I Live Here Westchester NY

Send us Fan Mail Ken Jenkins delivered his 2026 State of the County address last Wednesday. Crime is down seventeen percent. Violent crime down twenty-five. Back-to-back triple-A bond ratings. The county jail is the first in New York State to hold three simultaneous national accreditations. Those wins are real — and they deserve acknowledgment. Today's Brief opens the accountability ledger. J...

Send us Fan Mail This week in Port Chester, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the groundbreaking of Westchester Crossing on the former United Hospital site—957 new units with $65 million in infrastructure backing. That number adds to the roughly 20,000 housing units already in motion across Yonkers, New Rochelle, and White Plains. But look closer at what's actually being built, and the pipeline...

Send us Fan Mail For eight years, the federal SALT cap of $10,000 cost Westchester homeowners real money every year. This year, that cap sits at $40,400—and for a typical Westchester household with $18,000 in property taxes and $14,000 in state income tax, the math is roughly $5,300 in annual federal tax reduction at a 24% marginal rate. The window is four years. The cap reverts to $10,000 in 2030...

Send us Fan Mail One week from today, County Executive Ken Jenkins delivers the 2026 State of the County Address at the Michaelian Office Building. An $2.5 billion budget signed in December. 8% cuts to every department. 180 positions eliminated. Nearly $500 million committed to housing. A utility fight with a state regulator. We break down the four pre-built narrative tracks Jenkins walks in with—...

Send us Fan Mail Last Monday, three men were detained near Mount Kisco Elementary after students reported being approached during recess. One reportedly offered them a drink. Open beer cans were found nearby. Police increased patrols. The district is now weighing playground privacy screens. Halston Media called it a "red line" for community safety—and with the statewide school budget vot...

Send us Fan Mail Governor Kathy Hochul stood in Port Chester last week and announced the official groundbreaking of Westchester Crossing—957 housing units on the site of the former United Hospital, empty since 2004. The $65 million infrastructure investment, including up to $10 million from the Mid-Hudson Momentum Fund, is the biggest move the Port Chester/Rye border has seen in a generation. We b...

Send us Fan Mail Former Congressman Eliot Engel, who represented southern Westchester and the north Bronx for 32 years, died April 10, 2026, at age 79 from Parkinson's disease. We skip the obituary and ask the harder question: what kind of politics did his long tenure represent, and what has replaced it since he lost the 2020 primary to Jamaal Bowman? In six years, southern Westchester went f...

Send us Fan Mail Your Con Edison bill is going up about $5.32 a month. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins and the Board of Legislators just filed a joint brief with the New York Public Service Commission opposing the increases. Jenkins is also demanding in-person PSC hearings in Westchester after initial hearings were held online. We walk through the numbers. The approved increase: approxima...

Send us Fan Mail New York State Police confirm 28 trespassing arrests in 30 days at the former IBM campus in Somers, Westchester County. The most recent arrest involved a loaded 9mm pistol and a class C felony weapons charge. The driver: viral urbex (urban exploration) videos on TikTok and YouTube. We go beyond the arrest blotter. The IBM Somers campus has been largely vacant for more than a decad...

Send us Fan Mail 4 Barnes & Noble at the White Plains City Center closes today after 20 years as a downtown anchor tenant. The closure itself is one story. What is moving in behind it is a bigger one — and it is happening across Westchester. We dig into the retail shift reshaping the county: MINISO's 4,000 square foot debut at Cross County Center in Yonkers, Bobo's Cafe expanding to...

Send us Fan Mail Every Westchester County resident subsidizes Metro-North Railroad approximately $1,100 per year — whether they ride it or not. This week on The Friday Intel, we pull apart the real economics of the commuter railroad: a $1.52 billion operating budget, a 37% farebox recovery rate, and a $1.1 billion annual subsidy gap that lands on Westchester taxpayers through sales taxes, state ai...

