Tag: walkability

Responses to Livable Tarrytowns’ Candidate Questionnaire for 2026

As we did last year, Livable Tarrytowns emailed several questions to all the candidates running for office in Sleepy and Tarrytown regarding their positions on matters relating to safe streets, housing, and general livability. (Elections in both villages will take place on Tuesday, November 3.)

All three candidates in Sleepy Hollow responded to our questionnaire; in Tarrytown, two of the three did so. All of the candidates in both villages are running unopposed.

If you would like to be better informed about where each candidate stands on matters central to Livable Tarrytowns’ mission and work, please be sure to check out what they have to say!

To view the full set of responses of a candidate, click on their highlighted name beside their photo.

“We need more affordable housing and more diversity of new housing construction. … [I]t is imperative that our municipal employees and volunteers can afford to live in our village. We can achieve this by incentivizing mixed-income housing … We should be building workforce and affordable housing on land that the Village owns.” —Rodolphe Boulanger, Candidate for the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees

“Safe streets are a matter of fairness and equal access. Whether residents walk, bike, drive, or use public transportation, everyone deserves to travel safely. This is especially important for children, seniors, people with disabilities, and residents who do not have a car. Every neighborhood in Tarrytown should be safe and accessible.” —Thomas E. Mitchell, Candidate for reelection to the Tarrytown Board of Trustees

“My vision is for a village that remains welcoming and affordable, supports residents at every stage of life, and plans thoughtfully for future generations.” —Meghan Raderstrong, Candidate for the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees

“I strongly support ongoing collaboration with Sleepy Hollow. Our municipalities function as a single community in many respects, and joint pedestrian safety initiatives should be a priority. Improving walkability between the two villages will enhance the overall quality of life for all residents.” —Elizabeth Schubert, Candidate for the Tarrytown Board of Trustees

“I want Sleepy Hollow to remain a place where young families, longtime residents, seniors, and working-class households all feel they belong. That means being thoughtful about housing affordability, maintaining our infrastructure, supporting public safety, and ensuring that growth benefits the whole community.”—Patrick Sheeran, Candidate for reelection to the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees

The Village of Tarrytown needs to act quickly to protect students attending the Tappan Hill School

Starting in September 2025, first-graders of the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns will attend the Tappan Hill School. Kindergartners will follow at a later date.

Tappan Hill School

Located on Ichabod Lane in the Crest neighborhood of Tarrytown, the Tappan Hill School is surrounded by busy commuter thoroughfares (Altamont, Highland, Marymount, Rosehill, and Union Avenues, and Crest Drive). None of these streets have sidewalks or bicycle lanes, making them inhospitable to pedestrians and cyclists.

When the school opens, increased traffic in the neighborhood will make the existing situation even more dangerous.  For this reason and more, concerned parents and Livable Tarrytowns have been in dialogue with officials in the Village of Tarrytown for almost a year to bring about infrastructure changes that will allow for walking and biking safely in the area surrounding the Tappan Hill campus. Thus far, such changes have not happened.

Only a little more than 3 months remain before school opens in the fall. As such, Livable Tarrytowns is pushing the Village of Tarrytown to implement low-cost, interim solutions by the end of August. The goal is to provide an alternative to transportation via school bus or private automobiles (and clogged roads and increased air pollution) for students and their caretakers.

Such a goal is consistent with the school district’s “Student Wellness” policy. The policy calls for, among other things, the promotion of “walking/biking to school (with proper storage of bicycles), safe routes to school, and ‘walking’ school buses.”

In this spirit, Livable Tarrytowns has proposed the implementation of various measures—ones that are within the purview of the Village of Tarrytown.

One entails the making of “quick-build” walking lanes by appropriating some of the space now fully dedicated to motor vehicles.  This would involve the installation of concrete or plastic delineators. 

Such changes, by narrowing the roads, would have the added benefit of slowing down drivers. (See image below.) It is well documented that wide roads encourage speeding

There are also things that the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns can do to facilitate safe passage to and from the Tappan Hill School.

Cars parked over the sidewalk at the Tappan Hill School.

One is to widen the sidewalks on the Tappan Hill campus so that they allow for strollers to pass and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Another is the moving of parking away from the edge of the sidewalk. Currently, vehicles parked on the campus often intrude on the sidewalk, creating a hazard-prone situation.

To bring about such changes, Livable Tarrytowns has called upon Tarrytown’s Board of Trustees to hire a planner to propose low-cost, short-term solutions as well as a long-term transformation of the area around the campus.

What can people do to help?

Please email the members of Tarrytown’s Board of Trustees (see the list of members below) and voice support for walkable schools!

Karen Brown <kBrown@tarrytowngov.com>,

Kenny Herzog <kherzog@tarrytownny.gov>,

David Kim <DKim@tarrytownny.gov>,

Thomas Mitchell <tmitchell@tarrytownny.gov>,

Becky McGovern <bmcgovern@tarrytowngov.com>,

Effie Phillips Staley <EPStaley@tarrytownny.gov>,

Paul Rinaldi <prinaldi@tarrytownny.gov>.

And please look out for future notices from Livable Tarrytowns as our campaign to ensure safe pedestrian passage to and from the Tappan Hill School continues to unfold.