Hits: 301

The Westchester Human Rights Commission  panel on Fair Housing Monday night opened eyes.

WPCNR REALITY REALITY.  By John F. Bailey, April 26, 2023:

A panel of real estate experts delivered  an assessment of discriminatory conditions minorities face today Monday night. In buying first homes, and second homes locally and nationwide the obstacles are deeprooted  a discussion sponsored by the Westchester County Human Rights Commission at the County Center made painfully clear.

BRYAN GREENE, Vice President of Policy Advocacy of the National Association of Realtors, DEBRA S, COHEN, Civil Rights Attorney and Professor of Law, and GREGORY JOOST, Researcher, Author and Professor of Sociology gave a general overview of the high standards that minorities face in buying that first home, and second homes compared to white people.

What became clear through the  hour before 35 persons was the lack of enforcement by government bureaucracies and lack of investigation studies by government agencies.

Local and state authorities are reluctant to investigate alleged discrimination. Ms. Cohen said the courts are an option, but the current political  sensitivity  and composition of courts make it difficult to produce  verdicts that find discrimination is evident.

The panel brought out that banks and credit ratings services discriminate by preconceived attitudes reflecting century old derogatory conceptions of  minority character. This centuries old perception of minorities results in a double standard,  giving lower credit scores to  minority applicants  than they do to whites. The credit ratings are defended by banks saying they have formulas.

BRYAN GREENE SAID STATE AND LOCAL ENFORCEMENT SHOULD STEP UP PROSECUTION OF ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION PRACTICES, SINGLES OUT COLLEGE LOANS LOWERING HOME EQUITY PREVENTING MINORITIES FROM GETTING MAX  VALUE OUT OF  HOME THEY ARE TRYING TO SELL. CALLS FOR  COUPLE TESTS TO DISCOVER HOW REALTORS TREAT MINORITY COUPLES AND WHITE COUPLES DIFFERENTLY.

Even  If a minority owner of a home in an area wants to sell their home, they face lower assessments because they are minority owners than if a  white owner of the same house would for the same property, based on the neighborhood, Professor Cohen said.

Minority owners, who have purchased a first home face problems reselling a home they own, Professor Cohen related. She said minority owners have been known to make over  their home interiors removing any objects, decorations, photographs of their minority family.  White friends  are recruited by minority owners to be in the home when it is shown.

GREG JOOST (right) SUGGESTED LAND TRUSTS ACQUIRED BY CITIES, TOWNS COULD MAKE AVAILABLE HOMES MINORITIES COULD AFFORD–TELLING HOW THIS OCCURRED IN PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, MARYLAN

CALL TO ACTION NOW FROM VICE PRESIDENT OF POLICY OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION REALTORS TO ADDRESS THE DISCRIMINATION, RECOGNIZE THE WEALTH DISCREPANCIES, DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES AND REWARD DESERVING MINORITIES. HE TELLS WHY

The panel gave an overview of practices constricting minority home ownership, but stopped short of saying the practices were in Westchester County.

Hits: 475

COVID BIVALENT BOOSTER SHOTS AT  WHITE PLAINS SITES NOW AND OTHER  SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER LOCATIONS TODAY! GO TO https://www.vaccines.gov/search/ for the Bivalent Booster ready locations around the county!

THE CDC NEW BIVALENT VACCINATION BOOSTER MAP 

LOCATIONS ON INTERACTIVE MAP SHOW YOU WHERE YOU CAN GET NEW BIVALENT BOOSTER.

WPCNR COVID SURVEILLANCE. Statistics from NY Covid Tracker. Observation and Analysis by John F. Bailey April 23, 2023:

I used to worry. Stay Home. Not go out. WORRY! STAY! NO GO OUT!  WORRY! STAY! NO GO OUT! BUT NOW I’M–

 BOOOOOOSTED!

I’M BOOSTED!

Those who have completed their series of Covid Shots  are now eligible for the Bivalent Booster announced last week and it is here in White Plains New York USA. It is one of the best coordinated efforts by the government in years at least locally. The CDC  and the manufacturers have  executed brilliantly.

