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)

Good Counsel Property in White Plains on North Broadway Put on the Market

Posted on May 30, 2014 by John Bailey

16 Acres for sale: The Good Counsel property at 52 North Broadway in White Plains (within white border). North Broadway is the North-South road in left corner of picture. Road in upper right is the Cross Westchester Expressway

WPCNR NORTH END NEWS. Special to WPCNR from Our Sisters of Divine Compassion. (EDITED) May 30, 2014:

Following a ten-year, in-depth strategic planning process and a two-year review of the future of its 16-acre Good Counsel campus in White Plains, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion said today that they are exploring the sale of all or a portion of the property.

They have retained CBRE Group Inc., to determine interest in the property and to market it.

The campus at 52 North Broadway is adjacent to the White Plains commercial center and includes 12 buildings comprising 162,180 square feet.

Among the buildings are the Roman Catholic order’s Motherhouse, which today also serves as a convent, administrative offices, and a spirituality and conference center. The site also includes the Good Counsel Academy Elementary and High Schools, the RDC Counseling Center, and the Chapel of the Divine Compassion.

“We have been blessed to be the stewards of this wonderful property for 124 years,” said Sister Carol Wagner, RDC, President of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, “and our mission and ministries throughout the region emanate from here. At the same time, to assure that we continue our mission and that we are able to provide for the Sisters particularly in their later years, upon careful reflection and thorough analysis we are actively researching and exploring the possible sale of the property.”

She said that the future of the Good Counsel Schools is a particular concern. The schools have a long history of academic excellence, graduating young women and children who later in their careers serve in their professions locally and globally as leaders and agents of compassion and change in the world.

Both schools have outgrown the existing facilities on the campus. The Board of Trustees and administration of the schools, who report to the Sisters, are exploring various options and potential locations for the schools. While the Sisters of the Divine Compassion serve within the Archdiocese of New York, the Good Counsel Schools are independent and are owned and operated by the Sisters.

Currently, there are 400 students attending Good Counsel High School, and 160 students enrolled at Good Counsel Elementary.

The Chapel

CBRE is serving as the exclusive real estate agent for the property. The CBRE team is headed by William Cuddy, Executive Vice President. A resident of White Plains, he is fully familiar with the unique nature of the campus.

“This is a significant and iconic property,” Cuddy said. “Because of its strategic location and its in-place infrastructure, it provides the perfect investment opportunity for a real estate investor or an academic institution. Our initial marketing outreach will gauge the level and type of interest there is in the property, an essential step for the Sisters to be able to explore options and strategically plan for the future.”

Sister Carol said: “We recognize that for us to continue to serve the needs of so many and to preserve our mission, we must explore paths that while difficult are necessary.” She said the Congregation has been working with a group of local planning, real estate and business professionals. “We are very fortunate to have a team of expert professionals who understand our mission and are committed to our future, as we formulate strategies and plans to move forward.”

Council Schedules Public Hearing on New FASNY Site Plan, Closing of Hathaway Lane for July 7. FASNY buys house on North St. to Ease North St. Entrance, forseeing Board of Ed denial. South End Issues a Call to Arms.

Posted on May 30, 2014 by John Bailey

WPCNR SOUTH END TIMES. By John F. Bailey. May 30, 2014:

The Common Council is in the process of scheduling the high-interest, sensitive public hearing on the French American School of New York specific site plan and request for Special Permit that shows exactly how they would build their new private school consolidated campus with an entrance to the former Ridgeway Country Club property on North Street.

The hearing is tentatively scheduled for July 7 , the night of the scheduled July regular Common Council meeting, and right after the July 4 Weekend.

The same tentative hearing will also take up the matter of closing Hathaway Lane (which presently bisects the FASNY property.)

In a perhaps-related development, WPCNR has learned the French American School has purchased a large home (557 North Street) shown above immediately adjoining the south portion of the old Ridgeway Fairway that abuts the West side of North Street, partially visible at the right of this photo.

