early voting sites and their hours, how mail ballots are counted as on time, and the one site that changed this year. A change of address must be received by Octob...

Send us Fan Mail Houlihan Lawrence puts the third quarter median single-family price in Westchester County at $1.2 million, up 10.1% from a year ago, while the average 30 year mortgage rate is above 7%. We walk through the sales numbers, the Federal Reserve's September increase, and what the rate gap alone adds to the monthly payment on a $960,000 loan, the size of a loan on a median price ho...