city review-new rochelle 2-27-2015

THE NewRochelleCityREVIEWFebruary 27 & March 6, 2015 | Vol. 3, Number 5 | www.cityreviewnr.com

gle, Marraccini said, it points to the fact that the teens were killed while they slept some-time during the early morning hours of Feb. 21. Authorities say Hochman also killed the family’s three dogs.

At the crime scene, police found a five-to-six page suicide note, and although Marraccini could not fully disclose what was written in the letter, he did indicate that Hochman wrote the “two girls were taken away,” which the chief said “indicates a motive” for the killings.

The incident was preceded by a verbal dispute the couple had the day before over an $80 cell phone bill. Though no physical violence was reported,

DiPietro-Hochman went down to the police station to just have the incident documented, ac-cording to Marraccini. Authori-ties also claim that last month, the couple had talked about the possibility of separating.

On Monday, Marraccini said the couple’s martial problems have not been ruled out.

Marraccini said the typed letter, which authorities believe was drafted at approximately 2 a.m. Saturday after the killing of the two teens, gave instruc-tions for what Mrs. Hochman “needed to do to get things in order for the family.”

“The note was really one page, the rest of it was pretty much instructions on what to

do [with] financial informa-tion,” Marraccini said.

Harrison Mayor Ron Bel-mont said he personally knew the family. He urged commu-nity members to seek help that the town is providing, such as interfaith support, during this “difficult time.”

“I encourage all those who knew and loved Alissa and Deanna to draw strength from the sense of unity we have here in town,” the mayor said. “I hope that we can celebrate their lives and remember, with fondness, the impact they had on us all.”

Meanwhile, Hochman had just retired from the White

HUD has to follow the law,” Astorino said in a released statement. “In this case, HUD was making up its own rules. That’s not right and the court has now made it very clear that actions by HUD are subject to judicial review.”

Although this decision is considered a win by many elected officials in Westchester County because it guarantees their day in court, it does not recover the remaining $6.65 million in 2011 grant money, which HUD has already real-located to other jurisdictions.

The county originally lost the grant money in 2013 be-cause HUD claimed it was not in compliance with a 2009 af-fordable housing settlement agreed to by the federal de-partment and former West-chester County Executive Andy Spano, a Democrat.

The settlement was the byproduct of a 2006 lawsuit brought forward by the Anti-Discrimination Center of Met-ro New York that alleged the county had filed false certifi-cations with HUD for millions of dollars in grants. As part of the settlement, Westchester agreed to build 750 affordable housing units over a seven-year period, complete source of income legislation—which bans discrimination against potential renters and home-buyers based on their source of income—and complete an analysis of impediments, which is a review of the barri-ers affecting the development of affordable housing.

To date, the county has passed a source of income leg-islation and is on pace to ful-

County wins housing case

HOUSING continued on page 4

WESTCHESTER continued on page 4

By CHRIS EBERHARTStaff Writer

The county executive’s claims that HUD “acted in an arbi-trary and capricious manner” in rejecting all eight of West-chester County submissions to obtain HUD-administered grant money can no longer be ignored.

On Feb. 18, a federal ap-peals court overturned a lower court’s decision that had said the U.S. Department of Hous-ing and Urban Development’s rejections of the county’s analyses of possible zoning discrimination in its munici-palities and subsequent with-holding of grant money for fair housing are not subject to judicial review.

The ruling allows the coun-ty and Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astori-no to pursue its case to recap-ture $752,844 in 2011 federal grant money, which is what’s left of the $7.4 million from the 2011 community develop-ment block grant funding that was administered to the county by HUD. The money is geared towards building affordable housing and revitalizing low-income neighborhoods.

According to the judge’s ruling, “HUD did not have the right to reject the county’s housing strategy or withhold funding on the basis of land use controls [and] zoning or-dinances ... that may affect the development of affordable housing in the jurisdiction.”

Astorino called the decision a “major victory for due pro-cess against an aggressively overreaching federal bureau-cracy.”

“Just like everyone else,

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Double murder-suicide stuns WestchesterBy JOHN BRANDI

Staff Writer

A retired White Plains po-lice officer shot dead his two, teenage daughters and then himself, in his Harrison home last weekend, in a shocking in-cident that authorities are still trying to piece together.

The news has since sent rip-ples through the Harrison com-munity with Police Chief An-thony Marraccini calling the incident “not comprehensible.”

