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 BUMPER TO BUMPER. Traffic News & Comment By John F. Bailey. June 22, 2008: At a recent meeting of the Old Oak Ridge Neighborhood Association, that “Oak Ridge Boys” got to hear City Traffic Commissioner Tom Soyk and Mayor Joseph Delfino on what the future holds in store for White Plains. What they learned according a citizen present at the meeting was there’s more diabolic construction to come. The flollowing does not represent either Mr. Soyk’s nor Mayor Delfino’s views of the project. They simply showed the plans. Has the DOT got plans for us? You bet they have.

 Department of Transportation plans for finishing their scorched earth twisted concrete construction at the always-fun Exit 8 interchange from Dr. DOT Demento – a gas-wasting, aggravation levitating approaching proportions of the old Bruckner Traffic Circle in The Bronx (remember?) – were showcased by Mr. Soyk and they do not look good, gasoline-mindful drivers! At lower right is the 333 Westchester Ave former Kraft Foods property. At lower center is the North Street interchange, planned to go under a new Westchester Avenue Superramp. For Southenders coming up North Street they have to cross the Expressway and take a left into White Plains to access I-287 Eastbound via the SuperRamp upper left of picture.

 

 When will the  engineers at the DOT who are mired in a 1950s Los Angeles time warp realize that cross-flow-traffic merging does not work?

 After all the construction is finally done on Exit 8 Westbound, traffic exiting westbound on the Cross Westchester Expressway will still cross with traffic entering the Expressway to go eastbound. You will still have 4 lanes of traffic merging into one long narrow one. Are they kidding?

Pardon me,  I thought the whole point of this construction was to eliminate the X flow of traffic crossing exiting traffic. That “Playland bumper cars” situation will continue on a slightly lesser scale. Never mind that the new lowert, more slanted road levels  being created on the expressway there are creating severe flooding every time it rains already.

But whenever they complete that – sometime in 2010 – if anybody can still afford to drive cars in 2010, Mr. Soyk showed the Oak Ridge “boys” what they and every other resident of the east side of White Plains what they can look forward to: perhaps five years of not being able to get on I-287 eastbound without circling into the Bloomingdale Road area. What a concept!

Gee, we thought taking out every tree around Grant Street and along the Central Westchester Parkway entrance, perching homes on the north and south sides of the Cross Westchester Expressway canyon on the edge of a cliff and creating the narrowest traffic lanes this driver has seen in sometime during the construction was enough – not to mention the flooding problems they have created by removing the trees and making the roadbed deeper.  (Long sentence, hey? Try driving through it!)

But, there’s more DOT construction torture in store starting in 2010 – if the state’s money holds out.

 

Exit 8: X’s in picture show elimination of present Westchester Avenue. North Street is planned to continue UNDER a ramp allowing eastbound exiting I-287 traffic to continue up to the new Westchester Avenue to enter the southend of town via Bryant Avenue, it appears. Traffic exiting White Plains crosses over I-287 on Superramp that splits into two lanes Westbound, and two lanes to enter I-287 eastbound. North Street traffic going for eastbound I-287 would have to cross over I-287, make left onto the Superramp and enter it at mid upper left to enter I-287 eastbound in a series of overhead ramps to be created.

The DOT is suggesting closing Westchester Avenue east bound so if you want to get on the Cross Westchester Expressway eastbound from North Street, you have to cross over the Expressway, circle into the Westchester Avenue fork into downtown White Plains, take a left onto Bloomingdale Road and enter the flow onto to Westchester Avenue to shoo through to I-287.

The plan essentially takes all eastbound I-287 traffic from North Street and funnels into the eastbound traffic to I-287 coming out of the city downtown. Are they kidding me? If they do this, I venture to say the bottle neck of an extra lane of I-287 eastbounders will create an honking, jamming mess at the Bloomingdale Road entrances.

Bottom line – if you’re coming North on North Street, you cannot simply turn off onto Westchester Avenue and ease onto Anderson Hill Road or enter I-287 slightly ahead anymore if the DOT does this. You’re going to have to cross over I-287, make a left and circle back into White Plains to get onto the super flyover ramp that takes all the eastbound traffic out of White Plains.