I GOT MINE MONDAY MORNING AT 11:15 A.M. in White Plains New York USA

The Center  for Disease  Control has delivered the new Bivalent Booster to White PLAINS  New Rochelle,  Port Chester Mount Vernon Yonkers and 38 locations across the swath of southern Westchester. 

There do not appear to be locations with the new bivalent protector above Chappaqua.

Go to find locations with Bivalent Booster in stock for Pfizer and  Moderna  at the CDC website https://www.vaccines.gov/search/ type in your zip code and the site displays a bullet map showing locations where you can get the new vaccine.

The CDC gives the locations phone numbers. And the pharmacy I called, answered, confirmed they had the vaccine and I could walk-in at 11, no appointment necessary.

I walked in expecting delay putting 30 minutes on the meter.

The young ladies behind the counter knew all about it.

1. They asked for my vaccination card (showing the first 5 shots of my Pfizer series.
2. They asked for proof of my  medical insurance  for records, though the bivalient booster vaccine does not cost you anything at the location I went and should not anywhere The staff said there was no cost.
3. They asked for a photo I.D. (Drivers license)

I received the shot within 15 minutes.

The vaccine going in gives you just a dull stiffness in your arm. You hardly realize it is going in or when it is actually withdrawn from your arm.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am. Because I have now I have done all I can at this time to protect myself and others.

WHERE ARE WE IN COVID IN WESTCHESTER?

Last week in Covid, Westchester continued for a third straight week lowering infections to 181 for the 7 days ended Saturday.

At the present rate of 2.72 daily infections for 5 days last week  per 100,000 persons in Westchester next week  should result in 192 infections which would complete April with 867 new cases of covid,compared with 1,352 for the month of March.

The Saturday infections for entire Westchester County was 35 infections.

Since the County likes to cite how many cases we have had in the past to analyze covid intensity in the present, I will do that.

Last April 2022 April had 7,054 new cases. This year we are on track for 867. However 3 months ago in January 2023  we  experienced 6,573 infections after a very socially reckless December. February we knocked that down to 2,906.

March cut infections to 1,352

The number of infected people  are out there is not really known because the persons have not verified their positives with a lab test. That unknown, unestimated by any official authority  is what is keeping the covid cloud lingering over us.

There were 1,352 known new cases (lab tested) in March and they have resulted in a projected 867 cases in April. This means that people known to be infected have infected less than 1 person. This kind of spread rate is very low.

If there are hundreds more people out there with covid whom we do not know because they are not verifying antigen test positives they take at home, that can be  a source of the weekly almost 1,000 new cases we continue to see, and we cannot count those continuing to perhaps spread the disease at above the actual daily new case rate

The optimist way of acknowledging that worry and diminishing the worry, say covid is just something we have to live with the possibility of growing.

I say finish off your vaccine series people get the booster and the new one.

We will see what the hospitalizations are around the county later today,  at 65% of new admissions  (62 of 96 admissions) from March 31 to April 18,being admitted to White Plains hospital because of covid last week at White Plains Hospital according to the state, you have to wonder where those sick enough to be admitted to a hospital bed are coming from.

If we had not stopped testing everybody who thought they were sick we would know where the continued spread, last week still closer to 1,000 a week instead of below 500 you have to wonder about the invisible spread. That is a major dropped ball by the authorities.

If everyone had gotten vaccinated, the cases would be lower.

If schools had been directed to continue to announce students testing positive, you would know if school populations were spreading the disease. But the State Education Department said that was no longer necessary. Now, we have to take School District word for it. That is simply a “feel good” decision based on guesswork.

If we have a surge by July which we had last year that resulted in a big wave in December,  we will have no impending knowledge of a bigger than expected July surge  because of those decisions by individuals who did not get the full vaccination treatments; failure to keep track of infections in the school population; and failure to make mandatory lab tests of all persons with positives after  antigen tests.

