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Westchester County’s housing market closed out 2018 with a decrease in overall sales from 2017. Total housing sales fell for the first time in seven years. The residential brokers attribute the slowdown to buyer concerns with rising interest rates, lack of inventory and sellers not pricing for the market.

According to an article in the Westchester County Business Journal on January 28, 2019 by Ryan Deffenbaugh, there were 1358 sales of single family homes in Westchester in October & December, down about 6% from the same period in 2017. The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors states that closing a year in which Westchester County’s 5876 total sales of single family homes, condominiums, cooperative and two to four family homes dropped 4% from 2017.

The fourth quarter of 2018 marks the sixth straight quarter in which total single family homes declined. Prices are still going up which shows demand is strong. The median price for a single family home in 2018 went up to $650,000 which is up 1.2% from 2017 and up 3.5% from 2015. Entry level prices are in demand in the $400,000 price range which is especially intense. Demand in the low and mid-priced market has elevated prices for those homes.

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New York doctors accused of unprofessional conduct in other states are practicing without a blemish on their records exposing patients to harm. USA Today network investigation of more than 250 doctors across the USA who surrendered their licenses in one state to protect their reputation and relocate to another state. The Journal News/Lo Hud exposed flaws in state physician records in New York as well as concerns about regulations showing clemency to doctors to ensure they keep practicing medicine. There are often limited records available to the public about accusations, investigations and even discipline of doctors.

There are a few things patients can do to look into their doctors. Contact the medical board in your state where the records of doctors can be checked through the Office of Professional Medical Conduct. New York also has a physician profile database that allows doctors to submit details about their medical practice. Lax maintenance of the doctor on the site NewYork Profile.com was detailed in the Journal News/Lo Hud investigation. “Risk under the knife” Lo Hud surgeons rated; public records flawed”. If you know your doctor has practiced in another state, contact the website of that medical board. There is also a national clearing housing of State Medical Boards operated by the Federation of State Medical Board; www.docinfo.org.

Many states including New York prohibit felons from holding licenses to sell real estate and liquor licenses and also for felons for certain jobs such as private investigators, insurance brokers and attorneys. However, medical licensing board determine if doctors committing crimes will face professional penalties. This process has been criticized by prosecutors and good government groups for failing to sufficiently punish doctors.

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In an article in The Westchester County Business Journal by Bob Rozycki on April 2, 2018, he refers to a study done by WalletHub which found New York State as the third worst for doctors. The next two states above New York were Rhode Island and New Jersey.  These findings come for the Washington D.C. Personal Finance website by comparing all 50 states and Washington D.C across 16 key metrics including average annual wage of doctors, hospitals per capita and quality of public hospital systems.

One of the biggest problems for doctors working in New York State is the high cost of malpractice liability insurance. New York State is in first place as having the most expensive annual malpractice liability insurance. Following New York was Illinois, Michigan, The District of Columbia and West Virginia. The top least expensive states for malpractice insurance were Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas tied for last place with the highest malpractice award payouts were New Jersey, New York and New Hampshire. The states with the lowest payout amounts were Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina and Texas.

According to a medical malpractice payout analysis by Diedrick Healthcare,, New York malpractice insurance payouts in 2017 was $617 million. Pennsylvania was second with a payout of $342 million and New Jersey was third at $267.9 million amount Northeast states.

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In June, 2018, bike sharing pilot stated in White Plains with 300 dock less, two wheelers on the streets of White Plains. They yellow and green bicycles cost $1.00 a ride. The companies Lime Bike & OFO started the program in White Plains. The pros and cons and etiquette of bike sharing are being discussed on social media. The reaction has generally been positive with few kinks need to be worked out, according to an article in The Journal News on June 20, 2018, entitled “pedal power is the talk of White Plains” by Richard Liebson. The owner of businesses along Mamaroneck Avenue have seen good, bad and ugly by the owner of Vino 110, Stuart Levine who stated “like all new things, there are growing pains”. Bikes are left all over including in front of his store door, on people’s lawns and riding on sidewalks. It is recommended the bike program rules be adjusted to including parking stations or a dedicated team member to better organize a bike return protocol.

