Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is just north of New York City's Bronx border.
With a population of 68,321 residents as of the 2000 Census, it is the eighth largest city in New York State. The city's eastern and western borders are the Hutchinson River and the Bronx River, respectively, and it lies between the New York City borough of the Bronx to the south, and the Town of Eastchester (of which it was once a part) to the north. By population, it is the third largest of three principal cities in Westchester County after Yonkers and New Rochelle.
History
Mount Vernon was officially incorporated as a city in 1892. It had previously been a Village and part of the Town of Eastchester. In 1897, when the City of New York merged with Brooklyn and several towns in Queens County, Mount Vernon was offered the opportunity to join Bronx County as a part of New York City. The residents of Mount Vernon rejected the proposal.
Law and government
Mount Vernon is governed by a mayor and a city council. The city council consists of five representatives who are all Democrats. There are no councilmanic districts. Each councilperson is elected at large and therefore represents all of the citizens of the city. Presently serving in his first year term, is the Hon. Clinton Young, mayor of the city, who is also a Democrat. Effective January 2007 the City Council president will be the Honorable Steven Horton. The other members of the city council are Hon. Yuhanna Edwards, Hon. Loretta J. Hottinger, Hon. William R. Randolph, and the immediate past City Council President Hon. Lydon D. Williams.
The Mount Vernon city court is part of the Unified Court System of the State of New York. It has three elected full-time judges who serve for ten years and one part-time associate judge who is appointed by the mayor for a period of eight years. The Chief Judge of the Court is the Hon. Brenda Dowery. The Hon. William Edwards and the Hon. Mark Gross also serve as full time judges, and the Hon. Adam Seiden serves as an Associate Judge of the court. The Court handles a wide variety of cases including initial processing of all felony criminal cases; handling of all misdemeanor cases from inception through trial; civil proceedings with a limited monetary jurisdiction of up to $25,000.00; all landlord tenant cases originating in the city; small claims cases; and all vehicle and traffic law matters. The court is housed in a state of the art facility in the public safety complex which is adjacent to city hall.
Possibly owing to the city's African American majority, each mayor elected since the 1980s has been black. The uninterrupted string of black mayors in excess of twenty years is a first for any in the New York metropolitan area and the Northeast.
Geography
It is the third largest and the most densely populated city in the county of Westchester.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.4 square miles (11.3 km˛), of which, 4.4 square miles (11.3 km˛) of it is land and 1.7 square miles (4.3 km˛) of it (0.76%) is water.
"Mount" Vernon's elevation at City Hall is about 235 feet, reflecting its location between the Bronx River to the west and the Hutchinson River to the east. From many parts of the City Throgs Neck Bridge can be seen from 10 miles (20 km) away on a clear day and at night the bridge lights can be seen. The seal of the City, created in 1892, depicted what were then considered the highest points in Mount Vernon: Trinity Place near Fourth Street, Vista Place at Barnes Avenue, and North 10th Street between Washington and Jefferson places. Since then, it was discovered that the city's highest elevation is on New York Route 22, North Columbus Avenue, at the Bronxville line.
This article is issued under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from entry Wikipedia: "English".