Speculation is the school is assuming the White Plains Board of Education would not approve moving the entrance of the high school (shown above) to “line up” with the proposed new entrance to FASNY from the West side of North Street. It shows that acquisition of the house would allow an entrance from North Street without having to acquire Board of Education approval to move the high school entrance.

A spokesperson for the French American School, Geof Thompson, told WPCNR the school has been in talks to acquire the property, but could not confirm the sale. WPCNR has been told FASNY is paying $1.25 Million for the property. Thompson said the possible entrance from North Street would cut across the front yard of the house shown above (from the YWCA property) onto the former fairways above and curve down around the pond (show below).

It is expected this may be detailed in the long-awaited site plan drawn up on the basis of Common Council approval of the new campus project with the proviso entrance be from North Street which they did in December.

WPCNR is awaiting confirmation from FASNY on the home purchase and their plan for it.

The Public Hearing meeting scheduling is on the current Common Council agenda for Monday evening issued today.

Meanwhile, (as first reported two weeks ago on WHITE PLAINS WEEK), Gedney Association has been joined by 7 other White Plains South End neighborhood associations (North Street, Havilands Manor, Rosedale, Wyndham Close,Club Pointe, Glenbrooke and Maplemoor Pond), in scheduling a public meeting June 4 at 7 PM in the White Plains High School auditorium to discuss

“White Plains at the Crossroads: Can our Neighborhoods be Saved?”

The meeting will include a presentation of the FASNY project, the effect of the new site plan on The Conservancy aspect of the project, and real alternatives to the FASNY PROJECT.

The agenda will also address the Urstadt Biddle Pavilion “City Within a City” project they plan to replace the White Plains Pavilion (that zoning request is being referred out to city departments in this Monday’s Common Council agenda.)

The expansion of the White Plains Transit Center to include Bus Rapid Transit will be discussed.

The Latimer View from Albany: OF KINGS and PARLIAMENTS

Posted on May 30, 2014 by John Bailey

WPCNR THE VIEW FROM ALBANY. By George Latimer, NYS Senator, 37th District:

Every form of government known to mankind has an executive.

There are monarchies, passed down from king to crown prince (and occasionally, if rarely, to a princess who becomes ruling queen).

There are religious fiefdoms, ruled by ayatollahs or imams.

There are the premiers, the prime ministers, the presidents and their local cousins: governors, county executives and mayors. Sometimes, the Army general leads a military takeover and then leads the country; sometimes, it’s political change that brings in Communism and the secretary of the Communist Party to rule.

Whatever they may be called, there are always “kings” – individuals who exert the central power of the entity, whether through election, or armaments, by fear or faith or popular mandate.

There are not always legislatures.

It is a development in Western societies that ensure the men and women of the jurisdiction should elect localized representatives to make decisions in some balance with the executive. The Parliaments, Knessets, or Village Board of Trustees, exert the power to create laws, levy taxes, authorize public spending – with executive approval. In fact, there are three core duties of any legislature: 1) pass laws and budgets; 2) provide constituent services; 3) serve as a check and balance on the executive.

Legislatures are, by definition, arenas where issues are debated and power is diffused by geography, and perhaps, by demography, as well as by political affiliation. People come from all parts of the nation, or the state, or the county, town or village to grapple with difficult issues in a difficult environment where no one legislator wields ultimate authority. Legislatures are meant to be slow, deliberative bodies. This is the arena where the disagreements of the society are on display, each with supporters advocating on their behalf. And lacking one singular voice, legislatures move slowly to change, unless there is a strong public climate for dramatic change.

Executives can move with speed; they have no one they must share power with within the executive chambers. They can be the Colossus of Rhodes, standing astride the entity, granting beneficence and issuing punishments as they see fit.

They make the “big” decisions: from deciding war/peace to presenting budgets that either fund or starve for funds different groups. The individual legislator is small-time: accessible to the average person; working on a scale sufficient to connect with a smaller electorate on a more personal basis.