A call was placed to police by Alissa Hochman’s boy-friend at around 3:36 p.m., on Saturday, Feb. 21, after he was asked to check on the fam-ily and discovered the body of

It’s overNew Rochelle’s Mirage Diner was demolished last week as part of an agreement with Iona College. The college, which purchased the property in 2014, has plans to upgrade its campus housing stock. For more, see page 5. Photo/Bobby Begun

2 • THE CITy REvIEW • February 27 & March 6, 2015

February 27 & March 6, 2015 • THE CITy REvIEW • 3

State decides if county receives HUD fundingBy CHRIS EBERHART

Staff Writer

The fine print of this month’s agreement between the governor and area con-gresswoman will force West-chester municipalities to prove they’re providing low-income housing opportunities in order to receive previously lost fed-eral funding.

On Feb. 9, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Dem-ocrat, and U.S. Congress-woman Nita Lowey, a Demo-crat, announced an agreement that would provide eligible Westchester municipalities with a portion of $23 million worth of federal funding that was lost as part of an ongoing feud between the Westchester County executive and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, over implementation of the 2009 affordable housing set-tlement.

As part of the agreement between Cuomo and Lowey, $3.3 million in 2015 com-munity development block grant money from HUD along with an additional $1.5 mil-lion in state programs will be funneled through the state, rather than the county, which the federal funding typically is disbursed to, before being disbursed to 31 eligible West-chester municipalities identi-fied in the 2009 settlement.

But, according to two fed-eral analyses—the Huntington and Berenson reports, which determine if there is exclu-sionary zoning in a given area based on racial and socio-eon-omic factors, respectively—10 different municipalities have exclusionary zoning and are not in compliance with the national Affordable Hous-ing Act. Three of which were named in both reports.

Since the first report was released, the Town of Mama-roneck altered its zoning and was taken off the list of exclu-sionary zoning municipalities, and Ossining and Pound Ridge are close to doing the same.

Holly Leicht, a HUD re-gional administrator, said there is language in the Cuo-mo/Lowey agreement that will preclude municipalities deemed as not being in com-pliance with the Affordable Housing Act from receiving federal grant money.

Instead of using the Hun-tington and Berenson reports as the standards, the state will determine if the munici-pality is in compliance on a case-by-case basis based on a set of state-imposed criteria. Leight said the exact language of such criteria is still being fi-nalized between HUD and the governor’s office.

“It’s a small distinction but an important one,” Leicht said. “By doing it this way, the mu-nicipalities that are in compli-ance will receive their fund-ing and won’t be hurt by the municipalities that aren’t in compliance. And the ones that aren’t in compliance won’t be able to circumvent the Afford-able Housing law.”

During a phone press con-ference after the Feb. 9 an-nouncement, Westchester County Legislator John Testa, a Cortlandt Republican and minority leader, was weary of the “fine print” of applying to these grants.

“For the funding you’re go-ing to get, the devil is in the

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the agreement between the governor and congresswoman does not preclude Westchester municipalities from being in compliance with the national Affordable Housing Act. File Photo

details as to what you’re go-ing to be required to perform or what you’re going to have to do to participate in the pro-gram,” Testa said at the time. “And we’re finding out with the settlement, the rug was pulled out from under our communities by added re-quirements that were not part of the settlement. And they are going to be a little gun shy about participating.”

Testa has followed the lead of Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astori-no, who maintains his opinion that there is no exclusionary zoning in Westchester, despite the federal analyses that say otherwise.

The Astorino administra-tion submitted eight analyses of impediments, which in-cludes the county’s version of the Huntington and Berenson tests, but all have been rejected by HUD.

The analyses of impedi-ments is one of the conditions of the housing settlement that was agreed to by HUD and former Democratic County Executive Andy Spano, along with constructed 750 afford-able housing units by the end of 2016 and a completed source of income legisla-tion that bans discrimination against potential rents and home buyers based on their source of income. The county is on pace to reach the thresh-old for number of units built by the deadline and has al-ready completed source of in-come legislation.

The analysis of impedi-ments remains the holdup.

The disagreement between Astorino and HUD has led to the loss of federal grant mon-ey totaling $23 million for the years 2011 through 2014. Those funds are lost to West-chester County and won’t be returning.

The Cuomo/Lowey agree-ment is designed to fund the county with almost $5 million for 2015.