See what you think.  

This is an overview of the proposed construction for Phase II of the Exit 8 Interchange makeover. The parking lot of 333 Westchester Avenue is at the bottom of your picture.  You will note in the bottom left of the picture, there are xxxxx’s showing the proposed closure of Westchester Avenue as it exists now. That will be fun when they do this prior to constructing this nightmare.

 

You will see a flyover elevated roadway leading you to Anderson Hill Road over to Purchase, being planned to the right of your picture, and you will see that the new improved Westchester Avenue leads into I-287 with 2 lanes entering for eastbound and 2 lanes for Westbound, creating a cross- pattern merge on the ramp out of White Plains. How does this improve what has existed before? This superramp flies over North Street now.  Won’t traffic trying to go eastbound snarl up traffic attempting to go Westbound? Does this make sense?  Won’t this create backup on North Street northbound?

Area to the Right of North Street — 333 Parking Lot is at bottom of your picture.

Not only that but the lane taking westbound traffic from the super Westchester Avenue ramp and Eastbound I-287 traffic from North Street is two lanes! Are you kidding me? There are two lanes for Westbound traffic off the Super Ramp coming up off Bloomingdale Road and two lanes of East-Westbound I-287 coming off North Street. That my friends recreates what we have now every evening in White Plains – four lanes of traffic going into one narrow merge and you will have cross flow! Eastbounders from North Street crossing in front of Westbounders from the Superramp who are trying to ramp onto I-287 westbound. At least now, if you’re going to I-287 eastbound from North Street, you avoid the Exit 8 mess altogether. With this DOT preliminary plan you go into it! 

But, traffic route planning aside, what is wrong with the present setup. According to Mr. Rudikoff, the plan is to remove the traffic light jamup at North Street and Westchester Avenue, which creates a backup on the present Westchester Avenue .  However this seems to be an awful lot of expensive elevated construction that will create a nightmare on the city’s eastern gateway for the next seven years.

But, it does keep the DOT engineers at their drawing boards for another seven years, doesn’t it?

Is that what they were thinking when they came up with this plan? Employment for another decade?

They certainly could not have been thinking of the people of White Plains and those who drive in White Plains.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From Michele Schoenfeld. June 22, 2008:  Over 200 students received awards at the annual White Plains High School Underclass Awards Night held in May.  Among the awards were the following:

 

            College book awards:  Lorena Hoyos received the Barnard Book Award; Petergayle Patterson, Bryn Mawr College President’s Book Award; Danielle Solinski, Colgate Book Award; Max Chapnick, Columbia University Book Award; Tania Noriega, Cornell University Book Award; Jacob Paul,  Harvard Prize Book Award; Rebecca Neubardt, Mt. Holyoke Book Award; Rachel Fishkis, Oberlin  College Alumni Book Award; Anshu Hemrajani, Princeton Book Award; Stephen Zachary Sorrow,  Rutgers University Book Award; Paul Insinna and Sarah Lorden, Saint Michael’s College Book Awards; Minuse Thelsuma, Smith College Club Book Award; Caroline Couzens, University of Pennsylvania Book Award; Sandra Bonilla, Wellesley College Book Award; Jeanie Chen, Williams College Book Award; and Victor Brady, Yale Book Award.

 

            In other presentations, Melissa Hidalgo received the Rensselaer Medal; Fernando Luo received the Rochester Institute of Technology Award; Victor Brady received the University of Rochester Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award; Liscare Castro received the University of Rochester  Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award in Humanities & Social Sciences; Shamique White Received the University of Rochester George Eastman Young Leader Award; and Elie Rosen  received the University of Rochester Xerox Award for Innovation & Information Technology.

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WPCNR’S THE REAL DEAL By The Wedding Jeannie, Jeannie Uyanik, of Cap and Gown Weddings. June 21, 2008: To insure or not to insure, a common question in this day of $100,000 plus events.  But even at $20,000 dollars, families and couples are spending more and more of their relative income on large affairs and with that comes the fear of losing it if the unexpected happens.  Common concerns include weather related disasters, illness of an important family member or cancellation of the event for any reason. 