The executive often has greater resources at fingertip: experts on policy and people to implement decisions; a large budget; the ability to attract media attention nearly instantly. The legislator operates with a slim support team at best, a handful of people committed to that individual legislator, not infrequently overworked and underpaid.

The process to become the executive is always a harder road than the one to win a legislative seat; the personality, quirks, preferences of the executive can be
blown up to a bigger-than-life persona, in some cases, in contests that focus on all the strengths and weaknesses of the executive candidate. Legislators often toil in relative anonymity, until a crisis breaks. The political resources organized to become president or governor can provide the winner with the resources to focus energies towards their preferred policies.

Most legislators long for the central attention given to the executive; sometimes, an executive can long for the faceless anonymity of the legislator. The legislator may not need to appear in person in the middle of the night of a tragedy or crisis when a police officer is shot, or when a sewer pipe breaks and spews garbage into the water. The executive must be there to show concern and leadership..

Everyone knows that the legislature – with more people, bubbling energy, ambitious men and women – can thwart the will of the best executive; and similarly, an individual legislator’s power base or agenda can die a swift death in the executive’s powerful hands.

And we need ‘em both.

One must check the other; the other must balance the former. We don’t want tyranny and we don’t want mob-ocracy. We want a productive balancing of powers and duties, with the most important thing being effective governance. We fall in love with the popular executive; we deeply hate the unpopular one. The faceless members of the legislature, through good years and bad, may hardly register a blip on the screen even after years of holding office.

If our American democracy is to thrive in the years to come, it will take the proper harnessing of energy and enthusiasm to the skills of deliberation with grassroots sensibilities. It will take presidents and Congress members, governors and assemblymen and mayors and councilmen to acknowledge each other and their respective political needs and agendas if we are to build the trust that is so essential to good public policy. The self-directedness that is prominent in every person who places their name on a public ballot must recognize that for our country to survive we must learn to cooperate and respect each other. Or else, we will all fail together.

We need Kings…and we need Parliaments, too.

Alleged Illegal Alien Smuggler Indicted by WP Grand Jury

Posted on May 30, 2014 by John Bailey

WPCNR THE FBI WIRE. From the Federal Bureau of Investigation. May 30, 2014:

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and George Venizelos, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced today the indictment of Juvencio Martinez-Martinez on hostage taking and alien smuggling charges. Martinez-Martinez was previously arrested in the Southern District of Texas and ordered removed to White Plains, New York.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated, “As alleged, Juvencio Martinez-Martinez preyed on and held hostage an individual desperate to enter the United States from Mexico to join her family, threatening dire consequences if ransom was not paid. The woman he smuggled and held is safe, and Martinez-Martinez is now in federal custody facing federal charges.”

Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos stated, “As alleged, Martinez-Martinez valued currency over human life when he abducted the victim who was attempting to enter the United States from Mexico. While he may have viewed this as an opportunity to make easy money, Martinez-Martinez did not anticipate the swift, coordinated law enforcement response committed to seeing the victim safely rescued. The FBI, along with its law enforcement partners, will continue to investigate and bring to justice those who seek to turn a profit by victimizing the innocent.”

According to allegations made in the indictment and other publicly filed documents:

Martinez-Martinez and others held an individual hostage in Weslaco, Texas, after they smuggled her across the border. While waiting for the victim’s mother, who lives in Fallsburg, Sullivan County, New York, to send them money in order to secure her release, they threatened to continue to hold the victim hostage and harm her.

During one conversation with the victim’s mother, the hostage takers threatened to cut the victim into pieces and send the pieces to the victim’s mother in Fallsburg, New York. Martinez-Martinez was apprehended at a business in Weslaco, Texas, shortly after he obtained an additional $1,500 from the victim’s mother. Law enforcement officers then discovered additional individuals at a building Martinez-Martinez controlled.

Martinez-Martinez, 20, of Weslaco, Texas, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding efforts of the FBI, Fallsburg (New York) Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, and United States Customs and Border Protection.

This case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Collins, Jr. is in charge of the prosecution.

The allegations contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.