Keep Playland Like It Is!

WPCNR LETTER TICKER


February 25, 2013


KEEP PLAYLAND LIKE IT IS SAY 600


Mr. Bailey,

 



I am writing to you to ask if you to help bring awareness and exposure to an electronic petition to keep Playland its current size and not shrink the amusement park or remove rides.




http://www.change.org/petitions/save-playland-amusement-park



I am part of a group petitioning the Westchester County Government to reconsider their chosen operator for Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York.


The currently-selected future Playland operator (Sustainable Playland, “SPI”) would demolish half the amusement area (which likely would further decrease attendance/revenue with devastating results for the remainder of the amusements). Rye-based SPI’s plan will eliminate 30% of the rides and 50% of the amusement park footprint, in favor of green space and a “great lawn”.


Two other contenders Standard Amusements and Central Amusements International are experienced, successful amusement park operators which would restore, improve and maintain the historic amusement park as such.


The experienced operators already have the funds available to make their proposed improvements, while SPI has no experience running amusement parks and has raised only a negligible portion of the funds it has promised the county. Furthermore, Playland is sandwiched directly between a wildlife sanctuary on one side and a waterfront town park on the other. Rye area residents do not need more waterfront open space that other municipalities are not going to use at the expense of all county residents’ historic 85-year old amusement park.


We are finding that many Westchester residents are either unaware of the drastic changes and destruction SPI plans for the amusement park; completely unaware of the changing situation with Playland or do not support SPI but are unaware of the other options on the table. Playland belongs to all residents of the county, not just the Sound Shore Communities.


 



This petition was not started by an organization, but a loose group of people representing all parts of Westchester that came together in an internet facebook group called “Save Rye Playland”. It was started last Thursday 2/25 and has over 600 hundreds signatures thus far, half of which are Westchester residents.


 



Further information and verification of the facts mentioned above can be found within the presentations at http://westchesterlegislators.com/committees.html?id=2029


I hope you consider helping us by bringing attention to our cause.Thank you.


Sincerely,


Keith Iorio

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Governor Cuts Disabled Budget by 6% ($120 Million). Blow to Services

 


WPCNR HEALTH NEWS.  By John F. Bailey. February 25, 2013:


The Governor’s office last week added an addendum to the proposed state budget calling for among other policies, a 6% across the board cut to the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities, the agency that cares for New York’s disabled population, amounting to $120 Million.


WPCNR spoke to a chief executive of one independent provider of group home and educational disabled services in Westchester County  Monday morning to find out what this might mean for parents who have children being cared for in such facilities.


Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told us it would cost his agency $2.1 Million right off his budget, and rather than a 6% cut it actually amounted to a 7.5% cut.  He said the cut came as a complete surprise, calling it “draconian.”


Asked if this would require  eliminating staff or closing homes, he said it was too early to tell because organizations for the disabled are mobilizing a response expected Thursday to fight the cut.


He urged parents and advocates for the diabled to contact their state assemblypersons and State Senators to protest the cut.


For a year now, WPCNR and White Plains Week has been the only media reporting the Governor’s plans to reorganize  health care services to the disabled through a task force.


Part of this effort has been necessitated by the federal government’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services requiring the state to renegotiate the amount the federal government has been paying for New York State Medicaid services to the disabled, having found that New York State had overcharged the federal government for Medicaid expenses and used the surplus in other areas of the budget. The over charges have taken place


The state has reached a settlement with CMS, and is in the process of reorganizing how health care services for a disabled person’s needs are decided.


The rough plan is to have a series of panels statewide responsible for evaluating health professionals’ recommendations, as a means of controlling costs with the panels deciding who gets what. Previously, health care professionals with the non-profit organizations who care for the disabled would recommend services and the state would generally approve them. This would change from bottom up to top down, services being reviewed before they could be implemented.


Due to New York getting caught overcharging for years, the federal government is now cutting the funding in the new budget year 2013-14.  The irony is that the population presently served will be hurt by the real cut on services the Govenor proposed last week.