Hits: 862

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK By WPTV’S BULL ALLEN FROM THE WPIX BASEBALL AND BALLANTINE BOOTH . April 23, 2023:

“Hello there Everybody this is BULL Allen coming to you from YANKee StAyDEEUMM from the DOUBULA PIX old mezzanine over home plate, where the sun has come out after this morning’s rains. The tarp is off the field. The groundscrew has done a great job getting the big ball park playable. The warmups are finishing up. The starters are getting loose  alongside the dugouts. It’s my pleasure to be doing  play-play-by-play with The Scooter, FILL RIZZUTO  sitting in for John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, and they are delighted to have PHIL and I back as guests in the Yankee booth today for our Nostalgia Inning.”

This Nostalgia Inning is brought to you by CNBMB  Creating New Baseball Memories in Broadcasting

John Sterling is the Voice of the Yankees now, and has been  coaching me on what to expect, and really after listening to their broadcasts and the New York Mets broadcasts, I must say I have been working on my Alabama drawl and my pitch descriptions limiting them to the count and the pitch result even more than previous year’s broadcasts and Phil has been working on reading the actual commercial tags for  many in-inning features.

There is the first walk of the game, who is bringing you  each inning, the gametime temperature sponsor, the trip to the bullpen sponsor, and the 100 or so or so spots that are played during each Yankee broadcast  in between each half inning.  This surprised me:events in the game are also plug opportunities: trips to the bull pen, trips to the mound, so John and Suzyn have been explaining to  Phil and me,when play-by-play is live what to expect.

John with apologies to Phil and myself explained in order to get live play-by-play spots in that we  limit to phrases like the count, where the pitch was and I can only describe where the ball was hit, very succinctly, very succinctly and generally.

I don’t know if I would ever be able to say “How About That” or “going going gone—into the  Rightfield bullpen, or “into the upper deck halfway up the grandstand.” after a great play without into the next pitch. The Yankees have not yet sold a tagline after each Yankee homerun. I shouldn’t have said that.

Describing the windup, I have to forget about painting a word picture for you like Bob Murphy as I used to say “Cole sets at the belt, checks the runner, around comes the right arm and the 2-2 pitch” which I used to help the listener visualize what I say happening.  This will be the biggest challenge of my broadcasting career:  Talking sparingly, really sparingly.

No this  whimsical broadcast bringing me out of the past to make today’s play-play exciting to listen too did not happen Sunday.

In fact, driving home after my nostalgic  stint had it happened in today’s Blue Jays Yankee scoreless duel in the 5^th inning, I realized how the way not only Yankee broadcasts  but Mets broadcasts do sell as much commercial lines in quickie sentences of  10s, 30s, 5 seconds.  You hear  in–the-Inning events brought to you by law firms, accountants, car dealers, boilermakers,  and I do not believe what I just heard–facials and massage spas — I mean really baseball fans do not get  massages (after the game).

A sample of this fastball after fastpall pitch staff was in the fifth inning: “This was the first walk of the game brought to you by Toyota you could be driving instead of walking by driving a new Toyota.”

But…no phone number or website or way to respond.  Those ad agencies not putting ways to respond are crazy.

As any of you fans know listening to play-by-play  in the metropolitan area you hear  as many complete pitches (essential name recognition spots only)  as NFL broadcasts have incomplete passes, and even more.

The Yankees are the highest valued franchise in sports because they have merchandised everything Yankee. They took the WGN model and created I believe the first team owned network YES. MSG owner ed  the Knick and the Rangers, and put them on a network.

Yankee merchandise is everywhere. YES made you pay for every game.

Now the Yankee radio broadcasts have become the most listened to team in the New York area, I believe that is why they are on WFAN, the all sports station.  In the last few years  the inbetween half inning breaks on the radio have been triple and double sold. In a 5 to 10 minute inning of actual play and mid-inning break which the speeded up game rules have produced, you are blitzed with 6 commercials plus sometimes two ingame event sponsor ship taglines and if you have two pitching changes in one half inning you get two “Call to the Bullpens sponsors. I have not kept score.

But driving back into Westchester listening to the game, it was like listening to “The Commercial only Network.”

I began to lose rooting interest because the commercials on half innings lulled my mind. And commercials for in-inning breaks distracted John and Suzyn with inane pitches, they do it smoothly no matter how how silly it sounds. that could use far better copywriting(a lost art today).

