WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. May 4, 2006: Student Volunteers from the White Plains Youth Bureau pitched in with the American Cancer Society to alert White Plains to the coming American Cancer Society Relay for  Life, the campout for cancer and its victims to be held June 3 at White Plains High School. The youths tied purple ribbons on light posts and the ballustrades of City Hall Wednesday afternoon.

The Relay for Life at WPHS June 3 is an overnight celebration where individuals and teams camp out and enjoy entertainment, as they take turns walking or running around a track “relay” style. At nightfall, participants light hundereds of candles placed around the track to honor cancer survivors and those who have lost their battles with the disease. For information on participating in the relay in White Plains contact the American Cancer Society at 800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.  

White Plains Youth Bureau volunteers decorated Main Street with Purple Ribbons Wednesday to raise consciousness for the White Plains Relay for Life coming up June 3. Photo, WPCNR News.

Purple Ribbons on Main Street. Photo, WPCNR News.

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WPCNR Gasoline Alley. May 3, 2006: Though the Westchester County Department of Consumer Affairs continues to monitor gasoline prices in Westchester for price gouging, consisting of charging beyond increases in the wholesale price,  according to the County Department of Communications, Communications reports found any evidence of gouging yet.

The Department of Communications also told WPCNR Tuesday the county has no control over repealing or reducing the gasoline sales tax, that only the state legislature has the authorty to lower the county sales tax on gasoline. County communications also noted that lowering sales tax might hurt communities dependent upon that income. White Plains, for example, is enjoying the gasoline price runup because it augments their sales tax coffers which can use every penny.

Legislator Michael Kaplowitz issued a statement today that New York should apply brakes on gas prices by eliminating different pricing by location for the same gasoline.  Here is Mr. Kaplowitz’s edited statement:

Since 2003,  Westchester County Legislator Michael B. Kaplowitz (D-I-WF, Somers), has strongly advocated for a state ban on a practice known as “Zone Pricing” – when big oil companies charge different wholesale prices to retail stations for the same gasoline based on location.  “It’s not about the cost of the commodity itself and it should be.  Instead, it’s a gross manipulation of the marketplace by big oil and it needs to be outlawed,” he said in an official news release today. 

 

“Zone Pricing distorts the free market because gasoline dealers almost always have franchise agreements stipulating that the dealers must purchase products from a single supplier,” said Kaplowitz, chair of the County Legislature’s Budget & Appropriations Committee.  “Under these agreements, gasoline dealers cannot shop for a cheaper supply of gasoline.  Then the wholesale price they are forced to pay is fixed by the oil companies, using factors that are beyond the laws of economics, but by simply how wealthy a community is or immobile a community is.” 

 

In May of 2005, Kaplowitz, who now chairs the Legislature’s Committee on Budget & Appropriations, lead the Legislature in a unanimous vote passing a Resolution in support of proposed state bills (A.3856/S.973) that would, if passed, would prohibit the practice of zone pricing and marketing in New York State.  “There has been no movement on these bills, in either House, since February and soon they will be out of session for the summer,” Kaplowitz noted. 

 

             “I’m urging Westchester’s State Delegation to make these bills a priority and pass them as quickly as possible, so our County’s residents can start to get some real relief at the gas pump,” he said.                                                  

 

Kaplowitz, in his news release claims that in 2003, he made the commitment to fight for his constituents, and take on the big oil companies. “This practice is a vertical monopoly and its crippling small and independent dealers and, by extension, the consumer,” he said.  “I’ve been at this for three years, I’m not about to give up now.”

 

Kaplowitz credited Elaine Price, the County’s Director of Consumer Affairs, for her hard work and consistent dedication on this issue.

 

                                                           

                                                                                                  

 

     

 

 

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL FOR THE RECORD. May 2, 2006: The following is the statement of Robert Levine on the state of the Comprehensive Plan Review. The remarks were made at Monday evening’s Common Council meeting.

Good evening. I’m Robert Levine, representing, with my colleagues, who
will follow, the views of a considerable number of White Plains
residents affiliated for several years as the Citizens’ Plan Committee
(CPC). We thank you for this opportunity to speak to you and to the
viewing audience.

(More)

This evening’s discussion has been a long time in the making. We are
pleased to think, as a number of you have suggested, that the work of
our Committee– the several extensive reports you have in hand, as well
as our community outreach effort – has been instrumental in whatever
planning progress has been thus far achieved.

As far as progress and achievement… we’re not there yet. White Plains
still needs a plan. It has needed a plan for a long time.  The citizens
want, and are waiting for, a clear idea of where we are and where we’re
going with respect to finances, schools, downtown, neighborhood
preservation and development, traffic, transportation and parking,
community support functions, and the overall “look and feel” of our
surroundings.