White Plains is the third Westchester community to introduce a bike sharing program this year following New Rochelle and Yonkers. White Plains Mayor, Tom Roach said “usage has exceeded our expectations”. It is noted that ride bikes on sidewalks is prohibited. White Plains had painted bike lanes at various thoroughfares for a few years and is spending $1.5 million state grants on bikes and pedestrian improvements. The program comes at no cost to the City or taxpayers. The bike company pays a small permit fee to operate a one year pilot program in White Plains.

The bikes are equipped with GPS and unlocked with an app starting at $1.00. Once a trip is completed and the bike is in an area that does not block traffic and the locks is pulled down, it ends their ride which goes to the app. People love taking the bikes from the outer ring of the city into the train stations. The train station and downtown area has been a really popular corridor.

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White Plains train station becomes slippery because of paint on the yellow warning strip. According to an article in The Journal News on October 15, 2018, a 37 year old White Plains resident slipped at about 8:11 A.M. while waiting for a Metro North train to Grand Central. “I took a pretty good fall” he told The Journal News (loHud). He slipped on the newly painted yellow warning strip a half hour earlier. Another passenger slipped and fell boarding a train and needed to be hospitalized.

The work on the White Plains train station was part of a $92 million renovation of the station. They had to close the northern end of the same platform.

Another passenger fell and was dazed. He was told about the person that fell before at approximately 4:00 P.M. The falls, according to the person that fell, should have been preventable. The newly painted warning strip is unusually slippery. The platform edge has small, round, tactile bumps to help with traction, but new paint seems to be a problem.

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The Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge is now open in both directions. Now the walking and biking paths on the new bridge is being worked on. Still to be decided is if the path will be open 24 hours per day or from dusk to dawn. South Nyack Major Bonnie Christian mounted a fight against The New York State Thruway Authority to reconfigure the path on the Rockland side of the bridge and The Thruway Authority has changed the configuration in response to Nyack’s complaints.

According to an article in The Journal News entitled “The bridge path forward” by Matt Coyne on July 12, 2018, the future walking and biking path will be a shared use path. A ridge has been built into the right most of all Rockland bound lanes. The ridge will accommodate a future barrier separating vehicle traffic from pedestrian and cyclists. Once finished, the Thruway Authority has not committed to an opening date yet.

The path will feature lanes for pedestrians and bikers and six overlooks, each with a local historical or cultural theme. The article points out that the overlooks hold tourisms potential which could boost the economies of Tarrytown and Nyack.

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All buses in New York are required to have seatbelts by State Law but it is up to the individual school district to decide whether to enforce their use. On May 17, 2018, a horrific crash in New Jersey when a school bus crashed into a dump truck in which a student and teacher died has parents worried about putting children onto buses. The Federal Government claims school buses are 70 times safer than a passenger car. School officials, experts and industry figures say school buses are designed to protect students in the event of a crash even without seatbelts. Even without seatbelts, he Assistant Director of Transportation at The Rockland County Board of Cooperative Educational Services claims “there are actually a lot of things that make the role of a school bus drivers much safer than a parent”.

According to an article in The Journal News entitled “Buckle up: Is it the law?” by Kimberly Redmond and Matt Coyne on May 19, 2018, school buses are safer because of their size and weight. The distinctive yellow color, the extra lights and retractable stop sign, the interior of a school bus is designed with safety in mind. The Assistant Director in Rockland County, Joann Thompson states “the design – the compartmentalization which is the higher backed seat in front and behind helps student from getting significantly hurt if we were involved in a crash”. “It gives an added level of safety that supersedes a parent transporting their kid in their own car”.

Elmsford students from kindergarten to sixth grade have to use seatbelts and the district has monitors on buses to make sure. Briarcliff Manor requires seatbelts for elementary school students on field trips. White Plains encourages the use of seatbelts at transportation orientation for parent and students every year but does not mandate it. In the New Jersey school bus accident on May 17, 2018, students were reportedly wear seatbelts and when the crash happened, students were screaming and hanging from their seatbelts as the bus went on its side and escaped through windows and emergency exits. Al Roney from New York School Bus Contractors Associates states seatbelts can help in situations like crashes but when a young student has to evacuate, the seatbelts can slow things down. He states “we’re all about student safety first. If there is a mandate that all students have to wear a seatbelt, too, we’re going to go with that and whatever the state decides”.

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The number of home sales in the first quarter of 2018 dropped in Westchester and Rockland Counties for the first time in four years. According to an article in the Journal News on April 23, 2018 by Akiko Matsuda, the lack of inventory has been an issue but also the implications of the new tax laws might have had an additional hand in home sales in the first quarter of 2018. Sales figures in the first quarter reflect transactions that were negotiated in the last quarter of 2017.