 

The Wedding Jeannie

Jeannie Uyanik

Wedding Planner to the World

WPCNR Columnista

 

 

The primary question is whether or not to insure yourself against any of these things from happening. Depending on the range of insurance that you choose to buy, costs can range from $200-$1200, but the average tends to be between $400-500.  A popular company from which to purchase wedding specific insurance is www.wedsafe.com.

 

It’s important to note that “change of heart” cancellations are NOT covered by this company or any other wedding insurance firm.  There are of course exclusions as to what will be covered; pre-existing conditions being among the most common.  If you are worried about the health of an elderly immediate (this word is important; clarify with each company what immediate means) family member, who has a known condition at the time of insurance purchase, this will not be covered.  As with anything, read the fine print carefully. 

 

Wed Safe makes it easy to navigate the site and determine both what the best policy for you might be, as well as the actual wording in each – there is a sample policy available right on the site.  Wed Safe also offers Liability Insurance, which some locations and venues will require of the couple; especially for events at private residence.  This can also be obtained directly through or as a result of the home owner’s insurance company that might be in place for a private residence already, but if you are hosting an event at a new location, or a rental property, then Liability Insurance from Wed Safe is easy and provides necessary coverage. 

 

Wed Safe also runs www.privateeventinsurance.com, which as its home page indicates, protects against loss for anything from holiday parties and Bat Mitzvahs to family reunions and house warming events.  Often, for 1% of the cost of the event (if we assume a $500 policy for a $50,000 event) families take great comfort and piece of mind from knowing that they are covered in case of an unforeseen event.  In the aftermath of both 9/11 and the north east blackout in August 2003, we found that insurance, which was not remotely common then, would have been useful, but the damage to the bottom line was still inevitable.  In both cases, the weddings with which we were participating went ahead as planned, but with major alternations and a great deal of sensitivity and understanding. 

 

So, to finally put the age old question of whether to insure or not to insure to rest, it comes down to nerves.  If you are a type A, control everything and have back plans for anything type of person, then event insurance is definitely the way to go because it provides priceless piece of mind at a reasonable level.  Would I get insurance you might ask?  Absolutely.  If however you are pretty relaxed and more of the “whatever happens we will deal with it”, then keep the $400 and go to a nice dinner.  Much of what happens when insurance is a necessity cannot be covered or replaced, so more important than insurance is good planning and being prepared for any thing that happens.    

 

 

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. June 19, 2008. The City Hotel Tax projected to replace $400,000 cut out of the city Reserve for Financing by the Common Council in a budget cut move in April, is not going to happen, WPCNR has learned.  WPCNR has placed calls to city representatives in Albany to find the reasons behind the reported failure of the hotel tax.

Paul Wood, City Executive Officer, said the city was going to move forward, and expected the Mayor to make a case for an additional 1/4% sales tax to Assemblyman Adam Bradley and the state legislature, as the city had originally proposed last year. A quarter per cent increase was approved by the legislature this spring with Bradley spearheading the legislation.

Wood said “This is exactly what the Mayor warned (the council) about when the budget was approved with the $400,000 cut out of the reserve for financing. He warned the council about this. It (the hotel sales tax) was only projected by us to bring in $300,000 at the most. I fully expect we may run a deficit next year as a result.”

Wood said he expected the city would make its final quarter sales tax projection, but that next year was now in doubt. He said he did not expect projected union increases now being negotiated to be as much as 5%.

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WPCNR Quill & Eyeshade.  By John F. Bailey. June 19, 2008 UPDATED WITH RETAIL CHART 12:15 P.M. EDT:  White Plains residents who heat with oil should plan now to handle a startling 50% increase in the cost of local fuel oil.

 

White Plains residents who heat their homes with oil got “a bit of bad news” this week. About this time of year, homeowners who purchase home heating oil on a monthly budget plan get their new contract from their fuel oil dealer.  They are in for a shock. Heating oil for next year will cost you more than a gallon of gas. The bill above provides No. 2 Fuel Oil for the “bargain” of $906 a month for 10 months, $9,060 a Year.

Feed Me, Seymour:

Homeowners will be burning 50% more money in their oil burners this year.

