THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Photograph of the Night

Posted on July 29, 2015 by John Bailey

The Waxing Gibbous Moon rising tonight over White Plains New York USA a harbinger of August and illuminating the sky with the orange glow of the lazy setting sun.
The Moon today is in a Waxing Gibbous phase. This phase is when the moon is more than 50% illuminated but not yet a Full Moon. The phase lasts round 7 days with the moon becoming more illuminated each day until the Full Moon. During a Waxing Gibbous the moon will rise in the east in mid-afternoon and will be high in the eastern sky at sunset. The moon is then visible though most of the night sky setting a few hour before sunrise. The word Gibbous first appeared in the 14th century and has it’s roots in the Latin word “gibbosus” meaning humpbacked

New Vision of White Plains Pavilion Unveiled by Lennar Corporation: 707 Apartments in Two Towers, Swimming Pools on the Roof.

Posted on July 27, 2015 by John Bailey

Perkins Eastman rendering of the new apartment and retail complex present by Maple and Broadway LLC, subsidiary of Lunnar Corporation to the Common Council Monday evening.. This aerial view is looking northeastl. Maple Avenue is street on the right. South Broadway is in the foreground.

WPCNR EAST SIDE STORY. Special to WPCNR from Jim Benerofe. July 27, 2015:

At the Common Council Special Meeting Monday evening, Maple & Broadway LLC, subsidiary of Lennar Corporation, the second in the nation builder of family housing communities, unvieled their vision for replacement of the White Plains Pavilion Mall, should they close on the property.

View of the Lunnar proposal looking northwest. The Crowne Plaza is in the right of the picture. Maple Avenue is on the left, where it curves onto South Broadway. Hale Avenue is the street in the front of the picture.

Jim Benerofe of suburbanstreet.com told WPCNR that the giant developer plans a rental housing development consisting of two apartment towers of 24 stories, with a total of 707 rental units, 70 or 10% of them at “affordable housing” rates and the rest (631) at market rates.

Benerofe said price points were not brought up. He said that a principal of the Lennar subsidary at the meeting said there was to be 85,000 square feet of retain and would consist of a majority of new restaurants. There would be separate parking for residents and retail patrons.

A feature Benerofe said included two swimming pools on each top floor of the two buildings.

Benerofe noted the proposal “makes a lot of street sense” compared to the original Urstadt Biddle proposal. Urstadt-Biddle of Stamford sold the property to Lennar this month. Retail will be on the streets of Maple and Broadway with the apartments being on the interior. The previous project had retail on the street, and inside the complex and contailed a hotel and apartments.

The proposal will be presented to the Common Council next Monday, August 3 in a televised meeting. Councilpersons Dennis Krolian and James Kirkpatrick were not present.

In announcing the proposed acquisition in May Urstadt Biddle said in a news release:

” In November 2014, the City of White Plains approved the Company’s request to change the zoning of the property to allow its development as a mixed-use property containing residential apartments above ground level retail and restaurant uses. The contract contains several contingencies that need to be satisfied in order for the transaction to close, and there is the possibility it may not close.”

COMPTROLLER: STATE SALES TAX RECEIPTS DECLINED 1.8% IN FIRST HALF OF 2015:

Posted on July 26, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR QUILL AND EYESHADE. FROM THE NYS COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE. JULY 26, 2015:

Local sales tax collection growth across New York State slowed to 1.6 percent in the first six months of 2015 from 3 percent growth in 2014 and was considerably lower than the 4.2 percent average annual growth over the past 15 years, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

County sales tax collections, excluding all cities, increased only 0.5 percent for the first six months of 2015, with many counties seeing a decline in their collections.

“There has been a general downward trend in sales tax collection growth over the last several years and that is continuing in 2015,” DiNapoli said. “The slow growth in sales taxes could pose fiscal challenges for local governments across New York, especially for counties who rely heavily on sales tax collections to pay their bills.”

New York City’s sales tax collections grew by $91 million, or 2.7 percent in the first half of 2015, accounting for a substantial part of local sales tax growth statewide. Still, the city’s growth rate fell from a 4.8 percent growth rate for the same period in 2014.