The governor’s office has negotiated an arrangement where that $1 Billion has been whittled to $600 Million in money the state has to find. 


In a letter to parents, provided WPCNR, the executive WPCNR wrote this to his constitutency today:


“I am writing today to inform you that following negotiations with the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding OPWDD’s overcharging for its state-operated developmental centers, Governor Cuomo committed to reducing NYS Medicaid program expenses by $500 million. To recover $120 million of this, he amended his proposed budget to include a 6% reduction in funding for all non-profit agencies providing services to people with developmental disabilities. This cut will become effective in Five Weeks if the legislature passes the amended budget as proposed by the Governor.



A 6% cut to revenues will cause drastic changes in our operations. This loss of over $2 million dollars comes  after four years without a single cost-of-living increase and several reductions in our reimbursement rates. At the same time we have absorbed the increasing costs of fuel, food, equipment and supplies. Until this point, we weathered the effects of the recession through finding cost-savings and the restructuring of several staff positions. But, we have never faced a cut this deep and it implemented will disrupt the staffing and services available in all our programs.



By mid-week, there will be a coordinated advocacy plan developed by the associations that represent the agencies funded by OPWDD and I will be contacting you again with more information about the direct actions you will need to take to fight these cuts to the health, safety and quality of life of your loved ones.



If you want to take immediate action:



· New York residents should contact their State Senators and Assembly Representatives and their representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.



· Non-New York residents should contact and their representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.



Tell your New York State representatives that they must not approve this 6% cut because it will hurt your loved ones.



In speaking to your congressional representatives, highlight the impossible situation CMS has imposed upon citizens with developmental disabilities in New York.

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A Night In The Heights! A Day in the Barrio! Where Everyone Knows Your Name.


WPCNR ON THE AISLE. Theatrical Review by John F. Bailey. February 25, 2013 UPDATED FEBRUARY 28, 2013:


In the Heights. The in-your-face, infatuating, indefatigable, intense celebration of life on the edge in the barrio that took over Broadway in 2008, winning four Tonys , nine Drama Desk Nominations, has taken over Westchester Broadway Theatre energizing a stunned audience with non-stop rhythms, overflowing fiery emotions and relentlessly appealing cast. You want young talent winning your heart this is your baby!


After its first two weeks, Westchester Broadway Theatre has announced today all shows have been sold out, and the run of In The Heights has been extended three weeks, through April 7


From the most creative set WBT has seen in years that gets 182nd Street-ambience absolutely right  to the seductive body-swaying rhythms of this most original show, Mr. and Mrs. Westchester should be prepared for a relentless evening of young and spirited performers giving their all.




Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original music and lyrics with Quiara Alegria Hudes’ breezy, clever, edgy book celebrates the coming of significance of the New York City Washington Heights neighborhood, which I can tell from personal experience teams with life, rhythm, ambition, spirit and drive that Mr. Miranda captures in his emotional-connective songs that anyone of any nationality will bond with. It’s a neighborhood where everyone knows each other and pulls for one another.



Vanessa (Gizel Jimenez) has her eye on Usnavi (Perry Young).


All photos, Courtesy WBT by John Vecchiola



 You meet the comic, ingratiating Usnavi  (Perry Young  from the ITH national tour), the street-savvy owner of the corner bodega.  He  introduces the show with a fast-talking rap, and introduces you to all the personalities:   Nina (the conflicted fiery soprano, Arielle Jacobs) just back from Stanford, where the neighborhood thinks she is going to college but she struggled there as she relates plaintively with shimmering anxiety of disappointment in herself in Breathe.


We meet Vanessa (Gizel  Jimenez) who just has to get an apartment out of The Heights,as she explains in It Won’t Be Long Now to Usnavi who does not want her to go. 



There’s  Benny (Fatye) the kid Nina’s father Kevin (Benjamin Perez) taught him to drive for his cab company, but does not want Benny for a son-in-law. Here Fatye duets with Arielle Jacobs (Nina) on When the Sun Goes Down


Then we meet the  grandmother of the neighborhood, Abuela Claudia (played winningly by Christina Aranda) . Ms.  Aranda’s solo Paciencia y Fe (Patience and Faith) does not leave a dry eye in the house at the close of the first act. She is everybody’s grandmother, matriarch, loyal fan of her grandchild Usnavi and she simply wins over the audience’s collective hearts.