Westchester’s single family home sales from Jan. – March, 2018 declined 5.6% to 1034 from the same period in 2017 which was 1095. In Rockland, the sales dropped 18.9% to 360 from 444 in 2017 according to the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Services. However, in Putnam County, single family sales rose by 8.1% from 209 in 2017 to 226 in 2018. In all three Counties, single family home inventory (the number of home for sale) saw a significant drop from a year ago; down 7.3% in Westchester, 12% in Rockland and 2.15% in Putnam. The lack of inventory pushed up overall prices in all three counties. In Westchester, the median price for a single family home went up 2.2% to $613,250 from 2017. In Rockland, the median home price went up 10.7% to 357,011.

According to The Somers Record on April 19, 2018, Westchester County, the most popular county in the region, dropped 2.3%, co-op sales continue to be resilient and increased by 1.1% for the first quarter of 2018. Single family residence sales decreased by 5.6% from 2017 while the median sales price for a single family home in Rockland rose 2.4%. In Orange County, sales of single family homes dropped by only 0.5% and the single family home price rose to a median of 240,000, a 4.3% increase from 2017.

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Route 119 is a major east-west road with constant traffic. There is very little room for sidewalk or bicycle lanes. According to an article published in The Journal News on Sunday, June 10, 2018 by Matt Coyne states “for Westchester bike commuters, plus anyone who walks or takes a bus, there’s hope in a plan to open one of the major east-west thoroughfare to more than just cars”.

There is in existence “the Route 119 Complete Streets Plan”. This plan includes local transportation activists and local, county and state officials on the Steering Committee and funding from the Thruway Authority who wants to make the state road that runs from Tarrytown to White Plains more bike and pedestrian friendly. This Committee hopes to add bike lanes, add or enlarge sidewalks and make bus tops more accessible.

Route 119 runs through Tarrytown where there exists office buildings, hotels and apartments with wider lanes of traffic. However, on Main Street in Elmsford, they have many small businesses such as deli’s, barber shops and bars with narrow roads that require parking on Route 119. Thereafter, Route 119 gives way to car dealerships and strip malls before you get to the Westchester County Center. The physical geography changes vastly along Route 119. The roads goes from raised meadows with three lanes to tight lanes next to curb parking to 10 lanes by the County Center and The Bronx River Parkway.

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Pedestrian deaths in the USA have skyrocketed 46% since 2009 according to an article in USA Today – The Journal News published on May 8, 2018 entitled “Perils of walking in USA increase” by Eric D. Lawrence, Chris Woodyard, Zlati Meyer and Kristi Tanner. The increase far outpaced other traffic related death according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Almost 6,000 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles on American roads in 2016, the latest year for which numbers are available.  That’s almost twice the number of death tied directly to the September 11 terrorist attacks and more Americans have died as they walked than died in combat in Iraq each year since 2003.

There are many causes for the increase in pedestrian deaths. Distraction behind the wheel, texting while driving and while walking and marijuana legalization have been cited as potential culprits.

A study released in May by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests at least part of the blame rests with Americans increase use of SUV’S. The study shows 81% increase in the number of SUV’S involved in single vehicle pedestrian fatalities from 2009-2016. The Insurance Institute President said one reason SUV’s have a greater impact on pedestrian fatalities has to do with their design. SUV’s have higher front end and the design is more vertical than passenger cars. The vehicles are playing some role. Pedestrian fatalities reached 5,987 in 2016, the highest since H.W. Bush was President.  Nationally, more pedestrians die in collision when they are crossing at points other than intersections along busy roads. More of the fatalities occur at night and involve males and alcohol. In 2016, pedestrians accounted for 16% of traffic deaths; in 2008 that figure was 11% according to NHTSA. The crisis fell mostly in American cities such as St. Louis and Newark but also in Sun Belt cities such as Phoenix, Baton Rouge and Miami. Detroit Michigan had the highest role among larger cities, nearly a quarter of the 118 people who died in traffic crashes in 2016 were pedestrians. Despite its first place ranking in the city, they saw improvements in its fatality numbers in 2016 which dropped after 65,000 street lights were installed over a three year period. The City intends to replace 125,000 sidewalk slabs to keep more pedestrians out of the street.

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