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)

MAJORITY OF NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS, OPPOSE ADOPTION OF ONEWHITEPLAINS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. OPENS UP NEIGHBORHOODS TO CLUSTER HOUSING THEY SAY

Posted on March 3, 2024 by John Bailey

Slide of Comprehensive Plan from White Plains Week program

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. March 3, 2024:

Hello Mr. Bailey,

As you are aware, there is a Common Council public hearing on Monday, March 4, in White Plains, discussing the White Plains Comprehensive Plan. The proposed zoning changes in single-family districts have raised major concerns among residents, in that it is a radical departure from the current Comprehensive Plan.

It seems that the City of White Plains (in response to the Governor’s unsuccessful attempt to increase housing through the Budget 2023) is taking on the task of eliminating single-family districts in White Plains through proposals such as ADUs (Affordable Detached Units) and other zoning changes, all under the pretext of addressing a housing crisis and the need for affordable housing. Meanwhile, the City accepts buyouts from developers related to the mandated percentage of affordable housing units.

The Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) has submitted a letter to the Common Council, Planning Board and City Staff, signed by 11 neighborhood associations in White Plains, representing 4,000 residents (see attached). Given the potential impact of these proposed zoning changes, the meeting is expected to draw a substantial crowd.

Also, please access the Gedney Association’s recent eblast to its 500 residents via the link below. In particular, these proposed zoning changes would pave the way for alterations to the Farrell Property, formerly Ridgeway Golf Club, allowing for clustering and attached housing. With just liveWP 13 and 14 alone, there are currently eight other large properties that would experience an immediate impact, not to mention the implications for every single-family home with the proposed ADUs.

https://mailchi.mp/gedneyfarms.net/urgent-proposed-zoning-changes-to-impact-gedney-farms?e=fc9eaf2d4c

Thank you and I hope that you will cover the story.

Melanie Kolby

NOVEMBER 5: THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT FOR EVERYONE IS ON THE BALLOT IN NEW YORK–TO ADD THE ERA TO THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION

Posted on March 3, 2024 by John Bailey

AAUW STATEWIDE EFFORT TO PASS THE NY STATE ERA BEGINS.

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2024. News & Comment By John F. Bailey, March 3, 2024:

This is how the New York State ERA passed by both houses of the New York State legislature and signed by Governor Hochul, reads:

The American Association of University Women statewide zoom forum (shown above) introduced the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the New York State Constitution, that if passed by New York voters November 5 will enshrine anti discrimination rights for everyone. The forum emphasized the ERA originally proposed in 1922 after women were given the right to vote, and this New York State ERA amendment passed in 2023 by the legislature and Governor Hochul, is not just for equality of women but forbids discrimination against anyone.

The ERA supporters attending the forum, signaled a new public education would begin in the spring to educate voters about this amendment to counter the male opposition to the previous ERA efforts in the 1970s when the ERA was perceived as an “equal rights for women” legislation.

The most important voting block in the state is the New York Metropolitan area of registered voters that has declined in election participation. A major effort will be made to get this block of voters to support the amendment and outreach will be made in the entire state to make the new ERA part of the New York State Constitution to protect all New Yorkers from discrimination of any kind.

A WPCNR Observation: With the blanket no discrimination ERA in the New York Constitution, no matter what the Supreme Court decides allowing discriminatory acts in other states, due in part to the Supreme Court consistent return to “state’s rights” theory in recent decisions, the New York Constitution ERA law would stand in view of the court’s return to the past philosophy now in vogue at the Supreme Court.

The ERA will be on the Presidential ballot November 5 and for New Yorkers it is protection for all who are discriminated against.

Should a Republican administration win the presidency, New Yorkers will have no protection against new discriminatory practices since the New York Constitution ERA Amendment if passed in November would prohibit. This would force the Supreme Court to rule against states’ rights. That could happen, or the Supreme Court could not accept the case.

For the complete text of the bill go to this New York State “Link,” copy and put into your browser

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S8797

UNNAMED FIGURES: GHOSTS OUT OF TIME AT LINCOLN SQUARE WHO TELL THEIR STORY

Posted on March 2, 2024 by John Bailey

WPCNR ART IN TIME.Exhibition Review by John F. Bailey, March 2, 2024:

The name of the exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum in New York is provocative. It stuns you.:

Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North

Evocative. Eternal. Visceral. Disbelief.

With every painting by unknown and known black artists of America’s first two centuries, every sculpture, every photograph and painted landscapes of young growing America the roles of northern slaves are witnessed in heartbreaking, somber testimony in the works of those black artists who lived, painted, photographed, sculpted as slaves and freedmen and women in the American North.

As you wonder through the dark halls that evoke a dignified mausoleum dedicated to artists lost, their talents exploited by northern slaveowners in the 1700s and 1800s leading up to and beyond the Civil War.

The ambitious curation of this exhibition is on view through March 24 at 2 Lincoln Square on 66th Street, West of Central Park. It is a visit to the past you will never forget.

I have not been so jarred by an exhibition since I saw the slave hut on Andrew Jackson’s estate in Nashville, a slave quarters that housed 19 slaves in ramshackle structure the size of a studio apartment.

Unnamed Figures brings back to life the long dead slaves who endured the cruelty of slavery in the “abolitionist” north to tell the truth through their art that has lived on to tell their stories.

This exhibit opened my eyes about slavery in the northeast. the paintings,sculptures and photographs haunt you at every step, putting a real face on real slaves and freemen and women in the 19^th century. it was never taught to me in the history classes of high school, how widespread slavery was in the north as well as the south.

This exhibition will make you linger, think, feel deeply or ever so slightly the wrongs, the diminution of black talent.

Other than the hard unpaid brutal living and working for nothing, I was shocked by the slave owners’ shameful exploitation of slaves who were artists in spare time, artists many of home photographed and painted portraits of their owners and the owners’ friends and the owners pocketed the fees the artists’ works.

In the elegant somber texts explaining paintings, portraits and photographs, you learn how paintings of blacks promoted in the north the inferiority of blacks who are shown looking up to their master owners in portraits.

George Washington and Family with Slave in background by an artist who was a slave.

Many of those paintings for fees that slave owners kept are on display here. as a writer myself i can feel that injustice. All pride in the work is diminished when you are not paid for it and your owner keeps your fee.

The exhibition offers a new window onto black representation in a region that is often overlooked in narratives of early African American history.

Through 125 remarkable works including paintings, needlework, and photographs, this exhibition invites visitors to focus on figures who appear in—or are omitted from—early american images and will challenge conventional narratives that have minimized early black histories in the north, revealing the complexities and contradictions of the region’s history between the late 1600s and early 1800s.

Unnamed figures…

If you are black. this is a must-see exhibition and your pride will be uplifted.

If you are white, it will open your eyes, touch your heart, sadden and cleanse your soul.

Unamed Figures is art performing its mission profoundly and effectively, eternally.

I recommend it!