The Capital District had the second strongest sales tax growth in the first half of the year at 2 percent. Western New York was next with 1.5 percent growth.

In contrast, sales tax revenue declined in five of the 10 economic regions of the state, with the sharpest decline being in the North Country, which saw a 2.5 percent drop. Also declining were the Southern Tier (1.2 percent), the Mohawk Valley (1.0 percent), the Finger Lakes (0.4 percent) and the Mid-Hudson region (0.4 percent).

Sales tax collections declined in 33 of the 57 counties outside of New York City from the same period in 2014. The largest decline was in Schoharie County, with a 6.1 percent drop. Allegany, Delaware, Lewis and Montgomery counties also had declines of more than 5 percent. In some cases, these declines were due to technical adjustments, which can have a large impact in counties with relatively small populations and retail sectors.

Of the 24 counties that saw sales collections rise, the strongest growth was 8.8 percent in Steuben County. Ulster County had an increase of 8.4 percent, which was due in part to a rate change. Hamilton and Washington counties also saw growth rates of more than 6 percent. Technical adjustments can explain some of these increases.

See the report here, or go to:http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/snapshot/localsalestaxcollection0715.pdf

See the County-by-City Table here, or go to: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/snapshot/localsalestaxcollectiontable0715.pdf

Astorino to Hillary on HUD: Knocking on Clinton’s Door.

Posted on July 26, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR HOUSING GO ROUND. From the Westchester Department of Communications. July 26, 2015:

Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino Thursday strongly defended the town of New Castle and Westchester County against federal accusations that it has discriminatory housing policies.

At one point Astorino knocked on Mrs. Clinton’s door to see if she was home. He gave his phone number to an aide who said Mrs. Clinton would call him back.

Astorino said he wants to ask her whether “she believes the town she lives in is discriminatory, and whether she, as the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, supports the current administration’s radical housing policies. It would give many of her neighbors in town and throughout the county some comfort to hear her respond ‘no’ and ‘no.’”

Astorino stood in front of the residence of New Castle’s most famous resident, Hillary Clinton, as he warned that home rule, a power long cherished in New York and which gives localities the ability to pass laws to govern themselves as they see fit, is being threatened by an increasingly abusive and overreaching federal government intent on socially re-engineering America’s suburbs.

“What’s at stake is who controls the future of our towns, villages and cities across the nation – the people who actually live in them, or unelected bureaucrats operating out of cubicles in Washington,” Astorino said. “What’s new is that, if changes are not made, local control of your neighborhood is on the way out.”

The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) wants Westchester County held in contempt of court and fined $60,000 a month, stemming from the reclassification of 28 affordable housing units in the Chappaqua Station development. The fine is based on a fee schedule that’s not included in the settlement.

In December, the Department of Justice said that the 28 units should count towards the 2014 benchmark for financing under the 2009 federal housing settlement, which calls for the building of 750 units of affordable housing in 31 mostly white municipalities.

But seven months later, the DOJ filed legal papers saying the court should pay no attention to the letter, the units shouldn’t count and the county should be held in contempt.

“The federal government’s assault on our local communities in Westchester is dumbfounding, shocking, and counterproductive,” said Astorino.

Astorino said two largely unnoticed events – the Supreme Court’s decision on disparate impact and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) new rules on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing – put unprecedented power in the hands of Washington bureaucrats.

Astorino explained: “Here’s how it works. HUD decides whether your neighborhood meets the quotas the agency believes represent the proper balance of race, income, education and other demographic features. If the zip code doesn’t measure up, HUD then prescribes corrective measures, which essentially come down to running roughshod over local zoning so HUD can socially engineer the character of your community to bring it in line with its quotas.”

Long Island Congressman Peter King also criticized HUD’s latest assault on Westchester in a statement: “When I spoke to Secretary Castro last month, he said that HUD uses ‘mission-driven flexibility to work with communities to meet the goals of programs,’ but there is a clear contradiction between what the Secretary said in his testimony and the actions of HUD’s federal monitor. If the goal is to build affordable housing, then requesting contempt of court orders and seeking penalties is completely counterproductive – the litigation will only slow the process down and make it more difficult in the future for municipalities to provide affordable housing.”