 

The cost of a gallon of heating oil has  jumped 50%  to $4.70 a gallon (more than the $4.40 for a gallon of regular gasoline) . The sharp increase is due to the runup in crude oil prices, and the export of oil distillate (from which heating oil and diesel fuel is made) from U.S. refineries to foreign markets, according to the U.S. Government Energy Information Agency..

The price of No. 2 Fuel Oil quadruples in 4 years.

Four years ago, a typical monthly contract for fuel oil was $210 a month in 2005-2006. It rose to $400 in 2006-2007; it rose 50% this year to $600 to this week’s shocker, $906 a month for 2008-2009.

 There is no relief seen because the worldwide demand for oil continues to soar. Even, says one economist, U.S. conservation of oil will not make a difference because world demand for oil will suck up whatever the U.S. does not use. If the state and county and city authorities are not looking at this. They should consider its possible impacts on the homeowner and apartment dweller.

 

$1500 a Tank.

If you fill up a 340 gallon oil tank it will cost you about  $1,600 today. If crude oil continues its upward track homeowners not on contract can face one-time fill ups of $1,600 and up.

 On a typical budget plan you will pay $906 a month for heating oil over the next 10 months. Heaven help you if the price of heating oil hits $5 a gallon and up in the next 10 months (where diesel fuel is already). You will have to pay the difference (more) next June to settle up.

 A typical median home  in White Plains reports their fuel bill is up from $600 a month one year ago from their provider. If you’re running a mortgage of $2,400  a month,  and just making ends meet, you have a big problem. You have to come up with an extra $300 a month (a total of $900 a month)  to heat your home next winter, while paying the gasoline price to drive to work whatever the gas may reach. 

Just a reminder: this latest horror from the oil world makes the estimate of White Plains School District utilities going up 3.82%  look way low now.

Refineries Export 80% More Heating Oil, Diesel Than last Year.

The heating oil increase predominantly affects the Northeast region. Eight million U.S. .households use heating oil and 78% of them are in the Northeast. As of January, heating oil was priced at $4.30 a gallon, now it has reached $4.70  a gallon.

This  runup  is due in part to the increase in crude oil prices, but mostly  because, according to This Week In Petroleum, (published by the Energy Information Administration), “world distillate markets have been tight, and U.S. distillate prices (distillate is the crude oil derivative from which heating oils and diesel fuel are refined),  have been drawing distillate from the United States. First Quarter exports in 2008 averaged 365,000 barrels per day, the highest first quarter exports ever. Last year, first quarter exports of distillate from U.S. refineries were 203,000 barrels a day. (WPCNR notes this is an 80% increase in distillate export.)

  TWIP reports refineries make more profit on diesel and heating oil (the distillate products) than they do on gasoline —  5 cents profit a gallon  for gasoline between spot and wholesale compared to a juicy 70 cents a gallon between spot and wholesale on distillates. (Access the latest price information and the TWIP newsletter at http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp)

U.S. Refineries Go Where the Profit Is — Overseas

This has caused a shift in the second quarter  of 2008 by U.S. refineries to double the production of distillates (heating oil and diesel) in this second quarter of 08 over the first quarter. TWIP reports “refiners appear to have reduced crude (oil) inputs and adjusted their product slate to favor distillate production relative to gasoline.”

TWIP writes “adding volumes (of distillates) could reduce the U.S. spread (between spot and wholesale prices) somewhat. Still, even with lower distillate (price) spreads, distillate prices (of diesel and home heating oil)  would remain high, pushed up by crude oil price.”

Crude Oil Drives the Market.

Crude Oil, peaking at $140 a barrel (42 gallons), (percolating at $136 a barrel Thursday morning) last week has been described as the villain. WPCNR asked Dr. Lutz Kilian, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan about this relationship. Professor Kilian has published numerous studies on oil price fluctuations over the years, which may be located at www.econ.lsa.umich.edu/econ/detail/0,2,4849760%255Fpeople%255F88738703,00 .

WPCNR asked why India and China are reportedly contributing to the run-up in gasoline prices. Dr. Killian said,  “Emerging economies such as India and China have contributed to high crude oil prices (and other industrial commodity prices) in recent years, as their economies grew at a record pace. Those high crude prices are one factor driving high gas prices in the U.S., although U.S. refinery shortages certainly  have contributed as well.”

