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 PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. October 31, 2003: The White Plains Boys and Girls Cross Country teams, each finished 7th in the Section I Cross Country Championships Friday run at their home away from home, the Westchester Community College Course. Kaylin Gilmartin-Donohue, White Plains Eighth Grade Smash, finished 5th in the Girls’ A race, to earn a trip to the State Championship in Oneida, New York next weekend, running the 3.1 mile race in 20 minutes, 39 seconds. Mike Smayda and Jeff Bergman on the boys team finished  15th and 23rd in their Boys’ A race. A slow muddy course in the WCC backwoods, shaved a good 15 seconds off most runners’ times, and the course was described as treacherous on the woodsy trails.

STATES BOUND:  Eighth Grader, Kaylin Gilmartin-Donohue holds her 5th place medal and her “State Qualifier” T-Shirt, after a 5th place finish out of 107 runners in the Girls Varsity Section A Championship Friday. Photo by WPCNR Sports

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WPCNR KING KOMMENTS. By Councilman William King. October 31, 2003: The only 2 worksessions I have missed in my nearly 4 years in office have been the last 2.  Last month, I had a conflict as, related to my work at the MTA, I went to hear a talk given by a former head of the Transit Authority who is now president of Amtrak.  The last work session I missed by one day because I went out of town on Thursday morning, getting back on Tuesday night, the only window I have had available in more than a year to take a short vacation (we are short-staffed here at work and I am the director of my office). 

 I had asked George Gretsas several weeks ago if the work session on Thursday could be moved up by a day which I guess it couldn’t.  The 2nd work session on Monday the mayor’s proposal with NYPH I did not know about and I guess it was quickly arranged for some reason, maybe for the reason you wonder about in your op-ed.  It sounds like the information was not at all different from what the mayor presented to us in exec session last August.  Last August, the mayor said Pardes still had to go to his board and that still seems to be the case – which is just one of the things that makes me wonder about the proposal which does not excite me.

I have found the work sessions not that informational.  Sometimes there will be discussion of a topic for 1-2 hours with little of substance actually discussed.  I tend to make up my own mind on how I vote and feel the other council members, certainly the mayor, have their minds pretty made up.  At the end of the day, as you have to have noticed, they also tend to think alike. 

And the work sessions are often more propaganda sessions pushing one point of view.   If I have questions on
any agenda items before a Council meeting, George and city commissioners will tell you I tend to ask a lot of questions and a lot of them have gone unanswered over the years.  Often, some fairly big items have appeared on a regular Council agenda that were not even brought up in a work session, whereas less important items were briefed instead.

As you know, I do things differently and try to experience things first hand, like pick up litter out of a lake (I did that 4-5 times, by the way, in Silver Lake, not just the time you joined us, and that was just one of several locations around the city), mow grass in a median, walk through the D’Elia property, ride my bike all around town including through the projects and across fields and up to the top of parking garages, and I recently went up to the top of the Bar Building with the Historical Society and JJ Sedelmaier – I’m told I was one of only 2 councilpeople to take up the Historical Society’s offer. 

In the past year I took my daughter to a fun play put on at the Slater Center by kids mostly from the projects.  I didn’t see any other elected official there.  I was also the only councilman, along with Bill Ryan, at a downtown historical tour a week and a half ago led by Jack Harrington of the Historical Society. 

Lou Cappelli will tell you he and I ran into each other one time on the top floor of the old Macy’s garage where I went to look at the foundation work of the City Center project.  Lou and I have also run into each other on the street near the City Center where we have talked.  I tend to walk a lot.  I go by the various construction sites in the city at least twice a week.  I stare at and even count traffic. 

I contact other levels of gov’t on issues including NYPH and St. Agnes.  I talk to other members of the press.  I don’t tend to go to many of the ribbon cuttings during the day because of my job.  But I make up for missing the ribbon cuttings by actually going to the stores and restaurants afterwards like a regular citizen.

Tim Sheehan and you are definitely wrong, by the way, about not referring out Plan A on NYPH.  There was no give on NYPH’s part.  Bob Greer says there was potential give but NYPH gave absolutely no indication of that to me – none – and they had ample opportunity.  I know because I talked to them directly on several occasions.  I have gotten along fine with individuals from NYPH like Connie Hildesley and others and there is mutual respect. 

I just can’t look at the beauty of NYPH’s property and not keep pointing out how beautiful it is and how something that beautiful should be saved, not developed and how I thought the City should be willing to pay for it.  I was mentioning to Susan Chang how I was in the San Francisco Bay Area last weekend and the morning of my flight home (Tuesday), the editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle was on their new biotech research park, 43 acres, which will have over 20 buildings and house more than 9,000 grad students and scientists, being built on the site of abandoned rail yards and old wood warehouses, not on land as beautiful as SF’s Golden Gate Park.

In White Plains we have had a vacant Saks store, now occupied by Fortunoffs, and now a vacant hospital which could house biotech, a proton beam accelerator as well as senior housing as has been proposed by some candidates (I first heard this suggestion from former council candidate Mike Amodio), both surrounding the green space that could
still be a large central park rather than a 55-acre buffer with ballfields fronting large mostly windowless biotech buildings and their garages. 