Send us Fan Mail The Park Avenue Viaduct replacement Phase 1 reaches substantial completion this month—a major milestone in the $1.7 billion Grand Central Artery project. What it means: reduced commute disruptions and a real capital push for Metro-North infrastructure across Westchester, the Hudson Valley, and Connecticut. We dive into the viaduct itself, then zoom out to the bigger picture: $800...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester home sales dropped 16% in Q1 2026, but prices climbed 11% to a $1.3 million average. What does this market contradiction mean for families trying to buy here? 00:00 – Cold open 00:40 – Single-family market squeeze and affordability cliff 03:30 – Condo and co-op data: mixed signals 05:15 – Municipal revenue impact and demographic shifts 06:30 – What's happening acr...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester small business owners have a free, high-caliber coaching resource right in their backyard — and most of them don't know it exists. Jane Veron, founder of The Acceleration Project (TAP), joins the Brief to explain how her Scarsdale-based nonprofit pairs Fortune 500-trained consultants with local business owners at no cost, and why coaching matters as much as capita...

Send us Fan Mail Federal tariffs have driven construction material costs up 8.5%–9.6% across the NYC region. The National Association of Home Builders estimates tariffs add $10,900 to the cost of each new home. For Westchester, where roughly 20,000 housing units are under development, that cost surge is creating a "feasibility gap"—projects that penciled out last year may not work financ...

Send us Fan Mail Starting July 1st, 450,000 New Yorkers will lose free health insurance coverage through New York's Essential Plan. This includes tens of thousands of Westchester County residents—teachers' aides, home health workers, small business owners earning $32,000–$40,000 individually or $54,000–$68,000 for a family of three. When this coverage ends, these working people will be s...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County has one of the highest median household incomes in America. And thirty-eight percent of the households inside it can't actually afford to live here. This week on The Friday Intel, we pull apart the Westchester affordability paradox. Why a place this rich quietly prices out a third of its own residents, why infant daycare costs more than a year at SUNY, and...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County just hit 1,015,743 residents — the largest population gain of any county in New York State. But 44 of 62 New York counties are losing people. The growth is concentrated in New Rochelle, White Plains, and Yonkers. The question nobody is asking: what infrastructure absorbs them? In This Episode: (0:00) Westchester crosses one million — who is coming and what it me...

Send us Fan Mail White Plains approved the largest residential development in its history — 3,001 apartments across seven towers at the former Galleria Mall site. But the project already shrunk before breaking ground. Commercial space was slashed 58%. And the Cappelli Organization's option to purchase expires June 30. Here is what is actually happening with District Galleria. In This Episode:...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County closed a $197.7 million budget gap this year with 8% cuts across nearly every department and 180 eliminated positions. Meanwhile, 450,000 New Yorkers face losing their Essential Plan health coverage on July 1, and the state budget that was supposed to stabilize things just missed its deadline for the seventh year in a row. In This Episode: (0:00) $197.7M budget...

Send us Fan Mail A Mount Vernon funeral home owner had his license revoked in 2019. He kept operating for six years. The New York Attorney General unsealed a 20-count indictment. Inspectors found 13 bodies in decomposition and 17 boxes of cremated remains. The real story is the regulatory failure that let it happen. In This Episode: (0:00) Camelot Funeral Home indictment — regulatory failure in Mo...

Send us Fan Mail New York drivers now pay a statewide average exceeding $4,000 a year for auto insurance — fourth highest in the nation, 52% above the national average. Inside Westchester County, the spread is dramatic: Yonkers drivers pay nearly $2,400 while Waccabuc drivers pay $1,808. The reason? Southern Westchester shares a rating territory with the Bronx. This week's Friday Intel breaks...

Send us Fan Mail Westchester County residents pay some of the highest auto insurance premiums in the country. Today, Jim sits down with Lauren Zelt of PACT — Protect Access to Consumer Trials — to explain the direct connection between lawsuit abuse, staged accidents, and the rates on your bill. With Governor Hochul pushing sweeping tort reform in the 2026 state budget, this conversation could not...

Send us Fan Mail IN-PLAYER SHOW NOTES Twenty-seven thousand septic systems sit beneath Westchester properties in the New York City watershed. An estimated 10% are failing, leaking fecal bacteria, viruses, and nitrates into the drinking water supply for millions. The county just launched a $3.5 million program offering interest-free loans up to $49,999 with no money upfront. The question is whether...

Send us Fan Mail IN-PLAYER SHOW NOTES A federal judge permanently blocked the Trump administration from killing congestion pricing. For Westchester, this isn't a Manhattan toll story — it's a Metro-North funding story. First-year revenue hit $550 million, exceeding projections. That money funds the Park Avenue Viaduct replacement, Hudson Line signal upgrades, and new railcars. Ridership...