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Plains police force and, ac-cording to White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong, he never showed signs of mental illness or anger on the job. Hochman even won his department’s life-saving award last year for keeping an unre-sponsive man alive until para-medics arrived.

“The White Plains Police Department is shocked and horrified by the news of this unfathomable tragedy,” Chong said in a released statement. “We can only pray for the en-tire Hochman family.”

Harrison High School Prin-cipal Steven Siciliano said the community would come to-gether around this tragedy and that grief counseling has been set up to address any student or faculty concern. Alissa was a senior at the high school.

“Our hearts are broken again and yet we know our Harrison community will rally in support of the family,” Si-ciliano said.

This marks the third tragedy to strike the community in re-cent months.

Harrison resident Reyda La-Madrid, 47, was riding in the backseat of her SUV in White Plains on Nov. 3, 2014 with her husband when a White Plains firefighter, driving against traf-fic, crashed into her car, kill-ing her instantly. And just days later, Harrison High School junior Andrew Gurgitano, 16, died in his home on Nov. 8, 2014, after what county medi-cal officials determined was a

fill the 750 unit mark on time. But the one sticking point has remained HUD’s unwilling-ness to accept any of the eight analyses of impediments sub-mitted by the Astorino admin-istration.

In its defense, HUD pointed to paragraph 32 of the 2009 settlement—which said the analysis of impediments must be deemed acceptable by HUD—in rejecting the eight analyses of impediments be-tween 2010 and 2013. Be-cause all the submissions were rejected, the county was considered not in compli-ance with the settlement and HUD withheld a 2011 federal grant worth $7.4 million as well as $15.6 million worth of grant money from 2012,

HOUSING from page 1

WESTCHESTER from page 1

Federal judge, Pierre Leval, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, overturned a lower court’s ruling that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s withholding of federal grant money to Westchester County was not subject to judicial review.

2013 and 2014.The county officially lost

the 2011 grant money in 2013, which led to a lawsuit by the Astorino administration. That suit was dismissed in a ruling by federal Judge Denise Cote back in 2013. However, Cote’s decision was the one over-turned in court on Feb. 18.

However, the appellate court’s decision said para-graph 32 of the 2009 settle-ment does not affect whether the county’s lawsuit is subject to judicial review, but it may impact the final outcome of the case, but that will be deter-mined by the district court.

Ned McCormack, an As-torino spokesman, could not be reached for comment as of press time.


rare spontaneous stroke. Marraccini said the police in-

vestigation related to the Hoch-

man case remains ongoing.


A retired White Plains police officer allegedly killed his two teen daughters Saturday before taking his own life in an incident which has left Harrison police officials baffled. A makeshift memorial was created at the Harrison High School locker of one of the victims, senior Alissa Hochman. Photo/Alina Suriel


Mirage diner demolishedThe air was a bit sentimen-

tal on North Avenue last week as the Mirage Diner was razed to make way for an Iona Col-lege dormitory.

Nick Triantafillou, the own-er of the diner, had approached Iona about selling off the eat-ery and adjoining parking lot

during the summer of 2013. The agreement wasn’t an-nounced officially until the following January.

The college, as part of a campus development build out along North Avenue, plans to turn the space into a multi-use residential and commercial

building to accommodate the growing demand for campus housing. The first floor of the property will be developed into a community-use restaurant and a college bookstore. Resi-dential units will occupy the ad-ditional floors of the building. -City Review staff

Photos/Bobby Begun


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THE

NewRochelleCityREVIEW Jay Heritage Center restores gardens

By MARISSA PENNStaff Writer

The Jay Heritage Center re-cently raised $1.35 million for a restoration of its public gar-dens, work that is already in the preliminary stages.

According to Suzanne Clary, interim director of the center, last June a proposal was submitted for a $500,000 grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The center, the childhood home of John Jay, one of the country’s founding fathers who served in every branch of government and helped to author the Federalist papers, is nestled amid lush greenery on Boston Post Road in Rye. The center also received sev-eral generous donations last December from private do-nors and fundraisers, totaling $500,000 at its Hearth & Earth Luncheon, which the state Regional Economic Develop-ment Council grant matched.

The remaining $350,000 in funding for the restoration proj-ect came from private donors.

