Reporting and Commentary by Robert Cox

Who Watches New Rochelle’s Ethics Watchdog?

DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 16, 2026) — An inquiry about an ethics complaint against a City Council member led me to examine why the municipal body responsible for enforcing ethical standards operates with so little transparency, and what the city should do about it. In June, Michael Cammer, a recently appointed member

The Public’s Right to Know: New Rochelle’s FOIL Stonewall — Part VI

See You in Court DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 15, 2026) — This is Part VI in a multi-part series. Over the first five installments of this series, I have examined what happened when I sought public records from the City of New Rochelle. The requests involved different subjects, different City departments

Two Years Later, Yadira Ramos-Herbert’s Ethics Defense Does Not Hold Up

New Rochelle’s $20 Million School Budget Hole: What Would Parkinson Think?

As student enrollment declines and administrative costs rise, a 70-year-old theory of bureaucratic expansion raises questions about New Rochelle's financial crisis. We're launching a long-term investigation and inviting experienced researchers, financial analysts and readers to help. DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 9, 2026) — Readers responding

The Public’s Right to Know: New Rochelle’s FOIL Stonewall Part V

DUBLIN, IRELAND (October 3, 2026) — This is Part V in a multi-part series. In the previous installments of this series, I have examined different ways a public-records request can go off the rails. There was Generations Church, where the City said an electronic search had identified more than

History, Desegregation, the Lincoln Attendance Zone and the Continuing Question of a Neighborhood School

DUBLIN, IRELAND (September 28, 2026) — With a school in the Lincoln Attendance Zone back on the table in New Rochelle, I spent some time pulling together my past reporting, the work of the City School District of New Rochelle's District-Wide Health & Safety Committee — otherwise known as

New York Post Blasts Downtown New Rochelle in Scathing New Roc City Story

DUBLIN, IRELAND (September 28, 2026) — A reader sent me a New York Post story Monday morning about New Roc City, and my first reaction was: Hey, wait a minute. Criticizing downtown New Rochelle and poking holes in City Hall’s redevelopment narrative is my job. 🙂 The headline was hard to

A Primer: Lincoln Zone, Empty Seats, and No Land

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (September 24, 2026) - Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s line is the one this argument keeps violating: you are entitled to your own opinion, you are not entitled to your own facts. In New Rochelle, school debates so often go off the rails because people arrive carrying different calendars.

Crowdsourcing the History of Trinity School Traffic in New Rochelle

For decades, traffic around Trinity Elementary School has been a source of complaints in New Rochelle, particularly for residents of Davenport Neck who use Church Street to reach Pelham Road and the rest of the city. Exactly how long the problem has existed — and why a school with hundreds of

Davenport Neck Opposition Forces a Procedural Retreat at New Rochelle City Hall

The Ramos-Herbert administration did not withdraw its Davenport Neck rezoning proposal Tuesday night. It did something politically more interesting. It retreated. Not formally. Not permanently. And certainly not using that word. But one week after residents and neighborhood organizations again lined up against the proposed rezoning, Development Commissioner Adam

New Rochelle Taxpayers Billed $57,547.59 for Officials’ Defamation Lawsuit Against Journalist

The documented total covers only one law firm, excludes other attorneys involved in the matter and comes before any ruling on the merits OVER THE NORTH ATLANTIC, WEST OF IRELAND (August 28, 2026) — New Rochelle taxpayers have been billed at least $57,547.59 to finance a federal defamation lawsuit

I Spent a Week Building an Article 78. Then I Filed a Better Complaint Instead.