Pluses & Minuses Cited in “Taking Temperature” of Community

by Harold Wolfson

(February 9, 2006) “Residential houses in Larchmont and Mamaroneck will sell in 2006, but it won’t be the kind of buying frenzy we’re used to. The market is getting back to normal,” Janet Demasi, a leading broker/agent with the Weichert realty office, told the Local Summit Organization meeting on January 17 at the Nautilus Diner.

Thomas DeRosa, president of the Mamaroneck Village Chamber of Commerce and president of DeRosa Tennis Contractors, reported that “Business on Mamaroneck Avenue last year was terrific. We have very few vacant stores.”

In a contrast to these upbeat reports, Shirley Romney, head of Community Services for the Village of Mamaroneck, said that rising energy prices have been a “disaster for many residents of moderate means and governmental assistance has been inadequate.” She also reported that despite governmental and social agency effort, the Medicare D program, which is designed to help the elderly pay for medication, is proving to be a complex and difficult puzzle to unravel for many applicants.

This is the kind of see-saw report Summit members heard at their second annual “Taking the Temperature of the Community” program. The program was designed to highlight trends, the good and the bad, as seen from the vantage point of speakers who are expert in specific segments of the community.

Superintendent Dr. Paul Fried from the Mamaroneck schools said, “We can report that 112 college applicants of this year’s graduating class of 320 have gained early admittance to at least one college.”

On what seemed to some as a less joyous note, he said that teachers of grades three through eight are immersed in conducting standardized tests in math and English as part of the No Child Left Behind program, causing a heavy drain on teacher time.

He also said that he was spending a fair amount of time trying to find a way for the local youth skateboarding population to carry on their enthusiasm in a safe and monitored way. At present, he said, there are no approved facilities in the community, although New Rochelle seems close to finishing its skateboarding park and Rye reportedly is planning theirs.

Cheryl Bobe, director of special projects of the Student Assistance Services Corp. in Tarrytown, which is working closely with RADAR, this community’s youth drug and alcohol prevention group, noted that there has been an increase in resources provided to RADAR and other organizations to help them carry out their mission.. She pointed out, nonetheless, that alcohol and drug use, particularly marijuana, were still rising and that a recent major new concern was the misuse of prescription drugs such as Ritalin and certain over-the-counter drugs.

Mamaroneck Town Youth Officer Robert Reynolds confirmed this pattern and added that both the police department and school officials were working closely on this.

Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman of the Larchmont Temple praised the community’s religious establishment for ongoing, generous support for good causes. But he faulted himself and his colleagues for a certain insularity. He said that as far as he could tell most religious leaders were doing a fairly good job of passing along the tenets of their specific faith and of keeping their congregations’ religious attendance at a reasonable level. But where they and he fall down, he said, is “ in building bridges to religious congregations other than their own.”

He said rabbis, ministers and priests need a Local Summit of religious leaders where they could all meet and talk about common issues and challenges. He said his own congregation had established a long-standing and close relationship with the Strait Gate Church that benefited both congregations. But he said most leaders, like himself, were so busy tending to their own flocks that they missed opportunities inherent in getting to know their religious counterparts. “We used to have this sort of group in town which did meet, but, unfortunately it has sort of dwindled,” he said.

Mr. DeRosa said that he would like to see a union of his Mamaroneck Chamber of Commerce with the Larchmont and Mamaroneck Town Chambers. He said there is a lot that they jointly could do to improve business activity for everyone. He said that the Mamaroneck Chamber is on a growth curve. Last year it had 66 members and now has grown to 9l. He showed Summit members a schedule of nine public events the Chamber is planning in 2006, from a January 19 th annual dinner to a December 9 th public Santa’s Walk.

Ms. Demasi said that as she surveys the current local real estate market, she sees fewer homes for sale today than six months ago. She said all local realtors are watching current action on recent listings to get a feeling for how to price the spring offerings.

“Starting last May, I could see there was a drag on the market. Houses weren’t moving quickly. There were fewer and fewer sealed bids. People would come and look and wait and maybe make a verbal offer. There have been a lot of reductions in price and other adjustments. But they are not that dramatic.

“Houses in Larchmont and Mamaroneck, on average, always go up in price over a period of time,” she said, “We are close to New York City, with good schools and a lot of beauty. The current standard house, between $800,000 to $1,200,000, will do OK this year.

“What I’m concerned about as a citizen is the lack of so-called affordable housing. You can’t live in Mamaroneck or Larchmont with a salary of $50,000 a year. Housing and living costs are very high. And there aren’t a lot of affordable apartments and so we see some of the older residents moving south and new families from the city taking their place.”

Harold Wolfson is a volunteer with The Local Summit, a grass roots volunteer organization dedicated to making the community a better place to live for everyone. It meets at 7:45 a.m. on the third Tuesday of the month at the Nautilus Diner. Much of its work is done by specific task groups that meet independently and then report at the larger meeting.

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