From the hairdressers’ to Usnavi’s bodega, to Kevin’s Taxi Stand, the rhythms, and I do mean rhythms catch you up in the sheer aliveness of this burgeoning culture unique to the city simmering with the conflict of the older generation with the new.  Whether Hispanic or Anglo-Saxon,  the conflicts all families face are in this one.


There is  Nina’s agonized return to the neighborhood, feeling she has let down her parents and the neighborhood by dropping out of Stanford due to not enough money to buy books, and supporting herself in a way we do not quite get as clear.


Kevin her father, when he finds out, is furious. His big number, Inutile (Useless) is a ballad every father who has a daughter will identify with and feel. Benjamin Perez slows this number down and gives you the heartbreak inside him you can feel.  He is even more put out that Nina and Benny have fallen for each other.  Kevin attempts to sell his cab business to get the money for Nina to go back to Stanford.


When a blackout causes unbearable inconvenience and rioting in the heights,  conflict flares up. Camila, Nina’s mother, distraught by the estrangement between her husband Kevin and their daughter Nina, puts a stop to the unpleasantness with her solo Enough in Act Two. When Kevin’s store is damaged during a vandalism rampage, he attempts to leave the barrio, only to have a miracle of his grandmother’s spirit provide a way for him to stay. And, yes, the romances do work out.


Voltaire Wade-Greene as Graffiti Pete is a consistant comic presence through delivering very funny one-liners. Ariana Valdes counters Wade-Greene’s comic relief as the imperial owner of a hairdressers strutting and dissing the gossip in the neighborhood.



The choreography is  varied and winning and the music upbeat, latin and loud. The dialogue and singing has to be carefully listened to lest you miss a clever turn of phrase. It’s an Upper West Side Story, it’s Grease with a Salsa beat, it’s the compulsion of first love. It’s parental concern. It’s brash. It’s colorful. It’s filled with feelings. You’ll go out feeling the sense of community, family and spirit of a musical that urges all who see it to seize life and give it all you’ve got.


In The Heights is produced by Standing Ovation Studios, Executive Producers Sheldon and Mennie Mallah, and John and Nannette Fanelli, producers. John Fanelli directed, and he has put together a raucous celebration of a production that introduces and captures a way of life.  


This is a show where the audience has to work as hard as the performers because they are throwing a lot of sensory challenges to hear, absorb,process and feel a palette  of emotions, an upper west side intersection of plot lines. There is light profanity,  but this is New York City!


Call  ((914) 592-2222, or visit the Westchester Broadway Theatre website, www.BroadwayTheatre.com for showtimes. You can experience In The Heights through March 17.

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George Washington: The First and The Best.

Government

WPCNR RETROSPECTIVE. By John F. Bailey. (Reprinted from the CitizeNetReporter, 2003):


 As we observe the trainwreck of leadership in congress contemplating economy euthanasia, in Albany, in Westchester County,  New York City,  and, yes, even in White Plains,  it is also fitting that we take a look at the greatest President of them all. Today is George Washington’s Birthday again. The time when we remember the first leader and the best. It is instructive to look at our first leader, George Washington, the father of our nation.





The Jacob Purdy House, a National Historic Site, was built c. 1721, and served as Washington’s Headquarters both during the Battle of White Plains, on October 28, 1776 and again in 1778.
(Photo, WPCNR NEWS ARCHIVE)


One cannot help be reminded of the snowy winter at Valley Forge, when the bedraggled, poorly equipped rebel army suffered but held together, and attacked the Hessians in Trenton on Christmas Eve, 1776, crossing the Delaware River at night. What kind of man was he that George Washington could inspire his troops against all odds?

Washington was a man of tremendous character. Where did he get this character? He specialized in self-control at an early age. That congressmen, lobbyists, and pundits means mind-control, reason and responsibility.







