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 COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications, (EDITED) August 27, 2010: UPDATED AUGUST 31,2010: 

 

As County Executive Robert P. Astorino said he  would on last week’s exclusive WHITE PLAINS WEEK  worldwide internet telecast with him, Mr. Astorino officially called for “Visionary Proposals” from developers who are interested in presenting a plan for the future of Playland Park.

 

Edwin McCormack, spokesperson for the County Executive, asked if changes in admission or management or Playland budget would be effective in the upcoming 2011 Budget year, or be budgeted with no change told WPCNR Monday in a written statement: “EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE INCLUDING THE ADMISSION POLICY FOR 2011 – PAY ONE PRICE OR FREE ADMISSION. IT WILL BE ANALYSED AFTER THE SEASON.

Asked when  the County Executive envisions any “contract” becoming effective…say 2012 Budget year, McCormack stated:  WE NEED TO WAIT AND SEE WHAT PROPOSALS COME BACK AND WHAT THEY WOULD ENTAIL WE WILL HAVE A BETTER IDEA OF TIMING AFTER THE RFP PROCESS.

 

 

That Old Art Deco feeling: Playland, circa 1928, America’s Last Original Amusement Park.

Proposals would be due in February 2011, and would take until June for the county to evaluate the county news release said. Tours are available to potential developers on October 13, as well as private appointments for interested organizations. The time frame of the proposal appears to mean the county is committed to a budget incorporating Playland as is for at least 2011 with possible tweaks in operations, but WPCNR is in process of checking this with the Department of Communications.

 

The Dragon Coaster – County Executive Astorino’s favorite ride.

 

Astorino today released the RFP (Request for Proposals) that invites formal, detailed submissions for the use of the Long Island Sound property in the City of Rye, which includes an amusement park, boardwalk, beach, pool, and ice casino.

“Playland is a special place and a magnificent park that will always be part of the fabric of Westchester,” said Astorino. “But the time has come to reinvent Playland for the 21^st century. The financial burden that the current operation has placed on taxpayers – annual, multi-million dollar losses, with no end in sight – is just no longer sustainable. Bold action is required to save Playland and this RFP is looking for ideas to position one of the greatest open spaces anywhere to thrive in the marketplace of today and the future.”

The RFP covers approximately 100 acres of the larger 280-acre Playland property. A critical feature is that its focus goes beyond the historic amusement park. Scenic vistas and a beautiful beach on  Long Island Sound, an Olympic-size swimming pool, an extensive waterfront boardwalk, fishing piers, boating lake, dining and picnic areas, a proposed children’s museum, and an indoor ice skating rink, as well as the amusement park, can all be utilized, or not, in the plans submitted by developers. The only thing outside the bounds of the RFP is the Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary.

“Previous attempts to solve Playland’s problems have faltered because their scope was limited to the amusement park,” Astorino said. “This RFP is essentially a blank sheet of paper that is looking for entrepreneurial imagination to unlock the full recreational and entertainment value of the property at large.”  

The RFP is posted at the county’s website at www.westchestergov.com/rfp.  Formal proposals are due Feb. 10, 2011; the county estimates it would spend about three months reviewing these proposals. Under the RFP process, the county is not obligated to accept any of the plans proposed. Throughout the process, the public will have numerous opportunities to ask questions and give comments.

On Oct. 13, the county will hold an informational meeting at Playland for those interested in possibly submitting a proposal. Tours will also be available by appointment with the Parks Department. Ideas may include keeping all or part of the amusement park or proposing an entirely new use for the property. However, the RFP does prohibit residential use.

            Since 1928, the focal point of the property has been the amusement park, which today has 50 major rides and attractions and covers about 30 acres. The prototype of today’s modern theme parks, Playland was the country’s first totally planned amusement park. Seven of its rides and several of its art deco buildings are designated as National Historic Landmarks.

Westchester County currently owns and operates the park – one of only a handful of governmental bodies to be in the amusement park business. With attendance steadily dropping over the past five years — from 1 million in 2005 to 615,000 last year — park ownership has translated into greater taxpayer subsidies.

Westchester County is not necessarily looking to make a profit off Playland, although such an outcome would certainly be welcome. As is the case with its other parks, the county’s interest is to provide broad access to a resource that enhances the quality of life of residents. The mission, therefore, is to balance access with affordability.  

“I recognize that Playland is an emotional issue for many of us in Westchester, but I also think the vast majority agree that something needs to be done if we want to be fiscally responsible,” Astorino said. “This is just the beginning of what will certainly be a long process. What’s exciting is that we have a chance to invent the future.”

