July 15, 2019 Mayor's Column

Posted on: July 23, 2019 - 2:07pm

Our consultants assisting on the Village’s Comprehensive Plan have dug deep and extrapolated data and trends that were never grouped such as they are in the Plan document.  Many were expected while others quite surprising.

I thought so instructive to share with Villagers as we constantly get to know our home a little better.

Demographics

  • In 2016, the Village had 6,395 residents up 1.7% or 72 people from the 2010 census. Village population peaked in the late 1940’s at 6,888 and has since declined 1 to 6% in every successive decade.
  • As to age distribution, we mirror our neighboring communities.  The median age of a Villager has gone up since 1990 to 45 years in 2016, a number higher than those recorded in the 2000 and 2010 censuses.
  • The largest age cohort in the Village is 35 to 54, while residents under five have decreased from 6.3% of our population in 2000 to 4.6% in 2016.
  • We have 2,193 Village households, three quarters of which characterize themselves as family units with an average family size of 3.45, a number slightly above the County average.
  • Single person homes approximate the other 25% of our residential inventory.  Those living alone over 65 have increased to 13.6% of our population, a number 2% higher than the Westchester County average.
  • 40% of our residents live in detached single family homes while 30% of Villagers live in buildings with 20 or more units. (The Avalon has 110 units, our largest complex)
  • 72% of Village housing stock was built before 1939 of which 83.9% are owner occupied.
  • The total assessed value of Village property is $3,797,744,396. Tax exempt property accounts for $617,533,959. in value or 16.26% of the total.
  • Concordia College is our largest landowner with 27 buildings spread over 27 acres.
  • In terms of open space, Scout Field is a 22.29 acre park, of which only 0.29 acres are in the Village of Bronxville with the remaining acreage almost evenly split between the Cities of Yonkers and Mount Vernon. As a consequence, the Village Police Department cannot patrol on land in other cities/jurisdictions.
  • The Nature Preserve is the Village’s largest park/open space comprising 5.7 acres, 4.7 of which are actually in the Town of Eastchester.
  • Relating back to the demographic data, the Bronxville School had 1,652 students in school year 2017-2018, representing a 4% decrease in enrollment since the peak year of 2014-15.  Enrollment is projected to decrease 1 to 2% over the next ten years.  In the last 8 to 12 years, the Kindergarten class has been smaller than the graduating class.  As a result, it is anticipated that a student decrease of 268 pupils or 14.4% will be realized by 2028 – a number in correlation with data for the Scarsdale school system.
  • As an interesting factoid, Bronxville Village and the Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel in Rockland County are the only two communities who are co-terminus with their school districts, hence why the Village sends out tax bills for both school and municipal services.
  • Lawrence Hospital, founded in 1909 with just 11 beds, now treats 42,000 patients annually in the Emergency Room and 1300 children are born there yearly.  With 1200 in staff, the Hospital is the largest employer in the Village.
  • The Bronx River, which forms a Village boundary, is a tributary of the East River with its source in North Castle, 24 miles to the north.
  • The Village’s temperatures range from an average low of 39° in January to a high of 86° in July.
  • The Village has 2434 public parking spaces, an increase from 2000 spaces in 1992. 
  • The rents in our Central Business District are currently on a par per square footage with White Plains, the City of Rye and Scarsdale.
  • The Village has no county roads and the only state controlled road is Route 22 (built with no drainage)
  • As to safety on our Village owned roads, the intersection of Cedar Street and Pondfield Road was tracked as the most dangerous during a three year study encompassing the years of 2015, 2016 and 2017. 

In the Village as a whole during this period, there were 19 accidents resulting in injury and 61 non-injury motor vehicle accidents. There were six collisions with pedestrians and one collision with a bicyclist.

The largest cluster at Cedar and Pondfield resulted in nine accidents with two pedestrian injuries.  Midland and Pondfield recorded five accidents, one resulting in injury and Meadow Avenue at Pondfield was the site of three collisions resulting in one injury.