The center was one of 118 organizations in the mid-Hud-son region of New York, the only in Westchester County, to be awarded funding from the Regional Economic De-velopment Council, as part of a program launched by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, in 2011 to better serve non-profits and promote tourism in New York.

“We are very excited,” Clary said about restoring the gardens. “We have 1.5 acres of gardens defined by these sunk-en stone walls dating back to 1822 to work with.”

Peter Tartaglia, deputy com missioner of Westchester County

Hudson, N.Y. According to Clary, the proj-

ect will take anywhere from three to five years to complete. Presently, the center is in the process of building a 3-D model of what the gardens will look like.

The gardens, which will be broken up into separate rooms, as Clary referred to them, will be used for educational pro-grams to teach “everybody from five year olds to 50 year olds” about horticulture and history.

The first section of the gar-dens will contain a parterre garden, one that consists of planting beds in symmetri-cal patterns that are separated by, and connected by, gravel pathways.

“It will tell the story of the Jay family and their slaves that worked in the gardens,” she said, “because the gar-dens themselves date back to the 1700s and we even know the names of the people that worked in the gardens.”

According to Clary, the first section will be named “Mary’s garden” because there were “many Mary’s that worked at the Jay estate,” including Mary Rutherford Jay, Jay’s great, great granddaughter, and a slave referred to as “old Mary.”

The second room or section of the gardens is being built around an “old, dilapidated swimming pool,” according to Clary.

“It is going to be restored and repurposed as a reflect-ing pool, which will be shal-lower and may include aquatic

plants,” she said. There will also be a medi-

tation garden with an arrange-ment of plants, purposefully selected to reflect the same meditative style.

The executive director of the center said the Van Nor-dens—a Guilded Age couple that was very active in phi-lanthropy and social reform—which this section of the gar-den will be dedicated to, was very interested in Chinese cul-ture and the theme of the area will reflect that interest.

The third section will fea-ture a 100-foot-long arbor, a garden feature made of wood that forms a shaded walkway, to provide shade. Plans are to plant roses on top of the arbor.

The center plans to offer photography classes in the gardens and potentially grow fruits and vegetables, teaching students about horticulture.

“I think it is going to be an incredible destination both locally and outside of Rye,” Clary said. “Schools will be able to take field trips, in-corporating the gardens into school science programs and the gardens will also be a place where older residents that live in apartments or no longer have yards can enjoy the tran-quil environment.”

John Baker, the director of conservation at Westches-ter County Parks, Recreation and Conservation could not be reached for comment as of press time.


stages of planning with ar-chitectural firm, Nelson Byrd Woltz, which has worked on notable historic sites such as the Olana mansion, the home and studio of eminent painter Frederic Edwin Church, in

Parks, which owns 10 percent of the Jay Heritage Center’s prop-erty, was also excited about the project. “We think it will bring a lot to the county and are very happy about it,” he said.

The center is in its initial

Grace Talcott Van Norden in the gardens circa 1905.

The future site of one section of the Jay Estate’s garden as planned will be called “Grace’s Garden.” Here, an abandoned swimming pool will be transformed into a reflecting pool surrounded by a garden. An anonymous donor has agreed to match all individual and corporate donations for this space of up to $200,000.

The site of one section of the garden, which is still enclosed by an original stone wall dating back to 1822.

An archival photo of boxwood parterre at the Jay Estate on Boston Post Road in Rye. Restoration of this area, will also help tell the story of John Jay’s great, great granddaughter Mary Rutherford Jay, who grew up on the estate and was inspired by the gardens there to become one of America’s earliest landscape architects.

The Jay Heritage Center is planning to restore its gardens and to build a beautiful 100-foot-long rose arbor to shade part of the area. Photos courtesy Jay Heritage Center


Six ways to beat camp homesicknessFuture stars summer campsPreparing for campTips for campers (and Parents!)

Lifestyles of Westchester County/February 2015 VoL.16 No.111

INSIDE WESTCHESTER COUNTYINSID

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Six ways to beat camp homesickness

By MARI-JANE WIllIAMS

Worried about your child getting homesick at summer camp? There are ways to ease separation anxiety so it will be smooth sailing.

When Peg Smith went to sleepaway camp for the first time when she was about 10 years old, she was wracked with separation anxiety. Smith missed home so much that she was almost physically ill, and had to leave. When her friends came back full of sto-ries about their fun adventures, Smith immediately regretted bailing on the experience and felt like she had missed out on something really special.

