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Issue #008 Wednesday, September 9, 2026 · Downtown · the neck · the waterfront · schools

What did the City Council decide on the Davenport Neck zoning? The vote comes Tuesday at 3:45

🗞️ Free local email · Monday + Friday mornings · written by Alex Tiratsuyan · 4-minute read

In this New Rochelle Local Scoop Issue…

The Metro-North station and Intermodal Center, downtown New Rochelle. Photo: DanTD, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The Lead

The neck zoning gets its hearing this afternoon. Here is how the meeting runs, and when you will read the outcome. the Council convenes at 3:45 PM; Community to Be Heard starts at 7:00 PM (2 min)

Friends, the Davenport Neck hearing you have been reading about here all month happens today. The Council convenes at 3:45 PM at City Hall, 515 North Avenue, for the Committee of the Whole and public hearings, and the neck zoning changes are on that agenda after the council scheduled them for this meeting back in July. If you want to speak, Community to Be Heard starts at 7:00 PM.

Two practical notes before you go. The proposed zoning would add stronger standards, infrastructure obligations, open space requirements, structured parking requirements, and per-unit fees for redevelopment on the neck, per the city's own presentation. And if speaking is not your thing, the meeting is streamed on the city's watch page.

Whatever comes out of this afternoon leads Friday's issue in plain English. Zoning votes can also be carried over to a later meeting, so if the Council holds this one, we will say that plainly and tell you the new date.

Sources: newrochelleny.gov meeting calendar, Sept 8 · city Davenport Neck presentation (PDF) · Tag: News

Search answers

The questions New Rochelle searches this week, answer first, source after.

What time is the New Rochelle 9/11 ceremony on Friday?

The city's plan runs the whole morning. Bells ring at 8:46, 9:03, 9:59 and 10:28 AM, the times the towers were hit and fell and Flight 93 went down, and the annual remembrance ceremony begins on the front steps of City Hall after the final bell. This is the 25th anniversary, and the city says this year's ceremony names New Rochelle residents, alumni and first responders who were lost. At 7:30 PM the United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association holds its candlelight vigil on the same steps, and City Hall will be lit sky blue with two beams of light rising from it that evening.

Source: city announcement, Sept 8, 2026

Why does City Hall have thousands of flags on the lawn?

The United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association, working with the city, placed 2,977 American flags on the City Hall front lawn, one for each life lost on September 11, 2001. They went up as part of the 25th anniversary preparations and stay up through the remembrance. If you drive past North Avenue this week, that is what the field of flags is.

Source: city announcement, Sept 8, 2026

Roads & Rails

First full week for the buses, and the alerts desk stays quiet no weather alerts for Westchester as of Tuesday morning (1 min)

The alerts desk shows all quiet: no active National Weather Service alerts for New York State as of Tuesday morning, and no new road or utility advisories for New Rochelle.

The adjustment still on the roads is school. This is the first regular week: yesterday ran a half day at every school, and full days with afternoon buses and crossing guards are the routine from here. Metro-North is on the regular weekday timetable, so the morning pattern you saw Tuesday is the one to plan around.

Sources: NWS active alerts · MTA schedules · Tag: Transit

🤖 AI Corner — one plain-English AI thing, every issue

This week: let AI get you ready to speak at a hearing.

A two-minute speaking slot goes fast. Try: "Here is my rough note about [the topic]. Turn it into a two-minute public comment, plain words, one clear ask at the end." You walk up with a comment that fits the clock instead of a page you have to cut off mid-sentence.

Reply with questions; they become future AI Corners.

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The Dates-Ahead Calendar

City Council COW and public hearings, 3:45 PM, with the Davenport Neck zoning on the agenda · Community to Be Heard 7:00 PM · HLRB and Municipal Arts Commission, 6:00 PM

City Hall, 515 North Avenue · meeting streamed on the city's watch page

9/11 blood drive with the New York Blood Center, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

City Hall Rotunda · register at donate.nybc.org

25th anniversary remembrance: bells 8:46, 9:03, 9:59, 10:28 AM, ceremony after the final bell · candlelight vigil 7:30 PM

City Hall front steps, 515 North Avenue

City Council Regular Legislative Meeting, 6:15 PM

City Hall, 515 North Avenue · agenda at newrochelleny.gov/agendacenter

New Rochelle Street Fair, with the library's 700-card sign-up table

Downtown, around City Hall · rain date September 20

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