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

WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR ROVING PHOTOGRAPHER. March 6, 2009: The professional liquidators taking care of the business of wiping Fortunoff in White Plains and the “Forties” at points West and East off the face of the earth, stepped up the advertising from last week’s lone Advertising Operative (man with sign in front of store) to this mobile billboard circulating about the streets of White Plains yesterday.  

A sad sight. Soon Fortunoff’s will be just a pleasant retail memory only old-time shopoholics remember. Photo by the WPCNR Roving Photographer

Who remembers now Wallachs, Floorscheim Shoes, Knapps Shoes, Borders, B. Altman & Company, Robert Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue, JC Penney, Woolworths 5 and 10, and in more recent memories: Korvettes (pronounced Core Vetties), Caldor’s, Crazy Eddie (His Prices Are Insane), A & S, Pipe & Bowl? When every store you strolled by was interesting to go into? Well, most every store.

Like old baseball fans,when serious shoppers like my mother get together, these are the experiences they swap, remember, and trade, talking about the great bargains they had, the certain feel of their favorite store, the great buys they got, the in-store cafes and snack bars. Where is that stimulus by way Washington? Have we stimulated the banks, the brokers, the investment banks, the insurance companies, the mortgage companies and taken care of our rich buddies enough already? Buddy can you just lower the principal of my loan just a tad? All I want is a few grand — not 40 Billion.

Will we wait until the last store has left the malls?

Who has White Plains lost this year? Fortunoff, Borders, The Corner Nook (which could still have been in business by the way if not for the Common Council), Circuit City, Filene’s Basement, Todai, the Japanese seafood place, not too mention the stores closed from construction projects not started, 10 shops along Mamaroneck Avenue and some shops in the Galleria, which continues to draw traffic, a bright spot. However, The Westchester is not drawing very well at all, except for The Apple Store which draws customers  lots of them every hour of the day. The Westchester Pavilion has good draws at MacDonald’s and Sports Authority, but without Borders, they hurt.

Malls have to think about knocking out their outrageous parking fees down to zero.  The City has to declare a Sales Tax Free day or a cut in the sales tax for one day a week, as my colleague Jim Benerofe suggests. We still have the best shopping in Westchester, the safest city, a fine restaurant line up if a tad expensive, but the Iron Tomato, City Limits, Dorry’s Diner, Brooklyn’s Famous Pizza and Subs, the pizza stops, fill in the gaps for us deadbeat reporters, but the Malls need help.

Shop White Plains Card Coming

The BID (Business Improvement District) is about to launch a  “Shop White Plains” Card for its BID Members, but it has to do a lot more than just offer discounts, and it needs to be out there soon. Or at least free-parking or a get-out-of-a-parking ticket free pass with purchase. Parades are not the only answer.

Get some of those Street Ambassadors to explain the new parking machines that the White Plains Department of Parking Commissar of Coin has installed. Mr. Moroni is the most efficient of the city Commissioners, perhaps a little too efficient, since the reputation of the Parking Enforcement Officers has spread worldwide.  

No offense, Mr. Commissar, you are just doing your revenue raising mission, and that is a good thing within reason.) However, everytime I go out to park in White Plains, I end up having a person come up to me asking me “how do I use this machine?” like they used to ask how to play a jukebox in the 50s.  I am not making this up. The machines are not “well-signed.” That has to be fixed.

Young and old alike stop me for explanations of the machines. It happens to me too often to not mean that understanding the “Moroniolas”  is not a problem. Despite the fast-moving  “Black and White Scat Cars” of the Parking Enforcement Elite Strike Force

(I am just having fun with a purpose, Parking Enforcement Officers. White Plainsians,  who pay parking fines, appreciate your professionalism and quick-strike capability and respect it, and you have made us agonizingly sensitive to each tick of the clock, measuring out our lives in 15 minute, 25 cent segments,  which perhaps kills off that last minuter impulse purcahse. It is fortunate White Plains Parking Violations does not have the death penalty, because we’d be targeted nationally.) 