So the following summer, she went back. She got home-sick again, but fought through it. Smith, who is now the CEO for the American Camp Association, is glad she did.

“Homesickness is natural,” Smith said. “But it’s not fatal.”

About 10 percent of chil-dren will experience separa-tion anxiety at sleepaway camp, Smith said. For about 6 percent of kids, the anxi-ety will be severe enough that camp staff will have to call their parents. It’s normal for kids to be afraid of the unknown and to miss home, Smith said. But if they can stick it out, they will not only have that camp experience, they will learn how to be more independent and work through problems.

“Staffs are trained around homesickness, how to spot

it and keep kids busy and engage them and make sure they’re informed about what’s going to happen,” Smith said, noting that sometimes a child’s anxiety stems from not knowing what to expect. Counselors are trained to notice when a child seems sad or quiet, and reach out to him, acknowledge the feel-ings and then distract him, Smith said.

“Once the child gets dis-tracted and busy, most of the time they are feeling okay,” Smith said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t feel the homesick-ness again, but they learn how to take care of it or at least re-alize that they’re not going to feel this way for very long.”

So if, in addition to the standard pre-camp lectures about changing underwear daily, eating at least some vegetables and wearing sun-screen, you find yourself talk-ing about the homesick blues, don’t despair. It’s normal and, most of the time, surmount-able. Here are suggestions on how to prevent or beat back separation anxiety when your child heads off to camp this summer.

Let the child help choose the camp. The most successful camp experiences are the ones where the child and parent se-lect the camp together, Smith said. If he feels as if he’s had some input and control in the decision, he’s more likely to want to stick it out.

Practice sleeping away. Have your child sleep over at

the home of a friend or rela-tive so that camp is not her first night away from home, Smith said.

Emphasize the positive. Talk about what a great op-portunity it will be to see and do new things, and make new friends, and tell your child you can’t wait to hear all about it, Smith said. In the course of the conversation, acknowledge that new things can be difficult at first, but that she’s good at learning new things. If she ex-presses concern about getting homesick, tell her the counsel-ors are there to help.

Take something from home. Have your child pack a fa-vorite stuffed animal or book, or a family picture that she can hold or look at if she gets lonely for home.

Keep the lid on your own anxiety. It’s fine to feel ner-vous or sad about your child going away to camp, Smith said, but don’t talk to the child about those feelings. Discuss them with your spouse or a friend, instead, so your child isn’t burdened with worrying about you being lonely while he is away.

Don’t plant seeds of doubt. Never, never tell your child that if she gets sad or upset or homesick he can call you and you will come get him, Smith said. That sends the subliminal message that you don’t expect him to have a good time. In-stead, talk to the camp coun-selor or director about what they will do if your child is homesick. (Submitted)


Future Stars Summer Camps

For more than 30 years, Future Stars has been provid-ing families in Westches-ter, Manhattan and Long Island with the finest, most comprehensive, specialty day camp programs in the New York Metropolitan area. The campsite they have chosen at SUNY Purchase College is exceptionally suited to meet the diverse requirements of the camp day. Their staff is com-prised of certified high school/college coaches and educators, all of whom are highly trained in their area of expertise.

In summer 2015, they will be operating weekly special-ized day camp programs for

ages 4 to16. Starting June 22, offerings include tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, football, multi-sports, field hockey, horseback riding, swim, Rising Stars, children entering K to 1,, cheerleading, volleyball, circus arts, magic, softball, diving, S.T.E.M. Edu-cation and academic. Children will have supervised swim-ming every day (instructional swim for Rising Stars). Door to door transportation is available.

Their camp philosophy is to provide every camper with a fun, safe and disciplined environment in which they feel comfortable and secure. Through their limited enroll-

ment policy, they get to know all campers and address their individual needs. All of the programs are led by a highly trained team of professionals who are carefully chosen to ensure each camper’s safety, skill development and indi-vidual enjoyment. Kids ben-efit from concentrated drilling and personalized instruction designed to inspire individu-als to pursue excellence while having fun.

Play with confidence, en-thusiasm, and a genuine love of the game with Future Stars. For more information, call 273-8500 or visit fscamps.com. (Submitted)


Preparing for Camp: Tips for Campers (and Parents!)

