Three Westchester County mayors whose cities have been transformed by downtown development in recent years said they have done that by encouraging business investment and public-private partnerships while trying to preserve older residential neighborhoods and open space.
Not all of their cities”™ residents are pleased with the new urban landscapes of high-rise commercial and residential buildings, mayors Joseph Delfino of White Plains, Philip Amicone of Yonkers and Noam Bramson of New Rochelle told members of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Westchester County at a recent panel discussion in White Plains.
The three shared similar stories of their cities”™ gradual recovery and rise from decades of economic decline through aggressive government policies ”“ “shock therapy,” Bramson called it ”“ and a shift in prevailing attitudes to encourage outside business investment.
“For all of us, this is the most dramatic physical transformation in our city”™s history,” said Bramson. In New Rochelle, one-third of the people “love the new growth,” which has focused on downtown areas near mass transit, one-third “are horrified with it” and one-third accept it intellectually but “still have an emotional discomfort that they have to get over,” he said.
In White Plains, Delfino recalled, one woman complained her former 10-minute drive into downtown now took 20 or 25 minutes since the city and its business partners undertook $2.6 billion in construction, including the addition of 2,400 downtown housing units. “Just remember,” Delfino said he told her, “when you came into downtown in 10 minutes, there was nothing to come to.
“We”™re not a village. We”™re not a town. We have to take on these challenges as a city.”
The mayoral trio said the development boom in their cities has been balanced by efforts to maintain or create open and green spaces. In New Rochelle, most business development activity has been confined to the central business district, North Avenue and the Echo Bay waterfront, where industrial brownfield sites have been cleaned up. Outside those areas, the city”™s policy is “to limit and contain growth” with open spaces and larger minimum-size requirements for house lots and retain New Rochelle”™s traditional suburban character, Bramson said.
In Yonkers, “We”™ll build no new low-income housing,” Amicone said. “That”™s what got us in trouble in the first place.” Rather, a new mix of residential, retail and office space is “the only way we can truly succeed.”
By rebuilding older neighborhoods and keeping strong neighborhood networks for new immigrants, “We”™re not driving people out,” he said. “In fact what we”™re trying to do is create a better environment for them to stay and come in.”
Bramson said the three cities have benefited from a national and regional economic climate that permitted investment and a recognition that Westchester cities have “untapped potential.”
“A shift in perception can often create a change in reality,” he said.
Despite its favorable location, waterfront views and access to transportation, for years “Yonkers worked very hard not to succeed as a city,” Amicone recalled. Since he became deputy mayor and then mayor, “What did change was an attitude. We brought in a different attitude.
“It was a closed shop in Yonkers. If you weren”™t the right architect or the right lawyer, you didn”™t do business in Yonkers. ”¦People didn”™t want to admit they were here and that”™s why we didn”™t get investment.
“We”™re creating an environment that”™s good for business investment and business development, and then we”™re doing what too many governments don”™t do ”“ we”™re getting out of the way. Government can”™t build cities. Businesses build cities,” he said.
“All you need is one success story,” said Delfino, noting his early mayoral courtship and personal chauffeuring of businessman Lou Fortunoff to persuade him to purchase the former Saks Fifth Avenue property in White Plains and build a Fortunoff retail store there.
“Time is money. Friendliness is money also. That”™s our success story” with developers, Delfino said.
“If you work together, there”™s nothing you can”™t accomplish,” Delfino told their audience. “BOMA, please continue to work with us.