What could a plan be? To be broadly useful, a plan should:

First, define and up-date the existing physical framework and related
data.The Comprehensive Plan Review Committee (CPRC) Report of February 2006
makes a start on that.

Then, a plan should identify potential areas of change, developing and
evaluating alternative implementation strategies with the assistance of
a broad-based citizen review and decision-making process. Not much
progress here, sorry to say.

CPC has identified a number of “macro” planning elements that we
believe need immediate and serious attention by our community:

Population Trends:  With the current in-migration trends likely to
continue, who and how many will we be?  What are the implications for
White Plains regarding employment opportunities, safe and legal
housing, healthcare needs, education and lifestyle patterns?

City and School District Finances:  What can be done about the decline
in the City’s assessables, and how will considerations of the School
District’s declining financial situation be factored into City policy
regarding revenues. The future of White Plains depends, in large
measure, on the public’s perception of the quality of the school
system, a system facing financial difficulty and not likely to get
better without revenue-sharing cooperation by the City.  If the revenue
picture doesn’t improve, how will expenditures –for both the City and
for the School District – be kept under better control?

Housing: How much of what type should there be? Where are the best
places for affordable housing to be situated?  How will such housing be
funded?

Healthcare: Should the City plan a more pro-active stance in assuring
availability of efficient healthcare facilities of all types? Is one
acute-care hospital all that White Plains needs? If so, is the current
location conducive to long-term growth and change?


Urban Core:  How can the downtown area be developed in ways that are
both attractive and functional? In view of the general trend to
“insularity” ––affecting work and travel patterns, buying habits,
social organization, and the overall quality of life–– what should be
the realistic range of maximum development considering such issues as
transportation/traffic/parking, infrastructure, greenspace and the
environment? Are we being realistic and sufficiently far-seeing in
considering the effect of burgeoning information and communication
technologies (e.g., sales via the internet) which may make the downtown
as we know it virtually obsolete. Where are on-site retail sales
volumes and taxes headed?


Assessed this way, the 1997 Comprehensive Plan was incomplete, lacking
thorough investigation of many of these elements. So, too, the CPRC
Report you have been given lacks nearly all of these elements. Because
the Report is so substantially a product of the City administration,
its usefulness as a guide for the future is severely limited. It is, at
most, a progress report or reference manual, serving chiefly to
document Administration accomplishments since 1997, and offering
narrowly selected suggestions for improvement. The CPRC Report isn’t a
plan. It isn’t even a very useful update of the 1997 Plan. As it
stands, the CPRC Report is a lifeless effort.

How, you may properly ask, did this happen?  Our major regret is that
the results of this effort were so heavily influenced by the City
administration and so little by our elected Council.  The meetings that
we observed (and we attended virtually all the public meetings) were
dominated by presentations by the City’s Planning Department, assisted
at times by representatives of other City agencies. Members of the
public played little or no role at these meetings, they were rarely
allowed to make comments or ask questions.  We heard few ideas or
suggestions emerging from Review Committee members; the information and
analyses provided by City personnel tended to shape the CPRC Report’s
content and conclusions.

    So, what should we do now?
    Let’s start with what we have: The CPRC report, which deals in the
main with the first step in planning, i.e., defining and up-dating the
existing physical framework and related data, should be re-worked for
clarity and completed for inclusiveness. This document should be
augmented by requiring that each City department’s annual report
summarize accomplishments within the overall plan framework, as well as
issues and problems that call for attention.

    Successive tasks, mentioned earlier, should focus on:
         • identifying potential areas of major change, (Population Trends, Housing, City and School District Finances, Healthcare, the Urban Core, and others, as appropriate) and
         • developing and evaluating alternative implementation strategies
with the assistance of a broad-based citizen review and decision-making process

    This essential comprehensive undertaking, utilizing all available
staff and citizen technical resources and expertise, with auxiliary
consultation when indicated, should be authorized, funded and monitored
by the entire elected Common Council, which bears the ultimate
responsibility for acceptance and implementation of the result.

    We repeat. White Plans needs a plan. White Plains has needed a plan
for a long time. What you’re looking at isn’t a plan. We –– all of us
–– have a lot of work to do.

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WPCNR  Common Council Chronicle Examiner. By John F. Bailey. May 2, 2006 UPDATED 9:45 A.M. E.D.T.: Mayor Joseph Delfino, after listening to an hour and a half of unrelenting, scorning  criticism of his Common-Council appointed committee’s Comprehensive Plan Review document expressing the committee members’ vision for the city’s future, the Mayor lost his self-control.  He staunchly defended his Common Council against citizen Dan Seidel’s comments the committee and Common Council were “paying lip service” to the comprehensive plan review process.  

