Westchester’s Most Revered and Jeered Citizens

WINNERS

• Giving Circle of Westchester. The New Rochelle-based group awarded its first grants, totaling more than $24,000, to six nonprofit organizations whose missions are to fight hunger. Recipients ranged from local food pantries to a social-services agency that provides meal deliveries to homebound seniors.
• Rivertown residents with a view. Beginning with a November conference sponsored by the Department of Environmental Conservation, there’s been a push among a coalition of mayors, village trustees, planners, developers, and residents to adapt to rising Hudson River water levels. Hopefully, fewer soggy commutes are also in the cards.
• Michael Tocidlowski. The 22-year-old was chosen from 19 contestants to be named the “Legoland Discovery Center Master Model Westchester Builder” in Ridge Hill after judges were impressed with his miniature Lego dirt-bike design. His prize was a full-time job with benefits at the Legoland Discovery Center, scheduled to open at the Ridge Hill shopping center in Yonkers in the spring.

LOSERS

• Westchester straphangers. In order to make up for a $450 million dollar budget shortfall, the MTA is pushing for increases in fares and tolls for commuters. Metro-North fare hikes of between 5 and 10 percent are among the proposals the MTA is considering.
• Unscrupulous pump-masters. Three local gas stations—the Shell at 3709 Crompond Road in Yorktown, the Mobil at 174 Westchester Avenue in White Plains, and the Mobil on the Hutchinson River Parkway between North Street and Mamaroneck Avenue—are all accused by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of price-gouging in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Each of the three is accused of selling gas at more than $5 per gallon.
• Mid 20th century fans. With the closing of the Carvel on Central Avenue in Hartsdale—the original Carvel location, which dated back to the 1950s—in 2008, and now the demolition of the 1965 Nathan’s in Yonkers, fans of kitschy roadside food joints in Westchester have only Walter’s to fall back on.