By BROOkE CHElEy-klEBE

I love those rare moments of parenthood when I am not preparing for the next thing. Most of the time as a par-ent, I feel as if my day is full of getting something ready. Small things like breakfast, sack lunches, and backpacks. Big things like preparing my children to become productive adults. Our job as a parent is to prep!

It’s spring, and summer camp is on the horizon. Here are some things that you can do to prepare your camper and yourself for camp.

CamperPlan several sleep overs.

Resist the urge to pack their bags for them or to check on them while there. If they have a phone, have them leave it at home. This is a good way to practice not having direct or constant contact.

Have them write a good ol’ letter to someone. You will thank me when you receive a letter from camp!

Gear up physically. If you have purchased hiking boots, break them in with a long walk.

Especially for teenagers, have them take a mini-va-cation from their devices. A couple of hours or a weekend.

Have them write a state-ment for their social media pages. “Peace out Facebook, I won’t be sharing my day-by-days with you, I will be at camp.” Your teenager may not post that, but maybe some-

thing like it. Have them write down

their goals.Make a homesick plan:Homesickness isn’t en-

tirely bad. It’s great to love your home. It’s sometimes part of the process, and it’s a confidence booster when a camper gets through it.

Make a happy place plan and write it down. This is an amazing opportunity to learn a life skill. Today’s youth go to technology to escape, and studies show this increases their stress. Some ideas might be: taking 10 deep breaths, traveling to a happy place in your mind, packing a cer-tain stuffed animal, shooting hoops, or tossing a football. They are capable of this inde-pendence.

Your plan should NOT be, “Give it a couple of days and if you don’t like it, we will come get you.” This will set them up to give it a couple of days and knock the confi-dence right out of them.

Let your camper know what to expect with corre-spondence. You don’t need to write everyday, but let them know what to expect.

Yourself

You are giving your child an incredible gift. I cannot promise you that they won’t lose some socks, that they will love every meal or activity, and that they will adore every counselor. But you are prepar-ing them for college and be-yond; you are giving them the

freedom to gain confidence, independence, and leadership skills; and you are instilling in them that they can do it.

What do YOU want dur-ing their time at camp? Think about a vacation, time to orga-nize, time to have one-on-one time with your other children, or some “date nights” with your spouse or friends.

If you have apprehensions, work to resolve them. If you are worried that your camper is not going to know any-one, set up a pre-camp get-together. If you are worried about your camper’s medical needs, become friendly with the camp nurse. If you are anxious about their food aller-gies, talk to the camp’s head cook. Make a camper-sick plan for yourself. :) Make sure there is only excitement and optimism coming from you, and share your anxiety with another adult.

Pack self-addressed enve-lopes in their luggage.

Whether they are flying or driving, refrain from bawl-ing until they can’t see you. Take a deep breath, trust, and remind yourself that you are giving them an awesome gift.

Brooke Cheley-Klebe is the 4th generation to oper-ate Cheley Colorado Camps. She is the proud mom of three girls, Ellie, Kate, and Saman-tha, and loves being involved in the camp industry.

Photo courtesy of Cheley Colorado Camps, Estes Park, Colorado


Join a magical summer at Play Group Theatre

The Play Group Theatre has just entered its 20th year, and is celebrating five years in its beautiful home in downtown White Plains—a 20,000 square foot, fully air-conditioned state-of-the-art theatre complex, including two theatres, multiple re-hearsal studios, a scene shop and a costume shop. All that space is fully dedicated to children and teenagers and their pursuit of an authentic experience within the per-forming arts.

For young actors, The Play Group Theatre, PGT, offers the best in performing arts training and performance op-portunities. With a staff of 25 teaching artists, specializing in a variety of disciplines, PGT Summer Theatre pro-vides each student an immer-sive summer theatre experi-ence, guided by the principals of joyful collaboration and artistic integrity.

From Little Theatre, 4 to 6, to PGT Kids, 7 to 10, to the Young Actors Ensemble, 11 to 13, to Teen Conserva-tory, 14 to 18, to Design Tech Track, 12 to 17, and from a one-week Improv Workshop to the six-week MainStage cast, PGT Summer Theatre actors come together at a variety of stages in their cre-ative journey. No matter what brings you through PGT’s doors, what you will find there is an artistic haven—a creative home where you are chal-lenged to think creatively, to strive toward a higher level of artistry and to work within a group of dynamic, exception-al, emerging young artists in a collaborative environment.

