THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Mrs. White Plains Considers a Run for King’s Seat

Posted on March 5, 2003 by John Bailey

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS CONFIDENTIAL. By John F. Bailey. March 5, 2003: Former Councilwoman Pauline Oliva told WPCNR she would “give up retirement to help” if asked to run for the White Plains Common Council seat this fall. The Democrat slate is in need of a third spear carrier to replace Councilman William King who in a surprise announcement leaked exclusively to The Journal News and The White Plains Watch said he would not run again on the Democratic Ticket. Mr. King gave as his reasons he could not work with his Democratic colleagues.

THE PAULINE OLIVA COMEBACK: Mrs. Oliva, former councilwoman addressing the Common Council Monday evening.
Photo by WPCNR News

The first indication that something was up was the appearance of Mrs. Oliva, greeted with open arms by former Democrat colleagues, Rita Malmud, Robert Greer, and Benjamin Boykin, Jr. at the first opportunity they had. It was like a “welcome back.”

Pauline Oliva has been getting up to speed on Council doings, attending the droning and dragging Council meeting, Monday evening, to comment strongly in support of the Council vote to expand the Shapham Place parking with a double-deck extension behind the Rader’s-Dunkin Donut Strip at Bryant Avenue and Mamaroneck Avenue. Oliva went to great lengths to discredit the previously proposed overnight on-street parking proposal advanced by Mr. King and rejected by the council.

Speaking to WPCNR today, Ms. Oliva commented on the state of the city: “The die was cast long ago that White Plains is a major city. You have to have development and if you develop it carefully, I think we have, the development will work. I voted on many of these projects that I think were right. I strongly supported open space acquisition initiatives, and I still do.”

Even before WPCNR had thought of the question, Mrs. Oliva spoke up for development: “Once you see these projects which I voted for on line, and the taxes are kept low, those people who are against it will see its value.”
Councilman Robert Greer told WPCNR Monday evening after the council had amended the Cappelli-Bland Hotel resolution to extend the scooping session three weeks that there were a couple of calls to him expressing concern about development. Mrs. Malmud had offered the amendment saying that 4 days (March 13-17) was not enough time for the public to comment on what the city’s very famous consultants, Arnold & Porter, and two nationally known urban design and transportation exports would consider.

Mrs. Oliva said in addressing the council that “she was glad to be back on this side of the fence.”

Taking time out from making h’ors d’oeuvres for the Womens Club of White Plains meeting, Oliva told WPCNR she did not miss the council, but “I would be willing to sacrifice retirement to help (run for council

King Announces Abdication to Select Media

Posted on March 5, 2003 by John Bailey

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS CONFIDENTIAL By John F. Bailey. March 5, 2003: Councilman William King announced his abdication of his Council Seat yesterday in an e-mail to Susan Elan of The Journal News and Susan Archerian Chang of The White Plains Watch. WPCNR has obtained a copy of that statement, and here are Mr. King’s reasons for leaving the council in his own words:
I wanted to give you a heads up that I have decided not to run for
re-election with the other Democratic incumbents. I feel that I have
held up my promise of “Doing the Right Thing” for White Plains. I
believe I have pushed issues out there like downtown revitalization and open space preservation that the mayor has embraced in his initiatives.

I feel I have gotten the mayor to implement most of my proposals and the proposals of residents that I have passed along that he is going to implement while he is mayor. For me to really push him on other
initiatives, I would need more like-minded people on the Council.

Obviously, I am very disappointed by mayor-led council votes, mostly on New York Hospital. I am also extremely against the mayor’s style of
“closed government” which has limited getting information from the
city’s commissioners or having intelligent discussions with them.

There are many things I wish White Plains residents could have in our
community soon and before my 9-year-old daughter goes off to college.

There are many initiatives I would still like to pursue but they take a
less political atmosphere and I need more progressive, open-minded people voting with me on initiatives. I will continue to work hard until the end of my current term and continue to pass along the good ideas, big and small, that residents continue to give me.

But, like I said, I believe the mayor has accepted most of what he is going to accept and I have lost faith in the rest of the current council to help steer the city in the direction I think it should be going and get it to
where it should be in the near future. White Plains is getting better, but it could be a lot better and without spending so much on parking
garages and by downtown commercial interests paying as much in property taxes, proportionally, as they used to.

Commuting Thief: Police Arrest Suspect in Numerous Office Thefts in City

Posted on March 5, 2003 by John Bailey

WPCNR Morning Sun. From Police Reports. March 5, 2003 White Plains Police have announced the arrest of a Brooklyn “Commuting Thief” last Thursday after he was arrested with a handbag taken from a building on Water Street. The suspect, police say, allegedly commuted to White Plains, blended into office environments as if he worked there, to steal office workers’ belongings, cash and computer laptops from various locations. Police also consider him a suspect in eight similar thefts committed over the last month.

Captain Anne Fitzsimmons credited Stephen Demchuck and Harry Pino of the anti-crime unit and Detectives Walter Holubis and Michael Maffei for their work on the case.

Council Extends Cappelli-Bland Scope; OK’s Intelligence Officer

Posted on March 4, 2003 by John Bailey

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. March 3, 2003: After approving a byzantine set of zoning and urban renewal amendents to make the Cappelli-Bland Hotel Project feasible, the Common Council tonight amended a resolution setting the Cappelli-Bland Hotel project scoping session to run from March 13 to April 9, (instead of March 13-to 17, as the Mayor called for), against the wishes of Mayor Delfino.
Mayor Delfino declared the move “strictly political.” Rita Malmud introduced the amendment, expressing her concern that the people of White Plains be allowed enough time for the scoping session. No residents appeared at tonight’s hearing on the Cappelli Bland Hotel zoning and urban renewal plan amendments.

Robert Greer said there were a lot of issues and thought the council was simply being prudent. Benjamin Boykin, too, agreed that the council wanted to be thorough, though he himself had received no calls from anyone protesting the project. The additional three weeks of time for scoping (the process of determining issues to be addressed in an environmental review) delays the project one month, said Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning, who said the earliest the Council could now have a final vote on the project was September. It had been planned for August.

The Common Council approved the Department of Public Safety request to hire a Special Intelligence Expert to analyze threats and intelligence information received by the city and to identify concerns the Department should be considering in the future to grow and adapt to new threats and security needs.

The Council also approved spending $800,000 to ready Liberty Park in Silver Lake for use by this summer, and approved expenditures of $5.5 to $5.9 Million for plans for a double deck parking structure behind the Rader’s–Dunkin Donuts trip on Mamaroneck Avenue. The cost would be bonded for twenty years at 4-3/4%, and is expected to begin to pay back in 15 years at which time the Parking Authority will have suffered a net loss of $130,000.