Reenacters Marching to Raise Old Glory at Purdy House in Honor of George Washington’s Birthday. Photo, 2003 WPCNR News Archive.

According to The American President, Washington, at sixteen, had formed a code of conduct. He had written a book of etiquette with 110 “maxims” to guide his conduct in matters. In this etiquette book he had written,


Every action done in company ought to be done with a sign of respect to those who are not present. Sleep not when others speak; sit not when others stand; speak not when you should hold your peace; walk not when others stop;…Let your countenance be pleasant but in serious matters somewhat grave…Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.

The character sketch provided by the authors of The American President, indicatesthis personal “rulebook” was a book that Washington wrote over the years and referred to it often, “for self-control, to avoid temptation, to elude greed, to control his temper. Reputation was everything to him. It had to do with his strength, his size, his courage, his horsemanship, his precise dress, his thorough mind, his manners, his compassion. He protected that reputation at any cost.”




Honor Guard Strikes the Colors to a Drum Roll. Photo, WPCNR News.




Earning respect by example. Quelling rebellion with a few words.

Washington inspired by example. He lived with his troops. He shared hardships with them, and there was so much respect for him that he was able to talk them out of armed rebellion at the end of the American Revolution. Washington had been asked by the army to join them to overthrow the Continental Congress, and make himself King.

Washington had been asked by one of the officers of the rebels to join them, and he wrote them,

You could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. Banish these thoughts from your mind.

Hearing that the rebels who were planning insurrection against the new country due to not having been paid by the Continental Congress, Washington rode to Newburgh, New York, on March 15, 1783, to meet with the dissident insurgents. Washington spoke to the rebellious group, saying,

“Gentlemen, as I was among the first who embarked in the cause of our common Country; as I never left your side one moment, but when called from you on public duty; as I have been the constant companion and witness of your Distresses…it can scarcely be supposed …that I am indifferent to your interests. But…this dreadful alternative, of either deserting our Country in the extremest hour of her distress, or turning our Arms against it…has something so shocking in it that humanity revolts from the idea…I spurn it, as every Man who regards liberty…undoubtedly must.”

The would-be rebels fell silent, digesting what he had said. Then Washington withdrew a letter from Congress, but could not read the text, withdrawing some eyeglasses from his tunic, remarking,

“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.”

The men present were reported to have tears in their eyes at this gesture of Washington’s and abandoned their plot out of respect for their leader.

Washington retired from the military, surprising the entire new country. His action surprised King George III of England, who was astonished that Washington had refused to hold on to his military authority and use it for political or financial gain. The defeated King of England, remarked, “If true, then he is the greatest man in the world.”




Seeker of Diverse Views

As President, George Washington invented the Presidential Cabinet, whom he referred to as “the first Characters,” persons who possessed the best reputations in fields and areas of the jobs he was filling. Washington said on political appointments, “My political conduct and nominations must be exceedingly circumspect. No slip into partiality will pass unnoticed…”

Washington tolerated the relentless clashes between Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, but lectured them on the necessity for tolerance and moving beyond partisanship:



“I believe the view of both of you are pure, and well meant. Why then, when some of the best Citizens in the United States, Men…who have no sinister view to promote, are to be found, some on one side, some on the other…should either of you be so tenacious of your opinions as to make no allowances for those of the other? I have great esteem for you both, and ardently wish that some line could be marked out by which both of you could walk.”

The Constitution Should be Protected

When George Washington left office after two terms, he made a farewell address which warned future generations of Americans about foreign entanglements and partisanship in the republic:

I shall carry to my grave the hope that your Union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the Constitution may be sacredly maintained; and that free government…the ever favorite object of my heart…will be the happy reward of our mutual cares, labors and dangers.”

Washington died in 1800, three years after leaving office in 1797. He was saluted on the floor of congress as being “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.”



The Jacob Purdy House where George Washington planned strategy at the Battle of White Plains, Photo, WPCNR News Archive




Note: The American President By Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt (Riverhead Books. Penguin-Putnam, Inc.,1999) is the source for this information on George Washington.

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