PGT Summer Theatre is a conservatory style program, with half the day devoted to rehearsals, and half to a myriad of classes, including acting, dance, voice, Shake-speare, improv and more. A

trip to Broadway and a work-shop with Chicago City Lim-its are just some of the special events that round out the PGT summer experience. The PGT staff are professionals in the field and dedicated to providing a warm, nurturing, creatively charged, artistically challenging environment for every student.

At The Play Group The-atre, the focus is entirely on the love of the craft and the life lessons that are a natural result of a healthy and non-competitive creative process. The PGT staff sees the artists that students can become, while celebrating the children that they are and the result is great theatre for actors and audiences alike.

Join The Play Group The-atre for a magical summer.

For a sneak peek into a day at camp or for more informa-tion, go to playgroup.org or call 946-4433. (Submitted)


Summer fun at The Rye Arts Center

Keeping kids’ creativity flowing is key to summer fun. Look no further than The Rye Arts Center to find the perfect summer program or class for your child.

With a broad range of

weekly as well as summer long programs for kids ages four through teen and adults, The Rye Arts Center provides complete flexibility to keep a child of any age, ability and interest busy with creative

fun. Programs begin June 29 and can be combined for a half or full day, by the week, or multiple weeks to suit ev-eryone’s schedule. New this year is an early drop off op-tion starting at 8:30 a.m.

Also new is the center’s Makerspace classes which feature both high tech and high touch fun in designing, creating and making. Classes include: coding, Minecraft, 3-D design and printing, film-making, LittleBits, Makey-Makey, Scratch animation, circuitry, Arduino, electronics and creative building. Musical theater workshop weeks will feature opportunities to per-form stage favorites such as Willy Wonka and Frozen. For young teens, get some fresh air and learn the fine art of plein-air painting.

Rounding out The RAC’s summer offerings are tra-ditional fine arts including painting, drawing, cartooning, ceramics, digital photography, writers’ workshops, vocal pop workshops and music instruc-tion. For young artists ages 4 to 10, the RAC offers a three-hour creative arts immersion morning program.

The summer guide can be found online at ryeartscenter.org beginning Feb. 23. For questions, call 967-0700 or stop in at the Main Office lo-cated at 51 Milton Road, Rye. (Submitted)


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14 • THE CITy REvIEW • February 27 & March 6, 2015 SPORTS

humanize himself and win his way into the good graces of Yankee fans, backfired ter-ribly, becoming yet another blunder in the minds of the New York fan base.

That’s why I’ll be rooting

for him this spring. I’d love nothing more than for him to come out of the gates red hot, belting homers and causing Yankee fans to begrudgingly give him the respect they nev-er gave him in the past.

For all his faults, his biggest crime was one he had no con-trol over.

He was never Derek Jeter.

Follow Mike on Twitter @LiveMike_Sports

I never thought I’d say these words, but here it is; I’m an A-Rod defender.

Before I go too far down this road, let me say right up front that I’m no fan of the Yankee third baseman. He’s a cheater and a liar, and worse than that—at least in my Red Sox-crazy mind—he’s a Yankee.

But I’ll be damned if I don’t feel bad for him right now.

This week, A-Rod is down in Tampa, Fla., getting ready for the start of spring train-ing after serving a year-long suspension for PED-use, and nobody, not Yankee fans, not Yankee brass, seems to want him around.

Yankee fans are open-ly rooting for him to fail. The front office, some have opined, is hoping that he won’t be able to physically perform,

Rethinking A-Rodsaving the Yanks a fortune on incentivized milestones and perhaps praying the insurance policy will pay out the remain-ing money they owe the aging slugger.

For some reason, though, the idea of A-Rod as this tragic figure, an embattled superstar looking for one last chance at re-demption, makes even the most strident Yankee-hater I know (me) want to root for the guy.

Rodriguez has done some bad stuff. But more egregious than his flagrant violations of the MLB’s rules has been his reaction to the accusations. In-stead of clamming up and ac-cepting the inevitable suspen-sion like the 13 other players named in the MLB investiga-tion of Biogenesis, he took the “scorched earth” route, suing just about anyone who dared to presume he was a cheater.

There have been other play-ers who have forcefully denied accusations of their wrong-doing. Some lied in front of Congress, some, like Sammy

Sosa, conveniently forgot that they were conversant in Eng-lish. Others, like Ryan Braun, acted exactly the way that A-Rod did, going after those they deemed “responsible” for pos-itive tests.