 

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. August 25, 2010: 

City  Chief of Staff, John Callahan, today said that Mayor Adam Bradley could not arrange directly to sell city land to his landlord even if he wished to do so.

Callahan told WPCNR, if the city were inclined to sell the two pieces of land to Walter Gabriele, the owner of 19 Hall Avenue, Mayor Bradley’s newly rented residence since June, the sale of both pieces of land adjacent to Gabriele’s Hall Avenue complex would have to be approved by a majority vote of the Common Council.  Callahan,Chief of Staff and Corporation Counsel for the city noted any sale of city-owned land,no matter how small, had to be approved by the Common Council.

 

Five of the 6 members of the Common Council have publicly stated the Mayor should resign his office, and are still known to be very hostile to the Mayor.

 

Callahan, asked if possible sale of the land sought by Walter Gabriele, owner of Mayor Bradley’s new residence, would come before the Common Council, said it was unclear since the city Real Estate Committee would have to recommend sale of it, and that meeting was not scheduled yet.

 

The Mayor’s scheduling of a series of meetings with Gabriele’s representatives with city departments to discuss sale of a 4,860 square foot parcel of city-owned land and a smaller 2,500 parcel and building issues involving demolishing 21-23 Harmon Street (in Battle Hill) was revealed today by Benjamin  Rubin (Journal News city beat writer).

 

Rubin learned of the details of the Board of Ethics “confidential” probe of the Mayor’s interactions with Gabriele, based on 6 Freedom of Information Requests his paper made to the city which produced documents showing the Mayor scheduling meetings on July 8 to go over issues Mr. Gabriele wanted to discuss with the city.

 

The pieces of land in question surrounding Mr.Gabriele’s property at 1-19 Hall Avenue

 

Mr. Rubin’s report on the substance of his Freedom of Information “find” notes that Darren Grubb, Mayor Adam Bradley’s newest personal spokesperson, said the Mayor “proactively gave full and complete disclosure regarding his temporary residence at 19 Hall Avenue to the staff that handle the issues raised in the letter.”

 

The Mayor’s office has for years (especially in the last 12 years) has  scheduled meetings of developers at the drop of a hat at the request of developers large and small to discuss technicalities of developments, possible requests  and summoned department heads to “get right on it.”

 

Thursday evening,the Common Council is to consider hiring an attorney to continue with the Board of Ethics probe and determine if the charges the Mayor breached the city ethics by arranging these meetings are founded.

 

 

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. (EDITED) August 23, 2010:

 

County Executive Robert P. Astorino  vetoed a law  Friday that would expand the number of county government employees who are eligible to receive free health care for life, basing years of service on service for any government in New York State in the New York Pension System. Astorino felt only employees working solely for Westchester County for 30 years service

Twelve Legislators’ votes are needed to override.

 “It is hard to believe that less than 100 days after the Board of Legislators passed what it rightly called ‘historic’ legislation to have county employees pay a portion of their health insurance, some of the legislators are already starting to reverse course,” said Astorino. “If the taxpayers are to get the relief they deserve, legislators can’t be allowed to dismantle needed reforms. This veto is designed to prevent that from happening.”

 

Currently all retirees receive individual health-care coverage for free. A feature of the legislation  is to require most employees who retire after this year to start contributing toward their health-care benefits. A compromise reached during the negotiations was to allow employees who have at least 30 years of service to Westchester County as of Dec. 31, 2010, to receive individual health benefits for free after they have retired.  

 

The legislation in the bill Astorino vetoed, amends the earlier law by easing the 30-year requirement, allowing it to be met by employees who have serviced any governments covered by the New York State Pension System.

                               

In May, after three months of negotiations, the administration and board agreed on a plan to start making employees pay for a portion of their health-care coverage. Until then, Westchester was only one of four counties in the state that did not require employees to pay a portion of their health benefits. The plan applied to about 400 non-union, managerial employees, requiring them to contribute between 10 and 20 percent of their health premiums, depending on their salaries.

These 400 employees, including Astorino, began making payments in July. The legislation was crafted with the expectation that it would become the basis of contract negotiations with the county’s approximately 5,000 union workers.

 

Trouble in Amendment City

 

Under the legislature version of the amendment, employees with 25 years in the New York pension system, say working for a municipality or school district, could spend the last five years of their career working for Westchester County, retire with 30 years of service, and then be eligible for free, individual health care for life, with that expense paid for by county taxpayers.  This legislation passed on a strict party-line vote with 11 Democrats in favor and 5 Republicans against.