 

 

In the two sole achievements of the 4-1/2 hour meeting, the Downtown Business Improvement District budget was increased to $750,000, resulting in increased assessments to businesses in the central business district. In an exclusive interview with WPCNR, Rick Ammirato, the Executive Director of the BID said this bump-up “allows us to increase our allowed expenditures to $750,000, allowing us (the BID) room to grow.” Ammirato said the assessment to the 145 assessible properties in the BID District would increase $75,000 to $575,000. Mr. Ammirato told WPCNR this amounts to about an additional $100 for each of the 145 assessible properties in the Central Business District, but this would fluctuate on the larger properties. He said the typical property of Gross Floor Area of 3,000 square feet and a 50 foot frontage pays $700 now and would pay approximately $800 this year.

 

 The city will also get a new nightclub “Aura,” approved for 107 Mamaroneck Avenue.

 

Continuances.

 

The Avalon Bay project, and  the White Plains Hospital Medical Center emergency room expansion were continued to the June 5 meeting. Avalon Bay’s attorney, Mark Weingarten made it clear Avalon Bay was not negotiating any further with the property owner who owns a house on the block where the Avalon was going to be built, and said that since his client has met council conditions, they are obligated to approve the special permit (allowing 14 stories).

 

The $146.3 Million City Budget hearing had only two speakers address the 2006-2007 budget. The budget is scheduled for approval May 25. (Marjorie Davies, Co-President of the League of Women Voters urged increasing city worker’s health co-pays and functional consolidations to lower city expenses, urged the city not to sell land assets in the future, and endorsed continuation of the ½ cent city sales tax.)

Pounding the Comprehensive Plan Review

Previously, in the first hearing of the night, an orchestrated procession of 20  Comprehensive Plan Review critics took the Comprehensive Plan Review apart.  Mr. Seidel, speaking 13^th in the anti-Comprehesive Plan Review lineup, laid on a litany of the city’s failures to observe state environmental statutes and meet its own Open Space Committee, and charged it failed to seek outside help in conducting the review arousing the brooding, smouldering Mayor’s ire.

The sizzling exchange unfolded dramatically at around 10 P.M like this:

 

Mr. Seidel: Where is it? You’re not doing it. You’re paying lip service, so you can use the document to justify the variances to show that now you have a big rezoning going on and you’re going to base it upon this updated document. Wrong! It doesn’t hold water. It won’t hold legal muster. I urge you not to accept this as a plan update. You can use it as a status report and I urge you to merge the Citizens Plan Committee with the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee and get some real expert advice.

           You don’t have experts sitting on one or two committees. You should go to outside people as well and get a full panoply of ideas and take a future development course. You haven’t been proactive. I keep saying that. Please be proactive. That’s what you’re getting paid to do. Be proactive. Think about our future. Think about where you really —

 

Mayor (interrupting): Stop being critical. Stick to the topic.

 

Seidel: How can I not be critical?

 

Mayor Delfino: You’re being critical of the council. O.K., please…(Unintelligble)

 

Seidel: I am because you’re not doing the job you’re being paid to do.

 

Mayor Delfino (voice rising): In your opinion! That’s your opinion!

 

Seidel: That’s my opinion! It’s my five minutes. Mayor do not bully me. This is not Stalin! Don’t do this. Do not make like Russia. I’ve got a right to five minutes. Give me my five minutes.

 

Mayor (overriding Seidel’s comments): Don’t just criticize this council. I’m telling you right now not on this (Unintelligible)…

 

Seidel: I’m here to give you public comment, and my public comment right now my comment is criticism

 

Mayor(interrupting, snapping drowning out Seidel): Don’t tell them they’re not doing their job. They are doing their job and they’re doing a good job.

 

Seidel: You’ve been given zoning changes for two years, and refused to act on them for environmental reasons Why?

 

Seidel then walked away from the podium. The Mayor appeared to have had had about all he could take after listening to a fine-tuned onslaught of criticism of his planning process.

 

It did not start out that way.

 

Previously, there was a genteel introduction to the hearing by the Commissioner of Planning, followed by a glowing description by the Co-Chair of the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, John Martin. Marting describing the Mayor-Council appointed Plan Committee process. He noted the 8 community meetings they had held (in a year) and 13 meetings the committee had held with staff departments. He described the completed review as “not a perfect document.” Isabel Villar, another committee member said how the committee “did everything we could.”

 

Then Comprehensive Plan Review critics took over and worked the document over like a tag team.

 

 

Robert Levine, Pauline Oliva, Robert Stackpole, Mike Graessle, Jeffrey Smith, Barbara Pollack, James Kirkpatrick, Mr. Seidel,  Marc Pollitzer, Carry Kyzivat, Jack Harrington, Sol Yanofsky, Terry Conroy (who raised some highly interesting questions about parking alone), Allan Teck, Carl Albanese, Paula Piekos and Dennis Power and a  Battle Hill resident  all roasted the comprehensive review turned in by the Mayor-and-Common Council appointed committee as not going far enough, ignoring the financial condition of the city, ignoring the school system role in the community, and for not recognizing the big box retail has not delivered the full economic punch the city was expecting. No one spoke in favor of the review.

