WPCNR SURF’S UP. May 6, 2005: The Westchester Power Squadron has begun its safety boating course at Rochambeau School, 228 Fischer Avenue. Seven sessions remain, and are given from 7:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M., Thursdays. The course is open to all persons over the age of 12. The course includes boat handling under normal and adverse conditions, seasmanship and common emergencies, aids to navigation, rules of the road, marine compass use and chart reading, lights and equipment. Trailoring technique. The cost is $60. Contact [email protected].
International Food Market Opens at City Hall for Season. More Vendors Next Week
WPCNR City Hall Circuit. May 4, 2005: Mayor Joseph Delfino of White Plains, Sebastien Bensidoun of Bounsidoun, USA, of Chicago, and Councilwoman Rita Malmud officially opened the second year of the International Food Market in the City Hall VIP Parking Zone today in a brief news conference at 12:30. Mr. Bensidoun said last year’s season was very successful in the City Hall Zone, and that he expected to have twelve vendors on hand at next week’s market which will begin at 8 A.M. and run to 4 P.M., every Wednesday.
Sebastien Bensidoun, Executive Vice-President of Bensidoun, U.S.A. (center), Mayor Delfino, left, Rita Malmud, Councilwoman, (right) opening the market today. Mr. Bensidoun said he had less vendors today on opening day, because the market was beginning early. (Last year it began on June 9, he said).
WPCNR hung out for an hour and the market drew a steady stream of customers, with tomatos, greens, asparagus, honey, nuts, seafood, cosmetics, and health-oriented booths playing their wares. The tomatos, WPCNR learned, were greenhouse tomatos, the asparagus fresh, and other perishable products purchased from other wholesalers. The city would have gotten more crowd had they publicized it more extensively. WPCNR did not receive a news release, despite the extensive press office City Hall maintains. Photo by WPCNR News
Cappelli Subcontracts His Affordable Housing to Martin Ginsburg Nixing 240 Main
WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. May 4, 2005, Updated 10:19 A.M. E.D.T.: In an exclusive story appearing in The Journal News today, Louis Cappelli of Cappelli Enterprises and Martin Ginsburg of Ginsburg Development Corporation are reported as having announced to The Journal News an agreement in which Louis Cappelli would pay Mr. Ginsburg $35,000 a unit ($1,470,000) to build the 42 units of affordable housing Mr. Cappelli owes the city for his obligation on affordable housing incurred with the Monday night Common Council approval of the 221 Main Cappelli Hotel Complex.
Ginsburg also is reported by The JN as purchasing 240 Main Street from the City Center property for $3,000,000, meaning Mr. Cappelli has his $1.5 Million payment for Affordable Housing, as well as the cost of building his “Affordables” ($1.47 Million) he agreed to Monday, paid for, in effect, by Mr. Ginsburg as part of this deal.
WPCNR is placed a call to Cappelli Enterprises public relations agency to see if Mr. Cappelli has retained the air rights over the 240 Main Street parcel, which could be used to build elsewhere on Cappelli-owned property.
Council Approval Backfires. Council Overlooks the Meaning of the Transfer of Site.
The ability of Mr. Cappelli to transfer his affordable housing obligation on 221 Main to another developer to build — a loophole the Common Council did not foresee in their approval of the 221 Main 40-story plus project Monday evening — now means that any developer when faced with the 6% requirement can simply find another developer to build it for them anywhere in the city. Tom Roach, Common Council President, alluded to this Monday evening in his remarks, saying the ordinance must be changed.
BIG WINNER: Martin Ginsburg, appearing on White Plains Government Access Television April 21, when he called the Cappelli 240 Main Affordable Housing building “a sore thumb.” Mr. Ginsburg was all about assured of city approval for his Pinnacle project yesterday when he agreed to build Mr. Cappelli’s Affordable Housing Units for him. Mr. Cappelli’s hotel cannot open until the affordable units he owes the city with the project are built. Photo by WPCNR News.
Louis Cappelli appearing on White Plains Government Access the same night when he said he would never jeopardize the opening of his $500 Million hotel project by letting another developer be responsible for building the affordable housing units, he, Cappelli, was responsible for building. Yesterday, he changed his mind and is paying Mr. Ginsburg to build his Affordables for him. Photo Capture by WPCNR News
The Pinnacle Model (blue towers) In Place on City Center Plaza. The 240 Main Street “Sore Thumb,” (slightly to the right of the blue Pinnacle building model) as Martin Ginsburg described it — is not to be. Instead affordable housing will be built, according to The Journal News to the left of the Pinnacle property on the site of Joma’s Cafe, slightly to the left of The Pinnacle base. Whether or not Mr. Ginsburg is content to let his Pinnacle remain at 28 stories or go higher is a matter of fascinating speculation . Considering that Mr. Ginsburg now holds the fate of two projects, his and Mr. Cappelli’s 221 Main Hotel Condoplex in his hands, he could choose to go up to 40 Stories or more, dwarfing the Trump Tower. Photo Capture by WPCNR News.