For this reason, if such buildings are built (and I felt the same way when large big box retail was being proposed by NYPH under Plan A), the City should look instead to convert the Gedney landfill and recycling yard into a central park that is not surrounded by large non-residential scale buildings, with composting and recycling operations moved elsewhere in the city (I first proposed this a few years ago to Bud Nicoletti and George Gretsas).  With Gillie Park, Stepinac’s field and the D’Elia property and Greenway all right there, the effect of the landfill being a park instead in the middle would be a large central park.   It would be better to convert a forlorn and underutilized open space into a nice park than to ruin a beautifully landscaped open space with large big buildings and parking garages.  –

Councilman William King

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey.  October 30, 2003:  WPCNR has learned that Thomas Soyk, interim Acting Commissioner of Traffic is scheduled to be appointed Commissioner of Traffic, indicating that city hall consideration of consolidating the Department of Traffic has been scrapped.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By Rich Massaroni, President, White Plains Little League. October 29, 2003: As of Sunday, our WPLL 2003 season has officially ended and it marks our 9th consecutive successful campaign.

Preliminary feedback from the Fall Travel program has indicated our teams were very successful and had fun. From an overall WPLL program perspective, once again we enjoyed another successful 2003 Spring, Summer and Fall season. I wanted to take a minute to thank the entire WPLL Board of Directors and Committees for all their tireless efforts this year. Without everyone working together as one team, this effort could not have been accomplished.

The WPLL program continues to make improvements year after year and our White Plains Little Leaguers continue to reap the benefits. No other program in the White Plains community can come near us as far as the product we produce. For that, we should all be extremely proud of our accomplishments and continue to make this program one of the premiere programs in Westchester County and District 20.

The 2004 campaign will mark WPLL’s 10th anniversary. This is a significant milestone for the program. Special events will be coordinated throughout the year. I would like all of you to start thinking about ideas, suggestions, etc to truly make our 10th anniversary a special one for all our volunteers, participants, sponsors, parents, etc. As you know, one of the special events being considered is a 10th Anniversary “Carnival Day” to be conducted in late April, early May at the Gillie complex. This truly can become a significant fundraiser for us if we plan it out correctly.

Looking foward to continue working with all of you. As you know 2004 Spring Registration is “right around the corner”.        


Keep smiling…………..

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WPCNR Rotunda Report. By John F. Bailey. October 29, 2003: While cooling my heels in the media holding tank at City Hall, better known as the Rotunda, during the la new WPHA headquarters to be built into 225 South Lexington Avenue, to the Design Review Board Monday evening, which he told me will hold a groundbreaking December 12.

HOUSING AUTHORITY IN ACTION: Mack Carter told WPCNR about the new atmosphere of tenant pride and purpose blooming in the Authority’s buildings thanks to Housing Authority “building makeovers”, and the installation of a Tenant Watch program in cooperation with the White Plains Department of Public Safety. Photo by WPCNR Newstest Common Council “secret” Executive Session Monday night, I had the pleasure of chatting with Mack Carter, Executive Director of the White Plains Housing Authority. Carter was there to present designs of the

Mr. Carter, on board as Executive Director of the Authority for little more than a year, reported that the Housing Authority is reaching out to the buildings they manage throughout  the city to build new bridges of tenant cooperation. In the meetings he has held with tenants, he reports he has received a new spirit of interest and cooperation in bringing Housing Authority buildings  back.

He announced that the White Plains Department of Public Safety has agreed to work with a select tenant force creating “Tenant Watches” building-by-building to tighten up the wanderings of unauthorized nonresidents whom Mr. Carter said compromise the buildings’ security.

Physical Issues Finally Being Taken Care of if Tenants Take Responsibility.

Carter told us that he has held discussions with tenant representatives of  Buildings 11, 159, and 135, and has come to a meeting of the minds with the residents. He said he has taken the position that the Housing Authority will address their concerns about “fixing the infrastructure, the intercom systems, the doors, conducting extermination  requests, cleaning the floors, if, in return, the tenants have control of their building, and take responsibility for it.”

“We have established a Tenant Watch,” Carter said, at 11-159 and 135 in the Winbrook complex, “which will have select residents sitting in the lobbies of the buildings, simply to ask questions of persons going and coming  whom they do not recognize as persons who live in their buildings. A majority of the security problems at the complex are caused by persons who do not live there.”

Carter reported the White Plains Department of Public Safety is working with the Housing Authority to train residents to make up a Tenant Watch program. He said the members of Tenant Watch will wear yellow jackets with an “Eye” logo to identify themselves. He said Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, David Chong, is aiding in providing training for these persons in terms of legal issues, how to conduct themselves, and procedures in handling situations of concern.

Carter said his building at 86 DeKalb already has a Tenant Watch in place and he is very happy with the new atmosphere of security and pride in the building there.

“The residents need to be much more vigilant. If we don’t know about it (a dangerous, suspicious situation), we can’t do anything about it,” Carter said, indicating that the Tenant Watch program is an effort to discourage the non-resident influences that he feels create chronic unsafe situations and  in the complex.

2 Weeks in Place.

Carter reports that it has been two weeks since Building 159 has been participating in the program, and he is very pleased with the new protocols and atmosphere at that building.