But it is significant that parking fine collections were down $800,000 the first 7 months of the year. People are either getting the message all too well that parking is a nightmare in White Plains, or it’s the economy. Could it be a little of both?

Where is the Under Assistant West Coast Sharp Promotion Man or Woman?

We need serious promotion of this city, here. Coordinate sales in stores better with the gazillion parades. On the Juneteenth Parade every minority from miles around should be in this city this year. Make it an Obama Day! 

Or, not too late to do this: How about $5, $1, whatever  off every purchase if wearing green on St. Pat’s Day?  Come on BID, bail your merchants out, make a start. The Shop White Plains Card is a good idea…but let’s make it really valuable.

Have a talent show downtown.

Keep the Wheels in WP

You also have to do something to make people buy cars in White Plains — not in Mamaroneck, Yonkers,  or on Central Ave. Offer some sort of big sales tax reduction: Buy a car in White Plains, we pay a quarter of your sales tax, or something like that. Once the car dealers start pulling out of WP you are really hurting and they won’t be back. You have to help them survive

Help Media Help

Where are the radio station remote broadcasts of the past that used to draw traffic? Of course, you don’t have radio stations today that are part of the community or consider themselves a part of it -they are promotionally brain dead. I cannot remember when I last tuned in WFAS, WVOX or WHUD. No news, just sports, and the school closings. Bring back Bob E. Lloyd! Murray Bennett. There is no good reason to listen to FAS anymore. But, if they started serving the community, maybe we would.  Radio station remotes would bring that back.

I cannot remember when I saw the WFAS truck in White Plains. And how about News 12 giving a White Plains News Cast  or segment in their regular programming? I know one guy who could do it — Peter Katz, but no matter who does it News 12 should do it.  If worse comes to worse the BID could buy a simple promotion segment on News 12 and promo the city progress and News 12 could run it.  A News 12-a-thon in White Plains during one of the parades. or even on a non-parade weekend — say July 4 — what a good thing.

Department of Promotion, Please

You have to make White Plains attractive to shoppers again. Is anyone thinking out there in the downtown? Has anyone noticed how empty our premier malls are?

Though we are the place to drink and date in Westchester County, and the safest place to eat and drink, thanks to the White Plains Department of Public Safety  (moving vio tickets with a smile, DUIs tenderly, understandingly handled,  disorderly conducts smoothly conducted away), and despite issuing liquor licenses at the fastest pace in the free world,  White Plains needs to tell our shopping story better as a community before all the stores leave.

Remember once a big box store leaves, and you have to give them incentive to come in again and that usually costs us a lot more than it does to keep them here but running professional promotions — more of them — not that I am saying the city has not tried to promote itself well in the past — but the time to promote more is when things are going bad. Not pull back.

I am sorry if I offended anyone, this was just supposed to be a dab of melancholy, but I hate what that picture says at the top of this column and we have to bring our goods to the people, provide good value and incentive to buy.  Even if people are watching their dollars, what dollars they spend should be here. Especially if they live here.

 WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From the NYISO, (EDITED) March 5, 2009: In  response to Assemblyman Richard Brodsky’s charge based on the American Public Power Association report of McCullogh Research that NYISO overseeing of the wholesale electric markets costs New York consumers $2.2 Billion annually in excess payments, at a  hearing today in Albany, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) reported today in testimony to the New York State Assembly that 2008 wholesale electricity prices, adjusted for fuel costs, were 18% lower than prices in 2000 when the markets began operating in New York, a $2.23 Billion reduction in wholesale electricity costs on a current annual basis, raising the question of whose numbers are correct. 

“While the cost of fuel has driven the cost of electricity higher in recent years, the numbers here in New York show that, after adjusting for the cost of fuel, the markets have produced wholesale energy prices approximately ten percent lower than they were in the year 2000. In fact, if it had not been for the increases in the cost of fuel, (italics ADDED, WPCNR)  competitive markets would have yielded wholesale prices for electricity, including both generating capacity and energy, 18 percent lower than in the year 2000, or over $2 billion on a current annual basis,” said Stephen G. Whitley, NYISO President & CEO.

