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)

Recess Continues at Labor, Parks, Planning, Housing Session on Playland Legal Tweaks

Posted on June 15, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR PLAYLAND GO ROUND. By John F. Bailey JUNE 15, 2015 1:10 PM UPDATED 2 PM (BOLD FACE) EDT:

The Labor and Parks Committee after a morning of negotiations between Standard Agreements, the Astorino Administration reconvened approximarely 12: 15.

The first matter was a resolution on the issue of what is paid County Employees who work for Playland for Standard Amusements. The tentative agreement, county employees currently at Playland who were not retained would be retained by Westchester County, at same grade and level and pension and transferred elsewhere by the Recreation Commissioner.

In the matter of compensation of present County Employees whom Standard Amusements wishes to hire, the compensation for those employees would be “negotiated” with Standard Amusements at the time. This was included at the insistence of White Plains Legislator, Benjamin Boykin who noticed it had been inexplicably missing from the final county administration documents last week.

It was not clear given the verbal explanation at the live telecast whether payment could be less and the county would pick up the balance of compensation, benefits.

County Legislature Chair Michael Kaplowitz said the resolution was as good as a handshake because if the contract with Standard was not conducted in good faith the legislature would “have holy hell to pay,” presumably, and I am just guessing here — this meant the CSEA union wrath (if Standard and the county did not negotiate fairly).

The Committee then recessed at 12:45 before voting, to give the county legal team time to put all the pieces of paper part of this first resolution together for the vote. As of 2:00 P.M. they are still recessing.

When the Committee began at 9:27 this morning, 27 minutes late, Legislator Parker told Joseph Manigula, representing Standard Amusements she had requested the Pool-Water Feature jurisdiction matter be removed from the Capital Projects Memorandum of Understanding. Manigula said since there were changes to the MOU on Capital Projects as indicated by Chairwoman Shimsky, that he would have to caucus with his boss, Nick Singer of Standard Amusements before this evening’s scheduled vote.

With the Pool issue in the air and the Capital Projects decision making procedure legal issues still to go, it is looking like a long day ahead.

Standard Amusements, Labor, Parks, Planning Housing Committee and Astorino Team Massage Legal Issues Behind Closed Doors. Committee in Recess All Morning.

Posted on June 15, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR PLAYLAND GO-ROUND. By John F. Bailey. June 15, 2015:

The Labor, Parks, Planning and Housing Committee that was supposed to meet Monday morning to iron out nebulous legal requirements not spelled out to Legislators Benjamin Boykin, Catherine Parker and MaryJane Shimsky’s satisfaction last Wednesday has been in recess all Monday morning, working out “tweaks” to meet those legislators’ objections with the Astorino administration and Standard Amusements, prior to a scheduled vote this evening.

Matt Richter spokesperson for Chairman of the Board of Legislators Mike Kaplowitz said that Nick Singer, principal of Standard Amusements, and the legislators have been going back and forth between the 8th and 9th floors. Singer’s consultant has been carrying the legal ball for Mr. Singer. Legislators have been in their offices on the 8th floor. The negotiations through this “shuttle diplomacy” are, Richter said expected to be completed soon with “final tweaks.” He said he expected the Committee to resume proceedings soon.

A call to Ms. Parker, who raised the primary objection that the legal steps to determine what Capital Improvements were required in the future between the county and the operator, Standard Amusements were not “specific” enough, has not been returned to WPCNR.

MaryJane Shimsky’s reservation about the Memorandum of Understanding that acceded authority to determine the fate of the swimming pool solely to Standard Amusements to determine whether the Playland Pool remained in some form or just turned into a “water feature” was another issue.

Legislator Benjamin Boyin wanted it spelled out that Standard Amusements would reimburse the county directly when it retained county employees.

As of 11:20 A.M., the Labor, Parks, Planning Housing Committee was still “in recess.”

First Firefly Spotted Sunday Evening. (Photograph of the Day)

Posted on June 14, 2015 by John Bailey

THE LETTER TICKER: WP REAL ESTATE VALUES, FASNY AND THE POOR REPRESENTATION PUBLIC HAS HAD FROM THE COMMON COUNCIL OVER THE YEARS.

Posted on June 14, 2015 by John Bailey

Hi Mr Bailey,

I am a life long White Plains resident; I grew up in Gedney Farms, and currently live in the Soundview neighborhood.I see your site no longer posts letters, but I am compelled to write anyway, to offer you food for thought (for what its worth).

Two thoughts: The mere threat of FASNY has already had a very negative and significant impact on real estate values in Gedney Farms specifically, and WP generally. Proof: go to Zillow, and peruse recent sales data for the last 2-3 years.

Then go to any Real Estate site and peruse the market for WP homes in the 650-950K range. You will see that prices for WP homes in general, and for Gedney specifically, have plummeted–especially remarkable given that mortgage rates remain at historic lows.

Yes, the financial crisis knocked prices down perhaps 20-25%, but current prices show a considerably larger decline than is accounted for by the financial crisis when measured from the 2007 market peak. FASNY and the city’s real estate taxes are among the main reasons why this is true.

FASNY is most certainly a major (though not the only) reason for these depressed values.

I think that the majority of White Plains residents don’t really care about FASNY, as they see the issue as a “Gedney” issue.

It’s not. All real estate values across the city are related; if the values in the crown jewel neighborhood are suffering, it has a negative impact on all real estate values, as evidenced by the small number of homes for sale in the 800K+ category across WP, and especially in Gedney. A check of the price data for sales and current listings is quite sobering.

My second thought concerns the second major reason WP real estate values remain depressed: our real estate taxes. My real estate taxes have doubled over the last decade, and city services have declined.

And yet, the country has been in a zero interest rate, <2% inflation rate for nearly the last 10 years. An $800K house in WP now has taxes of 17k-20K. This too is a major drag on real estate values.

I find it incredibly irritating to think back over the decades to the representations the Common Council and Mayor made regarding the development of downtown WP–how such development would be a boon to our tax base, how it would assure a “vibrant” downtown, and of course, it would be great for the city. All of it hogwash.

There is nothing downtown except over-priced chain restaurants and bars for 20-30 somethings. And of course, lots of malls, many with lots of vacant space. Basically nothing of the vision we were sold on materialized.

I think it fair to say we citizens were poorly represented by past administrations, who either knowingly lied, or were simply incompetent to lead us to a better future. I have to wonder if history will repeat itself with this administration when it comes to FASNY.

Cheers

(Editor’s Note: WPCNR publishes letters that are thoughtful, rational, push the dialectic, are not libelous and whose authors identify themselves to me. I reserve the discretion to delete sections of letters that I deem libelous, unsubstantiated, or direct personal attacks on persons written about. Letters may be addressed to [email protected]. Thank you for writing.)