Two shops we’ve all used are closing: Balducci’s in Rye Brook and the Sportsman’s Den in Cos Cob. Plus, a closer look at Port Chester’s construction boom.
Let's get into it.
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THIS WEEK
Rye's Proposed Budget Would Raise Property Taxes 8.49%
The average Rye homeowner would pay about $499 more next year under City Manager Brian Shea's proposed $58 million budget. The increase tops the state tax cap. It adds two police officers, a firefighter and a DPW worker.
Why it matters: It's the second increase in two years. The budget hearing is Dec. 2; the cap-override hearing is Dec. 16.
THE NUMBER
39%
That's how much more a domestic round-trip Thanksgiving flight costs than it did last year, according to Hopper data reported by ABC News. Flying home for the holiday hasn't cost this much in at least 10 years.
NEIGHBORHOOD SPOTLIGHT
EXCLUSIVE Port Chester's building boom: what's happening underground
Last week, I wrote a quick note about all the construction going on around Port Chester. Some of you wrote back with thoughtful replies, and that got me curious enough to dig deeper.
I spent the past few days going through planning documents, environmental studies and project plans. One thing is clear: if the renderings actually come to life, Port Chester is going to look great. Whether all of this will be good for everyone is a different question, and one for another day.
Here's what I found about the work happening under our streets, who's paying for it and what's still up in the air. Hopefully it gives all of us a clearer picture of how the village is changing.
How we got here
Projects this size don't come out of nowhere. Most of what's going up today was planned years ago.
In May 2020, the Village Board adopted a new form-based zoning code that allowed far more housing downtown.
New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) required the village to study the effects first. It prepared a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), which looks at the combined impact of everything the rezoning could allow instead of one building at a time.
The GEIS included a 20-year build-out study that modeled about 2,900 new units, and it set a list of mitigations every project must pay for. Projects still get their own site-specific review.
What developers pay
Schools: A payment to the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District for each student a project is expected to add. The amount was about $27,000 per student per year in 2020 and rose to $38,735 per projected student in September 2024.
Traffic: A fee based on a project's peak-hour car trips, set aside for improvements at the intersections affected.
Community services: A fee based on residential square footage, covering services such as police and fire. Sewers get their own separate fee, aimed at inflow and infiltration (I&I): the groundwater and stormwater that leak into the pipes.
Parks: A separate payment in lieu of parkland, set at $2,000 per unit in recent approvals.
Affordable housing: 10% of units must be affordable to households earning 60% of the county's area median income, for 50 years.
Of note: The village later wrote these fees into the zoning code and removed the 2,900-unit cap, so payments continue even if construction passes the modeled build-out.
sewer circa 1890
Under the street
Sewers: Much of the system was built before 1930, and most of downtown south of Westchester Avenue before 1900. The average pipe is about 85 years old.
The village puts its sewer investment at about $46 million, nearly $38 million of it from state and federal grants.
Developers contribute too. Westchester Crossing, the project on the former United Hospital site, will rebuild sewer lines on Boston Post Road and lay new 15-inch pipe between High Street and Olivia Street. It broke ground in April 2026.
Water: Veolia, a private utility, owns the water system. Under a 2024 rate case before the state Public Service Commission, developers fund 80% of about $48 million in upgrades needed for Port Chester's growth, and existing customers fund 20%.
In a PSC filing, Veolia said it charges developers $6,000 per apartment.
On Oct. 24, Veolia began replacing the water main on Westchester Avenue. On Nov. 4, the village had two water main breaks in a single day.
Traffic
The GEIS included a downtown traffic study and a formula for each project's share of intersection improvements.
Westchester Crossing also comes with road work: a High Street bypass, a wider I-287 Exit 11 off-ramp, and new signals and crosswalks on Boston Post Road.
The village has since finished a Transportation Master Plan, dated July 2024 and posted on the Planning Department's website. It helps decide where traffic mitigation money gets spent.
Yes, but
Grants carry most of the sewer bill. The village's sewer project page credits state and federal grants and 0% state financing. It does not mention fair share fees, though developers do pay the separate I&I sewer fee.
Ratepayers aren't fully off the hook. Existing water customers cover 20% of the Veolia upgrades. A developer challenged the cost-sharing plan at the PSC.
Fees only help once they're spent. I couldn't find a public accounting of what the fair share funds have collected or spent. A longtime village official says one should exist, I'll make sure to share updates as they come in.
Schools: The village's IDA says 260+ downtown apartments finished by 2016 sent only 2 children to local schools from 2019 to 2022. The school study notes that units with two or more bedrooms produce more children than state averages.
The bottom line: Port Chester has a plan and a way to make developers pay for their share of the growth. Whether everything is "taken care of" depends on that money being collected and spent on time, and residents can follow that.
RYE BROOK
Balducci's in Rye Brook Closes Dec. 10
Balducci's at the Rye Ridge Shopping Center will close Dec. 10. Owner ACME Markets filed a closing notice with the state Labor Department; 38 workers will be affected.
It's the second Balducci's to close this year. The Westport store shut Feb. 28. The Greenwich store at 1050 E. Putnam Ave. and the Scarsdale store reportedly aren't closing.
The business dates to 1914, when Louis Balducci sold from a pushcart in Brooklyn.
COS COB
Cos Cob's Sportsman's Den Will Close at Year's End
After 17 years, Billy Ingraham is closing the Sportsman's Den, his Cos Cob tackle shop, at the end of the year. He announced it Sunday.
He named rising costs, online competition, raising four kids and poor fishing. The math at the counter has changed: "Instead of selling $500 worth of gear to a new angler, I'm selling them $30 worth of line," he said.
He's open to offers on the remaining stock, or from a buyer who wants to keep the shop going, "someone with a vision and young ideas on how to bring back the Den like I did 17 years ago!"