Such is the excitement of a possible crucial situation, that the play-by-play what description there is allowed to say about can still interest the fan.

The effect of mid-inning and multiple commercials before the next inning is babble. I can only compare to doing a news story on the evening news, CNN or FOX News or NBC News and interrupting a story on the debt ceiling with a 10 second tagline, “Don’t worry about your debt with Don’t Worry Mortgage Bank.” The newscasts have few stories enough as it is, commercials in the middle of stories would be a huge money maker for what passes as media today.

It certainly works for the baseball play-by-play. But I feel sorry for the agony of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. Meaningless squibs in key portions of an inning. Here you have a dream job and it has become a nightmare.

When baseball was broadcast in the past you usually had a beer sponsor,  and the commercial between innings were jingles. Now you have talk spots.

There was a song by Terry Cashman, “Play-by-Play: I saw it on the radio”

That song ingeniously described and paid tribute to baseball broadcasts of the past, mixing famous calls from old broadcasts with the refrain “I saw it on the radio.”

Today with most broadcast actual play-by-play time limited, deprived of description time such as letting us know how outfielders are positioned even with the new rules, or how the infield play in or back or shades legally  the fan  unless they watch on television has no concept on how the fielders are adjusting to the game.

Baseball’s very limited descriptions of the details of the new rules, have not been thorough. Who knew that batters only had 11 seconds to get into position to hit again. That is tough. That is less than little league.

Why is the pitching better? The pitchers are cheating. The Met pitcher tossed from a game for having a substance on his hands, caught twice raises a lot of questions. It takes a long time to control a trick pitch. Maybe that pitcher has been using illegal pitches for a long time, or maybe he was a quick study.

The pitchers have found that speeding up and the penalizing of the batter preparation to hit time is making them more effective. They get into a groove. the adrenaline is going the concentration intense.

Before the new rules on pitching and hitting took effect, batters used to take enormous coffee breaks outside the batter’s box which disrupted starters and relief rhythms. Now the pitchers pitch a little slower than batting practice pitchers but the pitches work better than a BP machine. Last Sunday’s Gerritt Cole 2-0 complete game was a masterpiece and very instructive. He was almost quick pitching. Pitchers have been very effective because the ready-to-hit in 10 seconds distracts the batter’s focus.

But today’s play-by-play habit of microphoning the crowd also drowns out the announcing team, another hype to make you think the baseball broadcast is exciting.

I have listened to  3 play-by-plays of Yankee Sunday games. I used to find listening to baseball on the radio terrific to listen to because Mr. Sterling and Ms. Waldman got you into the game situations talked baseball around the league, noted improvements in players. Now with the 20 seconds between pitches they cannot to that as effectively.

And there have been no specials on sportscasts that I know of about the new rules.

The broadcasts today no matter who is broadcasting are not building fans.

They are just commercial parades that severely diminish the intensity of exciting games and when the game is an artistic mess (a 17-3 game) As soon as you hear the score you are out of there and back to SiriusXM.

Hits: 502

COUNTY EXECUTIVES FROM WESTCHESTER, ROCKLAND, PUTNAM, ORANGE, DUTCHESS AND ULSTER COUNTIES ANNOUNCE  HOLTEC PAUSING RELEASE OF TREATED WASTEWATER FROM INDIAN POINT ENERGY CENTER INTO HUDSON RIVER AND URGE THE PLAN TO DUMP THE WATER BE ABANDONED

The County Executives from Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Ulster Counties claim victory in Holtec’s decision to pause the May planned release of treated wastewater from Indian Point Energy Center into the Hudson River and demand the planned dump of the toxic water be abandoned. Additionally, they are collectively insisting on more transparency and dialogue about the plan for the wastewater going forward.

As the situation continues to develop, the County Executives from Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Ulster Counties remain committed to advocating for the safety and well-being of local communities and the environment.

On WVOX  1460 AM Good Morning Westchester with Dennis and Tonni, County Executive George Latimer said the state legislature was considering legislation to forbid Holtec form dumping the wastewater into the Hudson River. he added that this might initiate a challenge leading to a higher court, should such legislation be passed.

Hits: 683