Sound Shore

Good afternoon. Here’s a curated look at the weekend’s opinion conent:

Sunday, Nov. 20
We carried a pair of editorials on budgets proposed by the leaders of county governments in Westchester and Rockland counties. Tough choices loom on both sides of the Hudson as services and programs are slated to be slashed in significant ways in 2012:

Tough choices loom for budgets
Debate over cuts, spending in Rockland

Astorino and HUD: Community View
Bennett L. Gersham, a frequent contributor on legal issues and a professor at Pace University Law School and a former Manhattan prosecutor, weighs in on the impasse between Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development over the 2009 settlement on affordable housing.

Monday, Nov. 21
Flood-insurance reform: Commentary
Eli Lehrer, Joshua Saksand and Shana Udvardy offer a comment on the need to reform flood insurance, an issue that’s sadly near and dear to Lower Hudson Valley residents affected by Tropical Storm Irene.

Good Monday morning.

Here’s a glance at opinion content published over the weekend:

Saturday, Nov. 12
Prescription drugs: Editorial
We comment on the cases of David Laffer and Conrad Murray. Laffer was sentenced last week to four consecutive life sentences after he admitted that he killed four people during the robbery of a Medford pharmacy. Murray was convicted on involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Michael Jackson. Both cases shine a light on prescription drug abuse.

Sunday, Nov. 13
Crumbling Schools: Editorial
We comment on a Journal News investigation that examined the condition of Lower Hudson Valley School buildings. One in three, reporters Gary Stern and Cathey O’Donnell found, are in need of significant repairs. We write:

… School districts get little help from Albany figuring out what to fix or when. While state law requires school districts to have buildings inspected every five years, and to draw up a plan for addressing unsatisfactory findings, no distinction is made between serious safety issues and inefficient, outdated equipment. The state Education Department only reviews capital plans if building aid is sought.

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NEW ROCHELLE — Senior citizens in need of affordable housing in the city will soon have more options.

City officials joined members of the Shiloh Baptist Church and Westhab for a ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday morning for a 40-unit apartment building to be constructed at 29 Kress Ave.

The five-story building’s one-bedroom apartments will be available to seniors whose earnings are below 50 percent of the county’s median income, or no more than $37,300 annually for a single person.

Bob Miller, president of the Elmsford-based Westhab, said the project has been at least 12 years in the making and will fill a need.

“It’s beautifully designed affordable housing for seniors in New Rochelle that has wonderful ammenities,” he said.

The project will be financed with $7.2 million in federal Housing and Urban Development funds; $4.5 million in tax credits from the state; and $1.6 million in federal funds administered hrough the city’s HOME program.

Miller said Shiloh Senior Housing should be completed by the end of 2012. Westhab will begin accepting applications in the summer. Go to www.westhab.org for more information.

Adolfo Carrion, a former Bronx Borough President who now serves as director of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, talked Thursday with the Editorial Board about Westchester County’s affordable housing settlement.

Here’s a clip of the interview:

To watch the session in its entirety, go to lohud.com/editorialspotlight

Adolfo Carrion, the federal Housing and Urban Development Department’s regional director for New York and New Jersey, appears in an Editorial Spotlight interview at 11 a.m. today to answer your questions and our editors’ about the fair-housing settlement in Westchester.

To watch live, go to http://LoHud.com/editorialspotlight.

To ask a question, engage the Cover It Live feature.

Good Monday morning. Here’s a glance at opinion content published over the weekend:

Saturday, July 23
We published a pair of commentary pieces that probed whether or not the federal Enviornmental Protection Agency should enact a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial practice used for extracting natural gas from bedrock. In New York, where drillers would like to extract gas from Marcellus shale deposits, the state Department of Environmental Conservation continues its review of the practice.
Fracking’s harm to the environment is overstated, Andrew P. Morriss, professor of business at the University of Alabama
Fracking’s ills are known, real, Arnold J. Mann, author of “They’re Poisoning Us! From the Gulf War to the Gulf of Mexico, An Investigative Report.”

Sunday, July 24
Gay marriage: Editorial
We herald the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York. We write:

… New York’s giant step toward equality, though, is hamstrung by federal regulations that still restrict the rights of people based on their sexual orientation. Change, though, is coming.

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The effort to replace New Rochelle’s Hartley House with new affordable housing inched forward Tuesday when county legislators approved $1.2 million in funding for the project.

New Rochelle Commissioner of Development Michael Freimuth called the funding “one of the last ingredients” and said it would be applied to the cost of road construction in the project’s first phase.

If all goes to plan, the 240-unit Robert Hartley Housing Project near Lincoln Avenue will be replaced by Heritage Homes, a series of townhouse-style buildings with a total of 228 units. The first phase, which is set to cost $37 million, will provide 131 units. Freimuth said construction could begin in the fall.

The Hartley House was built more than 60 years ago and shows its age. Westchester County Legislator Sheila Marcotte said the completion of the project would “immediately improve” the quality of life of Heritage Homes residents and bring new jobs to the city.

“This project will mean that while these apartments are affordable, they are also beautiful and designed to create a connection to the rest of New Rochelle. The residents of the new Heritage Homes will be able to take pride in their neighborhood and new homes,” Marcotte said.

The Editorial Board will host an Editorial Spotlight interview 1 p.m. with Westchester Residential Opportunities officials Geoffrey Anderson, executive director; Marlene Zarfes, fair-housing director; and Laura Neil, communications director, on fair housing in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. WRO released a study last week that revealed discriminatory conduct in all three counties.

Watch the session at LoHud.com/editorialspotlight. To submit a question or comment, engage the CoverItLive blogging feature on the right side of your screen.

The Editorial Board will host an Editorial Spotlight interview 1 p.m. Thursday with Westchester Residential Opportunities officials Geoffrey Anderson, executive director; Marlene Zarfes, fair-housing director; and Laura Neil, communications director, on fair housing in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. WRO released a study last week that revealed discriminatory conduct in all three counties.

Watch the session at LoHud.com/editorialspotlight. To submit a question or comment, engage the CoverItLive blogging feature on the right side of your screen.

Good afternoon. Here’s a digest of opinion content published in The Journal News Thursday, Jan. 27 and today, Friday, Jan. 28:

Thursday, Jan. 27
Fair housing study: Editorial
We comment on a study released Tuesday by Westchester Residential Opportunities Inc., a White Plains-based non-profit, that found that racial discrimination is still evident in the Lower Hudson Valley’s housing market. We write:

… The fair-housing group on Tuesday reported the results of an 18-month inquiry in which minority and white testers posing as housing-seekers were dispatched to real-estate offices, apartment complexes and management offices in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. Their aim was to determine the extent, if any, of unlawful discrimination in our communities. Overall, the findings showed that 21 percent of minority “applicants” experienced “unequal” or inferior treatment, compared against the treatment accorded whites. In Westchester, 17 percent of minority testers experienced unequal treatment; in Rockland, the figure was 35 percent; and in Putnam, the number was 14 percent.


Such unequal treatment included requiring credit checks of minorities, but none for white testers. There also was evidence of racial steering — showing minority applicants housing in predominantly minority neighborhoods and white applicants units in predominantly white areas. According to the WRO report, in the “most blatant” example of unequal treatment, a building superintendent in New Rochelle would arrange to meet testers on a street corner. The superintendent, a management-company employee, “would pull up in his car, get out and amiably show housing units to (white) testers. However, with (minority) testers he would inform them that he had no units available or he would refuse to show an apartment without first having a credit check and a completed application. He did not require a credit check or a completed application in order to show apartments to (white testers). He would not even get out of his car for the (minority testers).” …