HARRISON
Two Harrison High Twins Are Bringing Hot Meals to Westchester's Food Deserts
Daniel and Liam Wellisch, twin brothers at Harrison High School, run the Desert Bloom Foundation, a youth-led nonprofit that brings fresh, hot meals to neighbors in Westchester's food deserts.
It started as Snacks For Kids By Kids. Now it's a registered 501(c)(3), with other high school volunteers helping plan and run events. The brothers buy the food, pack the meals by hand and deliver them in person.
Their biggest partner is the Community Service Associates soup kitchen in Mount Vernon, where they've served more than 500 people. The latest distribution fed 94. Their other big partner is the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich, where the brothers volunteer feeding members; Daniel spoke there about the group in October.
Both are Borlaug Scholars, named by the World Food Prize Foundation, and they're writing a policy brief on Westchester's food deserts.
By the group's estimate, about $250 feeds 100 people.
source: greenwichfreepress.com
UP IN WHITE PLAINS
Hidden Phone Found Recording in Brazen Fox Restroom; Suffern Man Charged
A woman found a cellphone hidden in the toilet paper dispenser of the Brazen Fox's unisex restroom on Halloween night, White Plains police said. Officers working the bar detail arrested a 27-year-old Suffern man at 1:34 a.m. Sunday and charged him with felony unlawful surveillance.
"A young lady was using the restroom. It's a unisex bathroom. One person at a time," Police Commissioner Wade Hardy told ABC7.
The bar on Mamaroneck Avenue credited its staff. "Thankfully to the vigilance of our staff police were prompted and the culprit was arrested immediately," management said.
The investigation is still open. Police ask anyone with information to call 914-422-6111.
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SOUND BITES
The Pride of Port Chester Marching Band won first place in Group V-A at the USBands New York State Championships, scoring 83.8. The competition was Nov. 1 at Lindenhurst Middle School on Long Island.
Brunswick School's pick for its next head of school, Derryfield's Andrew Chappell, won't be coming after all. Head of Lower School Katie Signer becomes interim head in July 2027, and longtime head Tom Philip stays through this school year.
Another water main broke on Port Chester's Westchester Avenue Monday, when a Veolia contractor digging for a larger main hit an existing pipe. Expect flaggers and traffic control from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. near Westchester Avenue and Oak Street.
Greenwich middle school families raised $12,000 at Election Day bake sales, enough for 12 full scholarships to the 8th grade Washington, D.C., trip.
Rye resident Christian Wade, a West Point graduate and Army veteran of Iraq, gave the main address at Rye's Veterans Day ceremony on the Village Green. Tim Moynihan and American Legion Post 128 Commander Fred de Barros handed a $1,000 check to Troop 2 scoutmaster Chris Carballo.
White Plains: The school district holds a public forum on school safety and security tonight, Thursday, Nov. 12, 6:30-8 p.m., in the White Plains High School Media Center. Superintendent Joseph Ricca and the school resource officers will speak; send questions ahead to
TABLE TALK
Sweet Pea's, Old Greenwich — A Parisian First Date That Ended Up on Sound Beach Avenue
Sweet Pea’s Baking Company opened in 2014 at 212 Sound Beach Avenue. The room had only a few tables, and a big German Probat coffee roaster took up a lot of the space. The coffee was roasted in small batches, ground to order and brewed in a French press.
The pastry case mixes French, Brazilian and American baking. You’ll find croissants and pain au chocolat next to pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) and brigadeiros (chocolate truffles). There are brioche tartines, sourdough, and poached-egg specials.
Worth knowing: Open Monday–Saturday 7 a.m.–3 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m.–3 p.m. Walk-ins only, no reservations.
LOCAL EVENTS
The Hip Hop Nutcracker, with MC Kurtis Blow.
The Purchase PAC, 735 Anderson Hill Rd., Purchase (Harrison).
Sat, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
artscenter.org
"Rethinking Turf" opening reception, illustrations by Genevieve Hitchings. Rye Free Reading Room, 1061 Boston Post Rd., Rye.
Sun, Nov. 15, 3-5 p.m.
ryelibrary.libcal.com
Trey Anastasio Band. The Capitol Theatre, 149 Westchester Ave., Port Chester.
Mon, Nov. 16.
liveforlivemusic.com
"What Just Happened?" Former UConn president Susan Herbst on the midterms, League of Women Voters. Greenwich Town Hall, 101 Field Point Rd., Greenwich.
Tue, Nov. 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free; registration required.
patch.com
Handmade for the Holidays pottery sale. Clay Art Center, 40 Beech St., Port Chester.
Opens Tue, Nov. 17; runs through Dec. 23.
clayartcenter.org
Children's Giving Shop. Junior League House, 231 East Putnam Ave., Greenwich.
Sat, Nov. 21, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Ages 4 and up; pre-registration required.
greenwichfreepress.com
Westchester's Gingerbread Showcase returns to Wainwright House in Rye. Saturday, Nov. 28, 4-6 p.m. (tickets from $10), and the New York Times' Vaughn Vreeland talks cookies and signs his cookbook on Thursday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. ($45, or $40 for members, book included).
wainwright.org/gingerbreadshowcase
THE POLL
Americans expect to spend an average of $1,011 on holiday gifts this year, about the same as in 2025 and 2024. What's your plan?
🎁 Spending more than last year
⚖️ About the same
✂️ Cutting back
🙅 Skipping gifts this year
Last edition's poll results: The average 30-year mortgage rate is 7.24%, Freddie Mac reported Oct. 29. A year ago it was 6.17%. What would get you to move right now?
• Nothing. I'm staying put. — 83%
• Prices coming down — 9%
• A bigger family or an empty nest — 8%
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See you next Thursday!
