Spano's state of city address: 'Yonkers has arrived'
Positive signs Spano cited included one of the lowest crime rates for a city its size, a high-school graduation rate above the state average and 4,000 housing units in various stages of development
YONKERS - In an annual update, Mayor Mike Spano said his city has reached a critical mass in its transformation and announced new initiatives that include taxing nonprofits, building a new firehouse and redrawing police precincts.
"I can say today we have arrived," Spano said during his State of the City address Wednesday night at City Hall. "After five years of plans to solve our problems, we can now say those solutions are working. After five years of steering past the storms, today we are on a favorable course with the wind at our back."
The positive signs Spano cited included one of the lowest crime rates for a city its size, a high-school graduation rate above the state average and 4,000 housing units in various stages of development — about a 5 percent increase in the city.
His biggest proposal is his intention to ask nonprofit organizations that own properties worth more than $1 million to voluntarily make payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILOTs. Big nonprofit property owners in Yonkers include Sarah Lawrence College, St. Joseph's Seminary and St. John's Riverside Hospital.
Spano called for nonprofit property owners to voluntarily pay 25 percent of what they would otherwise pay in property taxes.
"We must still provide services to them to the tune of $20 million a year. Our police and fire respond in emergencies, we maintain the roads that they use, provide streetlights to light their way and collect their garbage," Spano said. "Many other communities, like Boston, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, that face financial challenges, have partnered with their major tax-exempt institutions in this very same way."
Spano also wants to redraw the city's police precinct boundaries.
"We know that 22 percent of all crime in the city takes place in just two sectors of the Third and Fourth precincts," he said. "Using existing resources, we can target these areas and drive down the crime rate even lower."
Spano also wants to improve public safety by building a new $10 million firehouse on School Street that would replace the existing firehouse on School Street that forcibly closed after it was compromised by weather and age. Spano called the shuttered firehouse economically beyond repair.
He also spoke about the national immigration debate.
"We have our own immigration policy, and it consists of just three words: You. Are. Welcome," he said.
Spano also introduced new initiatives with modest costs, including the free distribution of reflective arm bands for people who run or bike at night, and a first-time-mothers partnership with St. John's hospital and Planned Parenthood.
By working cooperatively with city officials and residents, Spano said Yonkers is better.
"We have momentum. We have energy," Spano said.
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