 “The compromise was to recognize the service of those who have worked for the county for 30 years, not those who retire here with 30 years of service, the bulk of which could be from other places, including places outside of Westchester,” Astorino said.  “The problem with amending the original legislation is that county taxpayers are now on the hook for new and unjustified costs. It is wrong and unfair for county taxpayers to be burdened with this added, open-ended expense.”

Astorino acknowledged that the amended legislation only applies to six retirees at this time. The concern, however, is that the number will greatly expand if allowed to become the benchmark for union contracts as they are renegotiated.

“This law sets a terrible precedent for union negotiations,” Astorino said. “We are in effect giving the unions a major concession without even having the opportunity to ask for anything in return. That’s just plain irresponsible.”

The veto is Astorino’s fifth. It takes a two-thirds vote (12 votes) of the Board of Legislators to override a veto.

 

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WPCNR FRONT ROW LOGE.  Theatrical Review by John F. Bailey. August 22, 2010:

 

 A tropical storm pounded the roof of the Westchester Broadway Theatre Sunday evening, but it was no match for the storm of emotions, energy, and passion blasted at the audience like WABC MUSICRADIO last night by the young and “into it” cast of the Theatre’s Rent revival last night.

 

 

There are no trendy restaurants on the Avenue B of Rent. What we have is Roger (above), played with haunting, twisted anxiety by  Mark Ayesh who deliver anguish like scratched glass (that’s a compliment) trying to write One Song Glory before he dies. His pal, the filmmaker,  Mark, played by Andy Kelso,  sets the scene for us,with a series of phone calls in song, we learn the mogul who owns the hideous building they live in wants the Rent, one year’s worth.

 

The company belts into the title-song, with the chorus, “How we gonna pay last year’s rent,” and during the opening title song you have to listen carefully as each of the characters’ problems, (Collins, Benny, Maureen, Mark, Joanne) are explained – it is bittersweet funny— laments and bravado echo against the black brick wall– the wall of the tomb where their living bodies are living in the despair their choices have made. But it’s fun!

 

Rent, the Best Musical of 1996 Tony Award winner  musical/operatta retelling of La Boheme, book, music and lyrics by White Plains High School graduate Jonathan Larson portrays the vivid, colorful, and not so vivid and downright painful world of the creative artists and the down and out of the East Village of the 1960s.

 

This operetta (every word is sung) drops Mr.and Mrs. Westchester into the world of struggling songwriters, filmmakers, entertainers, and their pals, junkies, pimps, prostitutes and street dealers – sort of a Guys and Dolls of the 90s with a hard edge, and yes their struggle against the establishment. However this is also the story about the toll street life, the night life, the life of poor choices takes in the rough streets of any times.

 

Ayesh comes into his own with what I felt was the best sung song of the hour and a half first act, One Song Glory, picking away, Roger the former rock star, now dying a little each day, sings,

O

ne song to leave behind
Find one song
One last refrain
Glory
From the pretty boy front Man
Who wasted opportunity
One song
He had the world at his feet
Glory

 

It is the story of the show, how our own choices when they turn out wrong hurt us forever, but they should not be reasons for society to reject an individual. Each of the tortured people you meet in Rent has a sad sad story to tell but there but for the grace of God go you or I.

 

 

Mimi the prostitute, played with power, passion and range with body by Steena Hernandez  asks Roger for shelter from the cold. They also do I Should Tell You at the stunning close of the first act, Hernandez steals the show with Ayesh on their duet Light My Candle when she seeks shelter from the cold from Roger who is feeling sorry for himself and throws her out. It is  the beginnings of that ill-fated romance.  Another  gay couple Angel (Justin Senense) and Collins(are another romantic thread and they combine on a sensitive  I’ll Cover You

 

Hernandez at a building party on Christmas Eve, the first act takes over the stage with a sensational Out Tonight,

 

Let’s go out tonight
I have to go out tonight
You wanna play?
Let’s run away
We won’t be back before it’s Christmas day
Take me out tonight (meow)

When I get a wink from the doorman
Do you know how lucky you’ll be?
That you’re on line with the feline of Avenue B

 

 

Maureen, (Sara Ruzicka) another pop singer down on her luck due to a habit,  who stole Mark’s girlfriend Joanne is the topic of   Tango Maureen as Mark points out to Joanne  how Maureen manipulates people:

 

‘At least I’ll have tangoed at all’
The Tango Maureen
Gotta dance till your diva is through
You pretend to believe her
Cause in the end — you can’t leave her
But the end it will come
Still you have to play dumb
Till you’re glum and you bum
And turn blue

 

Throughout the first act, the nitty gritty of the East Village (where a Westchester boy like me never went in the 60s) is played out in vignettes of attempted muggings, proprietary power struggles, and the point of these cameos of conflict is to put across this is what people have to do to survive. They should not be looked down on for it, not pitied, but perhaps helped – what a concept!  You could easily update it to the day laborer situation today, or foreclosed homeowners.