 

 Teck was the first to suggest the members of the Citizens Comprehensive Plan Committee which “jump-started” the Comprehensive plan review process two years ago by submitting their review first), be combined with the Mayor-Council committee members. Seidel echoed that sentiment.  Ms. Pollack took particular exception to the city committee’s comprehensive plan review confining affordable housing to the downtown. Linda Tow, gave particularly poignant testimony about how she has lived in White Plains, but now cannot afford to live in the city. She also pointedly said that Centro Hispano could not find her housing for less than $900 a month. Tow also said that the reason people live in substandard illegal housing is that is all they can afford and that was why it was happening in Battle Hill.

 

After the Mayor’s outburst at Mr. Seidel a recess was taken for ten minutes at 10:10, and afterward, Dennis Power was the next speaker urging in 10 seconds the Comprehensive Plan Review not be adopted.

 

Not to Worry Says the Council.

 

Each member of the Common Council then went to great lengths to assure the public that the process of the Comprehensive Plan Review was just starting and that the Council would hold public work sessions to address their comments. (This is not exactly a big thing. All Council work sessions are public anyway. It was not clear whether the public would be able to speak at those public comprehensive plan review work sessions the Common Council promised. That would be a big thing.  Public comment is prohibited at work sessions.)

 

The Kindly Mayor Returns.

 

When the Mayor closed the Common Council meeting fifteen minutes before midnight, he recovered his dignity and assured the public the Comprehensive Plan Review would include their input, saying, “We had a lot of hearings tonight. It was interesting to hear. Each speaker had their own subject and you try to define it to a single point to get things done. Councilman Boykin, as usual, summed it up exceptionally well. Every day something changes. Every day.You put the best plan in the world together. It’ll change. The Comprehensive Plan,  that plan is going to change somehow a little bit. It’s going to be tweaked a little bit, I tell you that right now.

 

We thank you for your patience in bearing with us this evening. It was a long meeting, but I think in many ways, I’m very pleased that we had it. Because it is important to us to all recognize that when the community tries to work together, they should be heard, always should be heard. As Mrs. Malmud  and others have said, it’s only the beginning of the process. I’m sure when we get through the process, the comprehensive plan maintained most of our meeting time tonight, but keep in mind this plan isn’t to be rewritten, it sounded like it was going to be rewritten. This is solely a review. A review has never been done in this city before. We had two other comprehensive plans written and they were not reviewed, and I’m glad we reviewed it. Because times have changed since 1997.

 

      I think as we took each and every project on, I can tell you we adhered to the comprehensive plan of this city and we will continue to adhere to the comprehensive plan of this city. It is only a guide. As times change, as Councilman Boykin says, we must change, because it’s the only way we can conceive our future and where we’re going.

 

      There’s 41 cities in the state of New York. I’ll tell you one thing. This city is very proud in the direction it went, because you should only go up to the northern tier of New York State and you’ll understand what we accomplished here following the Comprehensive Plan is something this community and this council, this council should be very very proud of.”

 

 

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WPCNR The Immigrant News. May 1, 2006. UPDATED May 2, 2006, 9:45 A.M. E.D.T. UPDATED May 3, 2006, 10:45 A.M. E.D.T.: The National Day of Immigrant Demonstrations for Citizenship  in White Plains began with a march of approximately 200 students from White Plains High School down Bryant Avenue and up Mamaroneck Avenue to Renaissance Plaza Fountain Monday.

Contrary to what high school students who signed up previously for the national day of demonstration for immigrants’ rights have said to promote participation in the march their absence was not condoned by the high school administration.

The Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors told WPCNR Wednesday the children who left the high school to attend the march were not excused from school. Their absences were noted and marked “an unexcused absence.” Connors said the students were not assigned detention for cutting school to attend the March. He said that depending on the number of unexcused absences each child had in each class, it  eventually could effect their academic grade.  

 The large protest group, joined by the high school students in mid-morning,  gathered in the morning and chanted all day at the intersection of Mamaroneck Avenue and Main Street where a crowd estimated by White Plains Police to be about 200 persons  with the number of demonstrators dwindling to about 60 persons by 3:30 P.M. By 5 P.M., the demonstration had disbanded. White Plains Police estimate the crowd at both the student march and the Fountain demonstration to be about 200 for each event.

Hispanic and Latino Demonstrators at Mamaroneck and Main, 3:30 P.M. Photo, WPCNR News.

Signs Read: “We Are Not Criminals,” and “Everyone Deserves a Chance at the American Dream,” The last hours of the Immigrants Day protest Monday in White Plains. Photo, WPCNR News.