 

In his testimony, Whitley noted the significant impact of fossil fuel prices on electricity costs, “The greatest variable cost in generating electricity in fossil fuel plants is the cost of fuel. Needless to say, the costs of oil and natural gas are governed by world energy prices, beyond the control of the New York ISO or the State of New York. Despite this, the wholesale energy markets in New York have been effective to control other costs. In the second half of 2008, wholesale electricity prices in New York declined significantly as natural gas prices dropped. Natural gas prices decreased by 43 percent from June to December, and the statewide average cost of wholesale power dropped by 51 percent in that same period.”

Con Edison bills up, not down.

(Editor’s Note: WPCNR feels obliged  to point out though, Mr. Whitley’s testimony considered,  the reported “wholesale power drop” did not correspond to Consolidated Edison’s dramatic  price increases  to White Plains consumers on a real time usage basis in October, December and January. Consolidated Edison attributed this to Con Edison power purchasers purchasing electricity futures with hedge contracts which were being made up due to a lag between when power was contracted for and when it was used by the White Plains consumer.

As reported on White Plains Week, Con Edison Supply Costs to White Plains electric users went up 345% between December and January from 2.86 cents per kwh in November to 9.85 cents per kilowatt hour in January, according to Consolidated Edison bills.

The overall electric bill went up 59% from December through January, from 11.06 cents  in November to 17.81 cents in January. WPCNR and White Plains await the March bill as we write.

Con Edison explanation for this at the time as reported on White Plains Week was the way Con Edison purchases power through long-term contracts and hedge contracts for purchasing electric power at a pre-determined price. )

Mr. Whitney continued.

“However, the recent drop in fossil fuel prices, and the decrease in demand linked to a troubled economy, must not lull us into complacency about planning for New York’s energy future, ” Whitley cautioned. ” Without sustained investment in diverse, non-polluting energy resources and the transmission infrastructure needed to transport these clean and renewable power supplies to high demand areas, New York’s electricity consumers will continue to see power price swings tied to volatile fossil fuel prices.”

He noted that New York’s wholesale electricity markets have produced an array of benefits, including:

• Renewable “green power” resources are flourishing in New York

o There are now more than 1,000 MW of wind generation in operation and over 8,000 MW of renewable resource projects proposed for grid connection.

• Investment has added new generation and transmission serving New York

o Since 2000, over $5.5 billion has been invested to build more than 6,000 MW of new generation, with more than 80% sited where demand is greatest (New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley). New transmission facilities, with investments of nearly $1 billion, have increased the capacity connecting New York and neighboring markets by nearly 1,000 MW.

• Demand-side programs have developed and expanded in New York markets

o There are more than 2,000 MW in NYISO demand response programs, which provide incentives for electricity customers to reduce their power use during times of peak demand. The size of the programs, equivalent to four large power plants, has grown more than 10-fold since the inception of New York electricity markets.

“Fair and competitive markets are fundamental to some of the important goals we seek to achieve, such as the investment in renewable resources, increasing our fuel diversity and independence, which leads to a cleaner environment, and the addition of jobs to our struggling economy,” Whitley said.

“The current pricing method provides greater efficiency and the ability to monitor bidding effectively, thus providing transparency and protection to consumers. It creates a marketplace that enables smaller generators, such as wind and other renewable power providers, to compete more fairly and effectively with larger traditional power producers. Now is the time for us to move forward to build more enabling infrastructure – transmission and Smart Grid enhancements – to allow greater penetration of renewables, enhance energy efficiency, increase fuel diversity, lower emissions, and lower costs to consumers,” he stated.

The full text of the testimony is available on the NYISO website (www.nyiso.com).

###

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) – www.nyiso.com