WPCNR WHITE PLAINS STREET. June 19, 2003: The Sea Star Diner was in the process of being demolished today, to make way for a bank. The Diner was long a meeting and greeting place for community movers and shakers, and distinguished for its friendly service and extensive menus will be missed by its regulars.
WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. June 18, 2003: Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning, informed WPCNR Tuesday that the visual appearance of the White Plains Performing Arts Theatre, which has not been unveiled to this date, would be presented to the Common Council for their approval in the near future, but did not give a time frame.
Ms. Habel sought out WPCNR Tuesday at the Mayor’s Safe Housing Task Force News Conference to make clear to WPCNR the process for determining what the White Plains Performing Arts Center was going to look like.
Habel told WPCNR that she, Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti and Commissioner of Recreation and Parks, Arne Abramowitz and the Mayor’s Executive Officer, George Gretsas were only approving the Performing Arts Center design in regard to its compliance with White Plains codes and building regulations.
Council Will Decide the Set Design.
She emphatically said the quartet were not passing judgement or imposing their tastes on the design of it. WPCNR had thought this was the case, based on Ms. Habel’s comments last week, when she told me those city officials were approving the designs of the theatre.
“The theatre has been architecturally designed to work within the city condominium (the theatre space), it’s 17,000 square feet of space, and the architectural and engineering plans are reviewed (by Habel, Nicoletti, Abramowitz, Gretsas and the Building Department) within our city departments. The Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning are in, and most of the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing are in, and the theatrical electronic equipment, (lighting, sound, control systems) is being evaluated at this time. Fuller construction and HRH Construction, (Compelli’s firms) have the design/build contract. The “interior finish” will be selected by the architect and will be reviewed by the Common Council.” Ms. Habel said.
Habel said that National Amusements, Inc. theatre architect, Shapiro, Petrauskas Gelber of Philadelphia, which is designing the National Amusements theatres in the City Center, is now designing the look of the Performing Arts Center.
National Amusements had told WPCNR that their architect was on stand-by to help design the theater if they were needed last month. Ms. Habel’s report confirmed for the first time that the National Amusements architect was definitely handling the specifications and the appearance of the entire White Plains Performing Arts Center project. She said the firm had extensive experience in theater design, specifications and the latest audio, lighting and production equipment.
Shapiro Petrauskas Gelber, or SPG3 as it now calls itself, designed The Bridge in Philadelphia, a movie complex on the University of Pennsylvania campus for National Amusements, and it specializes in retail movie theatre design. Examples of their projects are available on the company’s website at www.spgarch.com.
A spokesperson at SPG3’s office told WPCNR that the firm specialized in designing modernistic consumer movie theater complexes, examples of which can be seen on their website.
RFP Amendment a Legal Technicality, Habel explains.
While on the subject, WPCNR asked Ms. Habel why the amendment to the RFP, which legally allowed Tony Stimac and Jeffrey Rosenberg to contend for the prize of managing and programming the White Plains Performing Arts Center, was sent out six weeks after the original RFP deadline. She explained it was a legal requirement:
“Because it was an RFP process, and we had met with the people and we requested additional information,” Habel explained that any organization who received the original RFP had to be given an opportunity to reapply if they wished because the Council had asked for such new information and it would have been unfair to those other organizations sent the original Request for Proposal, not to give them an opportunity to reply.
Asked why the new information was requested May 21, six weeks after the RFP deadline of April 4, Habel said the Common Council had met with Stimac and Rosenstock, Centerpoint Stage and Westco Productions, reviewed their proposals and asked for new information and new conditions not spelled out in the original Request for Proposal, which she characterized as being unfair to the 15 organizations sent the original RFP.
Enter Stimac and Rosenstock Stage Late.
Asked when Tony Stimac and Jeffrey Rosenstock had originally come to the attention of the city as being interested in the project, Ms. Habel said she did not remember, saying she was not handling that that the Department of Recreation and Parks was, though she did say that the city got inquiries from as far away as California.
Curious as to when Messrs. Stimac and Rosenstock first submitted their proposal after the deadline (WPCNR first learned of them on May 8, four weeks after the April 4 deadline), we asked Council President Benjamin Boykin on our way out of City Hall when Rosenstock and Stimac first read for the part. We asked when he first heard of the pair, and he did not remember, either.
WPCNR CITY HALL BEAT. June 18, 2003, UPDATED 12:15 PM E.D.T. June 19, 2003: If there are homes in your neighborhood which appear to have more garbage and more cars than single or two-family homes can produce, the Safe Housing Task Force encourages you to report your suspicions to 422-1291, and the Building, Fire and Police Departments will jointly investigate the premises.