 

The first act concludes with a dinner party where Maureen performs a hilarious spoof of the singer Janis Joplin in her spotlight performance, Over the Moon, and all the misfits of Avenue B confront their landlord

 

The Second Act opens with the famous song Seasons of Love

 

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes – how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

 

The Second Act finds  the various lovers despite their flaws and failures come to their respective fates which win the audience over. WPCNR was unable to stay for Act II due to a commitment, but then I cannot tell you how it ends anyway.

 

Rent is spectacle. Its pace breathless. It’s loud, rocky(some really great signature rock and roll backbeats), sensitive, outrageous and comes at you with raw emotions that really get into your heart, but it is not maudlin or sentimental in any way. Here is a show that confronts you, setting the tone for many of the very unique musicals of today: Next to Normal and Rock of  Ages, come to mind.  It is not subtle, but like the street life it seeks to portray is in your face, just like the show is.

 

The choreography (and Direction) by Patricia Wilcox was inventive with singers and choristers leaping and jumping everywhere – by far the most energetic show WBT has staged in some time.

 

The sound system needs some adjustment because at times the words were hard to discern they were sung so fast and there was distortion. In fact the show comes at you so rapid fire your head spins trying to concentrate. But, this will probably be adjusted.

 

Jonathan Larson wrote the book, music and lyrics for Rent over eight years, and ironically died just before the show opened  Larson also wrote  Superbia and tick, tick…BOOM! And songs for Sesame Street. 

 

Rent  though, is his One Play Glory.

 

RENT only plays WBT for one month through September 25, so I suggest you call the box office 914-592-2222, and pick your dates or go to www.broadwaytheatre.com

 

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WPCNR THE PARKING NEWS. By John F. Bailey. August 21, 2010:

 

White Plains residents can no longer count on “automatic” permission from police to park overnight on White Plains Streets between 2 and 6 A.M, simply by calling in the car’s license number to the police.

 

The White Plains Department of Public Safety is no longer guaranteeing that residents who call the Police Department requesting  permission to take advantage of the long-standing practice requesting permission for overnight guests or whatever reason to park a car on the street overnight will have their requests granted, Police Chief James Bradley confirmed in a written statement to WPCNR Saturday morning.

 

The Chief in a statement, said the new policy  is due to “overwhelming” requests for a waiver of the No Parking between 2 and 6 A.M. experienced by the police lately.

 

 

WPCNR received a report from a resident who was seeking permission for a friend of theirs who was they reported unable to drive. The resident said they were told by the police officer they spoke with, that residents no longer had the option of requesting permission to park a car on the street overnight, no matter what the circumstances.

 

WPCNR went to Police Chief James Bradley to clarify the policy since WPCNR knows of persons who did receive permission to park over night within the last three weeks.

 

The answer is you may or may not be granted permission depending on the circumstances. And if you do not receive permission you may receive a $25 Ticket. The reason, according to Police Chief James Bradley is the Department of Public Safety Night Desk is being “overwhelmed” with such requests recently.

 

The new policy: A pass on Overnight Parking will only be granted for “unexpected” emergencies.

 

According to Chief Bradley:

 

   “We are advising callers that exceptions to the ordinance are for unexpected emergencies.

 

We have been overwhelmed with callers who are not aware of that and believe the call itself guarantees that a summons will not be issued. We also try to point out the availability of legal parking in the area of the caller.

    We have been receiving calls from residents and neighborhood associations about uneven enforcement.

 

We understand that unexpected events will necessitate our assistance and we will continue to work with our residents and certainly we would not direct an incapacitated driver to move their vehicle. “

 

The ordinance forbidding parking on the street between 2 and 6 A.M. was originally put into affect to keep streets clear of cars for snow removal. For years residents have been able to call the police Department Front Desk on an evening and  give a license number of a vehicle requesting perfmission. When this reporter has asked for it, usually for overnight guests, or a vehicle breakdown in a rare circumstance, it has always been granted.

 

Residents should be advised that this is now no longer the case, and should not “count” on it.