THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

 

WPCNR BOULEVARDIER. By John  F. Bailey. April 12, 2012:

 

This Sunday will be the  last day of business for the “meet, greet, and deal center” of White Plains, the classic City Limits Diner on the corner of Central and Tarrytown Road, opposite County Center. It is closing for renovations that will last the next 6 to 8 weeks and reopen in July as a brand-new City Limits, with new décor, new rich interior and façade.

 

 

It will be hard to match the popularity of City Limits, easily the best known in the city. Renovations have begun on the exterior on the place that it’s easy to say, “Let’s go to the Limits.”

 

Unofficially the City Limits has been the “Stork Club” of White Plains where the Mr. and Mrs. White Plains rub elbows with the elite for twenty years.

 

 

THE LAST BREAKFAST: Jim Benerofe, Dean of White Plains Journalism and John Bailey at City Limits this morning, enjoying a last breakfast.Photo by Steve Morton

 

City Limits has also been “The Official Hangout of the White Plains Week Award Winning Television Program” for the last 11 years. When I began the show with Alex Phillipidis and Jim Benerofe in 2001, we all wanted to do lunch after the show. I said we needed to do this just like Walter Winchell, the man who invented news commentary in the 1930s, did after he did his radio program. Winchell met with his entourage at the Stork Club in New York in that era. Winchell also occupied Table 51 at the Stork. At City Limits, you can see the Big Three of Westchester Television News hanging out at Table 51. We love it there, where the laughs come easy, and the gossip is notorious and cannot be used on our show.

 

Every Friday, the White Plains newsmen who matter, Peter Katz, Jim Benerofe and me, who do the television show everybody watcheson the internet at www.whiteplainsweek.com or Fridays and Mondays at 7:30 and 7 (Channels 45 & 76) , have been having lunch at this uniquely atmospheric art deco treasure. Shiny, cromey, tiley and funky, after being redesigned from the original Livano’s restaurant and opened in 1994 by the Livano Family, City Limits has served the tasty (upper cut above the usual diner fare) breakfasts, lunches and dinners you cannot match anywhere else in a lively, slap-dash, uplifting atmosphere.

 

 

Eggs Benedict and a side of sausage in progress.

 

It delivers what every real reporter needs, black coffee and a donut, and atmosphere.

 

What’s so unique about City Limits? It’s internal hub-bub you cannot find anywhere else in the city where City Limits burgers sizzle on an open grill night and day. It’s the electrifying distinctive “ding” of City Limits silverware that gets your attention like the “NBC” jingle.

 

Last Soda Fountain in the City.

 

The bustling bakeshop, and airy interior

 

 

 

It is the authoritative “clunk” of the City Limits china; the “come on in pardner and have a cup of java” hospitality signified by the classic Coffee Cup and donut suspended over the hostess platform. The silver signs: “Bakery. Ice Cream,” and “Capucino bar,” the comfort of the booths, and the good will of the snappy dressed wait staff in their signature dress shirts and ties who deliver the most courteous, fastest service in town. They are also the best dressed.

 

 

Raymond, with the Livano family since 1985, demonstrating City Limits classic fashion look.

 

The City Limits  brims with life. Usually jammed for lunch, it’s where you want to meet to discuss things where you won’t be overheard;  treat the kids on vacation or start a weekend off right. You can hear everybody at your table, but the people at the table next to you cannot hear you, the six degrees of separation is just about right. I do hope the acoustics are preserved.

 

The coffee is the best in town. The breakfasts are outstanding, especially the eggs benedict and my favorite side, the fat sausages.

 

The place sounded and felt like life was moving inside. No pretensions. And they were always glad to see you

 

They were the only place you could get the soft shell crab wrap (just now coming into season, I will miss that), and my favorite, the black angus City Limits burger.

 

I will miss the beers, the egg creams and those great Friday lunches of the past

 

Man, we’re all  going to miss this place.

 

 

 

Coming in July…the New City Limits

 

 

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Board of Legislators. (EDITED) April 11,2012:

The Board of Legislators’ law that aimed to change the membership of the county’s Board of Acquisition and Contract was “not properly enacted” because of a “fatal flaw,” a judge said today.

            The decision finds for the Astorino administration and the county attorney, which had argued that the law passed last December by the Democratic-controlled Board of Legislators was invalid.

 

            In his ruling today, Acting State Supreme Court Justice Barry E. Warhit removed the temporary restraining order he had issued last month that prevented Public Works Commissioner Jay Pisco from serving on the A&C board. The judge said the legislators failed to publish the required legal notice about the law to give the public a chance to have a permissive referendum.

           

           While the issues of the case have to be litigated further, the judge said that the legislators who brought the legal proceeding – Board Chairman Ken Jenkins and Legislators Peter Harckham and Lyndon Williams – “cannot meet their burden” to show they are likely to win on the merits of the case and that they are therefore not entitled to an injunction.

           

           “The administration argued from the start that this law was not properly enacted,” said Ned McCormack, communications director and senior advisor. “If the legislators want to change the composition of the Board of Acquisition and Contract, they need to follow all legal procedures. The public is entitled to this.”

           

In his decision, the judge cleared the way for the A&C board to “resume meetings in accordance with the ordinary course of business.”