But Braun will hear cheers in Milwaukee, Mark McG-wire is now a respected hitting coach in Los Angeles and even Barry Bonds comes home to warm receptions in the San Francisco area.

Not A-Rod though. He’ll essentially be play-

ing 162 games on the road this season.

Part of that is his doing, sure. But A-Rod’s never been a beloved player anywhere he’s been. He always struck me, for all his talent and all his money, as a clueless guy, un-able to endear himself to fans and frustrated that his prodi-gious talent was never enough to earn him the adoration that he felt he deserved.

Even his handwritten apol-ogy, an effort on his part to

Alex Rodriguez is set to begin spring training this week and while many Yankee fans want nothing more to do with the aging slugger, Sports Editor Mike Smith is hoping A-Rod can return to form this year. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.com

Follow Mike Smith @LiveMike_Sports stats • recaps • commentary

Follow @cityreviewnr for Mike’s live, in-game action updates

To CoVER loCal sPoRTs, you nEEd a

LIVE MIKE!

February 27 & March 6, 2015 • THE CITy REvIEW • 15SPORTSCruz shines locally

By MIkE SMITHSports Editor

On Feb. 20, Port Chester native Bryant “Pee Wee” Cruz had a homecoming of sorts, when the local pugilist head-lined his first ever fight card in Westchester. Throngs of fans turned out to see the unde-feated junior lightweight keep his perfect record intact, earn-ing a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Jorge Pazos at the Westchester Hilton to improve to 14-0 on his career.

The fight was no cake-walk, however as the rugged Pazos caught Cruz with a vicious right hook late in the second round of the eight-round bout, dropping him for just the sec-ond time in his pro career. Cruz beat the count, shook off the cobwebs and came back in

the third round to out-box Pa-zos until the final bell rung.

“I went back to the corner and I told [my trainer] it was my bad, I just got caught with my hands down trying to trade,” Cruz said. “I recovered and went back to boxing for the rest of the fight. Lesson learned.”

According to Cruz’s trainer,

Ryan O’Leary, Pazos, who came into the fight with a 14-7 record was selected because of his pedigree and ability to go deep into fights. Although the Mexican fighter was able to tag Cruz with a good shot, O’Leary said, the fight served as a learning experience for the rising star.

Bryant “Pee Wee” Cruz tags Jorge Pazos with a right hand on Feb. 20 at the Westchester Hilton. Cruz won a unanimous decision to bring his pro record to 14-0. Photos/Bobby Begun

“When you’ve got a guy coming out of Mexico, you know he probably has like 6,000 rounds of sparring,” O’Leary said. “We knew he was going to be tough. But once Pee Wee started boxing, he was masterful.”

One of Cruz’s biggest take-aways from the evening might not have been anything that had to do with his opponent, however. The slick-boxing Cruz said after the fight that dealing with a rabid home fan base—like the one he fought in front of on Friday—comes with its own set of challenges.

“Especially fighting in my hometown, I have to learn that you can’t always just go for the knockout to impress people; you have to stay smart and set up my punches,” he said. “But it was definitely great getting the

chance to showcase my skills in front of my hometown fans.”

Cruz wasn’t the only area-fighter with a rowdy fan base on Friday night, as fellow Champs Boxing Club stable-mate Alex Vanasse, a Carmel product, made his professional debut in a light-heavyweight bout against Richard Bal-lard. Like Cruz, Vanasse was dropped early in the fight, but the unseasoned slugger battled back to earn a TKO victory in the fourth round.

“I saw [Vanasse] upstate at some amateur shows and you could tell the kid was crude but was so strong and had a great punch,” O’Leary said. “He got caught with his hands down, a rookie mistake, but he fought through it.”


“Pee Wee” Cruz celebrates in the ring after his decision win against Jorge Pazos. Cruz suffered a second-round knockdown but boxed masterfully to outpoint his opponent.

Bryant “Pee Wee” Cruz reacts to the judges’ scorecards. Cruz is unbeaten as a professional fighter.

Alex Vanasse won his pro debut on Feb. 20, scoring a TKO win over Richard Ballard. Vanasse, a Carmel native, also trains out of New Rochelle’s Champs Boxing Club.

city review-new rochelle 2-27-2015

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