Mayor Joseph Delfino introduced a coordinated effort between the White Plains Building Department, Fire and Police Bureaus named the “Safe Housing Task Force” yesterday. Its purpose is to “identify unsafe and illegal premises and prosecute persons responsible for such conditions,” according to the official Police-Fire-Building Department news release.
The major difference in the latest effort to attack the chronic illegal housing in the city, (similar efforts in Del Vecchio and Schulman administrations according to persons familiar with police efforts at the time were ineffectual), is that for the first time the city will coordinate information between police, fire and building departments on the identification, enforcement, and remediation of the identified “unsafe” conditions.
A bilingual flyer in English and Spanish has been prepared for distribution to landlords, tenants identified as possible violators, and the flyer reports “One of the primary initiatives for the task force is to indentify unsafe properties and have them restored to a safe condition. The Task Force was also developed to be able to quickly respond to any reported safety or fire code violations.”
Task Force to Crack Down on Landlord Laxness. Gives Tenants, Neighbors Clues to Illegal Housing Conditions.
The official release notes what landlords and property owners are required to provide in their premises according to the Building and Fire codes, and these practices include:
• Fire and Smoke Detection Systems in good working condition.
• Emergency and Exit Lighting that light.
• Fire Extinguishers and Fire Suppression (sprinkler) systems that work.
• Exits “clear and free for passage.”
• Premises must be in a “clean, safe, and sanitary condition.”
• Heating, plumbing and Electrical systems must be in good working condition.
• Premises must be “legally occupied as specified by the Certificate of Occupancy and all applicable State Codes. A landlord cannot claim ignorance regarding the number of occupants living in his/her building.
• Generally attics and cellars are not considered as habitable spaces. If there is a question about such occupancy, the Building Department should be contacted to confirm legality of occupancy of the attics and cellars.
• Rubbish must be kept in closed containers and maintained in an area that can be sanitized.
• Parking of vehicles shall only be in areas permitted by the White Plains Zoning Code.
• Property information and emergency phone numbers shall be updated and submitted to the Building Department, Fire and Police Bureaus.
Task Force Spearheaded by Councilman Glen Hockley
White Plains Councilman Glen Hockley estimates the number of illegally occupied homes to be approximately 90 locations in the city, scattered mostly through Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, North Broadway.
The Safe Housing Task Force has been aided Councilman Glen Hockley’s personal research into the existence of illegal housing. He has conducted extensive subsequent discussions with Public Safety Commissioner Frank Straub, a city court judge, and the city legal and building departments on the legal recourses that can be taken to bring the illegal rooming houses into compliance and keep them in compliance.
Hockley’s relentless meetings and factfinding have contributed a great deal of information leading to the founding of the new Safe Housing Task Force.
Hockley: Mayor Commits to Human Rights Commission Involvement.
Councilman Hockley reported to WPCNR that Mayor Joseph Delfino has endorsed his idea that the City Human Rights Commission should be involved in the process to protect the ultimate victims of illegal housing: the illegal tenants.
Hockley’s feeling is that unsafe, illegal housing makes the tenants as much victims as the neighbors of the illegal occupancy situations. Hockley said the Mayor shared his opinion that when tenants housed illegally are removed from residences that the Human Rights Commission should follow up on the cases.
Hockley told WPCNR his idea was to have the Human Rights Commission monitor the situations of each evicted tenant to assure that they are being treated fairly by landlords or possibly illegal sublessors, (subleasing is widely known as a practice that creates illegal occupancy situations), as well as housed adequately.
Penalties and Penance and Payback.
Councilman Hockley is currently working to increase penalities that landlords who repeatedly violate the occupancy, fire and zoning codes face. He is calling for increased fines, as well as landlords paying for housing of evicted tenants. He has one city court judge on board as reporting that such penalties are legally possible, and Hockley is continuing his crusade on behalf of the victims of illegal housing: the tenants.
Concerned Homeowners Number.
Landlords and homeowners with questions of how they may come into compliance or if they are in compliance should contact the Building Department at 422-1269.
Suspect an Illegal Housing Cluster? Call 422-1291.
In addition to fire department inspections and police observations, the city has set up a number for neighbors to report “the location and a description of the unsafe conditions.” That number is 422-1291.
WPCNR STAGE DOOR.By John F. Bailey. June 16, 2003:
The impression going around town that the designated producing duo of Stimac & Rosenstock was the inside straight in the collection of theatre hands contending for the plumb of the new White Plains Performing Arts Center was confirmed by Norbert Mungeon, Vice President of Professional Facilities Management, Providence, Rhode Island on Friday, with the surfacing of an amendment to the original Request for Proposals that Mr. Mungeon received.