The agreement, The Journal News reports, paves the way for owners of the Corner Nook to open a cafe and Continental Foods to operate their businesses at 238 and 240 Main Street, the area where Cappelli’s “Affordables” were going to be built.
However, this means that the Corner Nook and Frank Lombardi’s Continental Foods Deli would be out of business while the 240 Main Street plaza project is under construction. By advancing Corner Nook and Continental Foods the ability to return on the 240 site project after it is built, it perhaps allows Corner Nook and Continental Foods to sell that right to some other establishment, or find some other way of sustaining themselves during the three years of construction. Demolotion of the 240 Main Street parcel could begin in advance of any Pinnacle approval, which, of course appears automatic, if not imminent.
The assignment of the 42 affordable units Cappelli owes to Ginsburg all but assures approval by the Common Council of Mr. Ginsburg’s project, otherwise Mr. Cappelli cannot open his hotel complex, since Councilwoman Rita Malmud explained Monday that Mr. Cappelli would not receive a Certificiate of Occupancy for his hotel until the 42 affordables were constructed and functioning. Mr. Cappelli’s assigning the fate of his project to Mr. Ginsburg’s cooperation in getting his hotel open is a position that Mr. Cappelli said on April 21 he would never do because it would jeopardize the opening of his project.
Aviation Publisher Highlights Misconceptions on Westchester Airport Accident
WPCNR Mr. & Mrs. & Ms. White Plains Voice. May 3, 2005: The publisher of Aviation Monthly and NTSB Reporter, two premier aviation publications based in White Plains writes concerning media reports that the pilot whose plane crashed attempting to land at Westchester County Airport April 23 was flying without a valid medical certificate: Here is his letter:
Your readers might be interested to know that the article in today’s Journal News regarding the medical certificate of the instructor involved in the April 29 crash of a single-engine Cessna which was on approach to Westchester County Airport contains some information which ranges from “just plain wrong” to “interesting, but meaningless in the context of what may have happened.”
1. Although the article refers to the airplane’s “propellers” as being still working when the plane crashed, it did not have “propellers.” Being a single-engine airplane, it had only one propeller.
2. The article reports that the instructor may have been flying without a valid medical certificate because FAA records showed his last medical certificate renewal took place in March of 2003. The article reports that pilots over the age of 40 must have a medical examination every 12 months if they hold a second or third class medical certificate issued by the FAA. This is wrong.
A second class medical certificate (required for commercial flying privileges, such as for acting as pilot in command of a charter flight) is, indeed, valid for 12 calendar months. However, if not renewed by the end of the 12th month, it automatically becomes valid as a third class certificate, which is good for 24 calendar months. A flight instructor needs only a third class medical certificate.
(The flight instructor must renew the instructor privileges every 24 months, which is a separate issue not touched upon by the Journal News.) There are three classes of FAA medical certificates: first class, for Airline Transport Pilots; second class, for commerical pilots; third class, for private pilots (flight instructors, too).
3. It is conceivable that the instructor renewed his medical certificate before the end of March, 2005. It will not be possible to know that until the investigators have had more time to go through government records, or until we know what paperwork he was carrying with him on the flight.
FAA regulations require that pilots carry their current pilot certificate (license) and medical certificate (a separate piece of paper) when they fly. After giving an applicant an examination, and issuing a new medical certificate if appropriate, FAA Designated Medical Examiners (usually local physicians who work with the FAA) have up to two weeks to submit paperwork to the FAA in Oklahoma City. It can then sometimes take a number of months for the FAA to update its computer records to reflect the renewal. So, it’s entirely possible that the instructor did have a valid medical certificate at the time of the accident. Only time for a thorough investigation will tell.
4. Whether the instructor had a current medical certificate likely is irrelevant. Medical factors rarely are a cause of airplane accidents. If an airplane’s engine is going to quit (probably not the case here), the engine doesn’t first ask to see whether the pilot’s medical certificate is current! If Mother Nature is going to put a thunderstorm in the flight path (also not likely here), she doesn’t first ask to see whether the pilot is carrying up-to-date paperwork!
Peter Katz
Publisher
“AVIATION MONTHLY” and “NTSB REPORTER”