Asked if he felt the India-China demand was excessive compared to the U.S. market, he said, “I would not call that Asian demand excessive any more than I would call U.S. demand excessive.”

I asked him if price controls could be designed in such a way that they would work to the consumer advantage. Dr. Kilian demurred, saying, “You are mixing oil price controls and gas price controls. Oil price controls were put in place only for oil produced in the U.S. domestically. Gasoline price controls mainly created lines at U.S. gas stations.

“The problem with setting a price ceiling is that there is not enough gas for all customers interested in buying at that price. Hence,  those who come late will have to wait in line. The same principle was responsible for the bread lines in the Soviet Union. Instead of being productive citizens, people spend a good chunk of their lives waiting in line. We know that this experiment failed miserably. Economists do not believe in the efficacy of price controls. I am no exception.”

The professor placed no faith in any artificial control of gas prices: “Historically, price controls have not worked. They always have had unintended consequences and they always have been costly. You are asking how to fix the unfixable.”

I asked if we had not regressed back to a situation approximating the Rockefeller Standard Oil Trust in the late nineteenth century when a centrally controlled string of oil companies and their suppliers manipulated rates to maintain prices artificially high.

Professor Kilian noted, “What’s the evidence of such manipulation of crude oil prices? Why would U.S. oil companies want to cooperate with foreign oil suppliers to raise crude oil prices? What’s in it for them?

“Oil is traded in spot markets. Nobody is fixing prices in these markets. What is the evidence that the price is artificially high? Why do you think this is not the right price to reflect the current scarcity of oil?

Nor is there evidence that quantities are being fixed. Has the supply of crude oil fallen? No.  The only thing that has changed is that more customers want to buy oil.”

Crude’s Role in Driving $4.40 a Gallon Gas and $4.70 a Gallon Heating Oil.

In a gallon of regular gasoline in April, 2008,  the price of crude oil made up 73% of it, Refining, 10%, Distribution & Marketing 6% and Taxes (State and Federal), 11%

Let’s apply it to the $4.36 per gallon cost WPNCR’s Mobile Unit paid for regular this week. The following figures are approximate:

$3.18  of the $4.36 was the cost for Crude Oil

48 cents for Taxes (State & Federal) New York State charges 41.4 cents excise tax per gallon.

44 cents for Refining

26 cents for Distribution & Marketing & Profits.

 

The profit per gallon out of that 26 cents is difficult to pin down.

A Barrel of Crude and where it goes

Oil companies extract  21.5 gallons of gasoline and 6.4 gallons of distillate from each 42 gallon barrel of crude oil, plus various other products. The list  of products below and the percentage they make up of the 42 gallons is from the California Energy Commission. A total of 48.43 gallons of products are made from each 42 gallon barrel of crude oil.

 

So at the cost of $134 a barrel of crude oil bought by an oil company today the cost per gallon of gasoline and distillate is $2.77.  ($134 divided by 48.43 gallons) Source: California Energy Commission

 

Crude Oil accounts for 60% of the price of heating oil, Refining, 16% and Marketing & Distribution & Profits, 24%.

Let’s again see how that breaks down on the $4.70 price per gallon paid by the typical median homeowner for heating oil this week.

Crude Oil — $2.82

Marketing & Distribution (Profits)– $1.12

Refining —  0.75

Total: $4.69

Statistics from Energy Information Administration.

Crude oil cost Drives Cost of Everything.

The price of crude drives the cost of all other goods. Consumers who heat in White Plains should think carefully about how to manage their heating this fall. If they are not on a budget plan, they should investigate its possibilities or look at one time payments of $1500 and up for each home fuel tank fill up. Rents on apartments may have to go up.  Con Edison has the right to run up their cost per kilowatt hour based on the costs of energy.

The lower chart shows as the cost of crude oil went up the last two years, retail stocks went down. Top Chart shows as the price of crude oil rose (blue line) gas prices fluctuated up in the last quarter of 2007. Bottom chart shows that as crude oil rose (bottom dark line, retail stocks plunged. (Reuters)

More directly the cost of gasoline prices inversely affects retail sales. The higher gas goes, the more retail sales are affected.