Mr. Mungeon told WPCNR by telephone that a new Amendment to the original city Theatre Request for Proposals was sent to him dated May 21, response due back May 31. He said it was dated two days after the Council heard all three theatre hopefuls (Westco Productions, Centerpoint Stage, and last week’s designated winners, Tony Simac and Jeffrey Rosenstock), and six weeks after responses for proposals were due.
The amendment requested his Professional Facilities Management firm to fill out a newly formatted financial report grid for the first two years of the theatre operation, and was sent out 6 weeks after the original deadline for the Responses to Proposals, April 4, and invited other groups not previously responding to the proposal to apply at that time.
A “Fold” From the City.
Mungeon said he did not complete the amendment because he had been lead to believe Monday afternoon, May 19, (the afternoon of the evening the Council was to hear all three applicants), the city was not interested in his programming-only request which was what Professional Facilities Management had proposed.
Mungeon revealed to WPCNR that on Monday, May 19, the city lead him to believe they were looking for a full-time operator of the theatre. Mungeon told WPCNR said his firm had a previous commitment that day (May 19) and could not attend on what he described as short notice. Mungeon said the city seemed to believe that Professional Facilities Management programming was more geared towards larger houses, (though PFM programs a 500-seat theatre, the Vilar Center in Vail, Colorado, about the size of the 425-seat White Plains Performing Arts Center). Mungeon said he did not know if this amendment was sent to all 15 groups originally sent the Theatre Request for Proposal.
Amendment fills the Inside Straight.
Mungeon read a portion of the Amendment to WPCNR over the telephone which contained a statement reading “those who had not done so (sent in a proposal to operate the theatre) could now apply, and are invited to do so.” This statement clears the way for Stimac and Rosenstock to operate the theatre after the fact when they presented to the council on May 19. Stimac and Rosenstock were reported to be in the running for the first time on May 8, five weeks after Responses to the RFP were due. Whetfher or not the Amendment to the RFP was created specifically for Stimac and Rosenstock, and the information the Amendment requested was essential for the council to make a choice, is open to conjecture. (An Inside Straight, in poker is a hand of 4 cards, needing a card of interior rank to make a straight, such as 9-8-6-5, the “7” being the Inside Straight. )
Cleared for Command?
As of Monday, June 9, one week after being granted the right to run the theatre, Jeffrey Rosenstock, Executive Director of Queens Theatre In the Park, speaking to WPCNR said, he had not received clearance from his Board of Directors chair of the Queens Theatre In the Park to work with the White Plains theatre. He told WPCNR he was going to talk to his Board Chair last week. Rosenstock also said he was deeply involved in lobbying the city of New York for funding for his Queens Theatre In the Park all last week as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was negotiating the city budget for the arts. Rosenstock said he would be “sitting down with Tony (Stimac)” last Friday to discuss White Plains Performing Arts Center issues.
City Be Able to Walk in Year Three
Despite the memorandum of understanding language giving Rosenstock and Simac the option to renew the contract after three years, Councilman Boykin told WPCNR that “safeguards” would be built in to the Stimac-Rosenstock contract to enable the city to walk away in the third year and that the Request for Proposal which Boykin said called for the ability of the city to terminate the contract within 30 days would be in effect in the final contract. It is Council President Boykin’s belief that those safeguards and the original terms of the Request for Proposal setting the rights of termination will be adhered to in the final contract, despite the copy in the Memorandum of Understanding to the contrary.
However, that is not what it says in the Memorandum of Understanding made public at the June 2 Common Council meeting.
Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel told WPCNR Tuesday evening at the Council of Neighborhood Associations that the contract was being drawn up and it would be ready “when it’s done.”As of Friday, WPCNR was told by City Hall spokesperson Paul Wood the contract would not be signed Friday, “Not to by knowledge,” were his words.
Design by Abramowitz, Gretsas, Habel , Nicoletti.
Habel cleared up the shroud of mystery concealing what the new theatre would look like. She said that she, Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti, Commissioner of Recreation & Parks Arne Abramowitz, and Executive Officer George Gretsas had made the taste choices as to the colors of carpet and the decoration of the theatre. She also said that no detailed interior sketches or models had been made of the theatre that it was all in architectural blueprints.
Habel said she would show the blue prints of the theatre to WPCNR Friday afternoon but did not telephone WPCNR when she would be available to show the “hush hush” designs. The architectural design of the theatre has been shown to the Council, but appears only in blueprint form. Schematics of the theatre do not show a detailed mockup of the interior or vestibule of the theatre.