WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Health.August 1, 2017:

This season’s first batch of mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus in Westchester has been confirmed by the Westchester County Department of Health. The area surrounding the positive mosquito batch in Mount Vernon has been inspected by the Health Department, which has treated nearby catch basins that to protect against further mosquito breeding nearby.

“West Nile Virus has been present in the Hudson Valley for many years, so this season’s first positive should remind residents to protect themselves and their families by removing standing water around their homes every week and by using repellents daily when spending significant time outdoors,” said Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino. “As a county, our proactive and comprehensive strategy to combat mosquito-borne illnesses has proven effective, and includes advice and resources for our residents.”

As of July 20^th, when the first positive batch was confirmed in Westchester, 163 batches of mosquitoes from Westchester were tested for West Nile Virus by the New York State Department of Health. The state Health Department has identified 99 positive mosquito pools throughout New York so far this year.

Symptoms of West Nile encephalitis (a severe infection) usually occur from three to 14 days following the bite and include high fever, headache, confusion, muscle aches and weakness, seizures, or paralysis. Most people who are infected with West Nile Virus will not show any symptoms. People over age 50 are at the highest risk for a severe disease.

West Nile Virus is not to be confused with Zika. To date, no mosquitoes in New York State have tested positive for Zika and there have been no locally-acquired cases.

“We will continue to monitor mosquito activity,” said Westchester County Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler, MD, “and we recommend that residents take personal protection measures and remain vigilant in removing standing water on their property where mosquitoes can breed.”

Dr. Amler said that favorite mosquito breeding sites include buckets, plant pot saucers, clogged gutters, pet bowls, old tires, as well as children’s pools and toys. Residents should also minimize spending time outdoors at dawn and dusk, and apply insect repellents according to the label directions when enjoying activities outside.

In addition to larviciding, the county also gave away free fathead minnows and mosquito dunks to residents this spring. The minnows help to curtail the mosquito population in ponds and water by feeding on mosquito larvae and pupae before they develop into adult mosquitoes. The mosquito dunks serve the same purpose in birdbaths, rain barrels and unused pools. Free mosquito dunks are still available, and residents can make arrangements to pick them up by calling (914) 813-5000.

Residents who notice large areas of standing water on public property that could serve as potential mosquito breeding grounds should report it to the Westchester County Department of Health by calling (914) 813-5000 or emailing hweb@westchestergov.com. For more information about preventing West Nile Virus, visit health.westchestergov.com/west-nile-virus.

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. JULY 30, 2017:

To the Editor:

Is this White Plains or Dick Daley’s Chicago?

I learned decades ago that two things in particular characterize a political machine:

1) Using absurd technicalities to try to keep opponents, especially reformers, off the ballot; and

2) filling public positions, especially judgeships, with machine cronies.  Alas, much to my sadness, we now have both of these in White Plains.

What is equally depressing is that Mayor Roach, whom I believed was going to be a different type of politician, and whom I supported for every public office he sought, has adopted a type of politics that I would have thought beneath him.

We have seen it before: When someone is in politics long enough, they do what they think they must to hold onto the job.  Ideals come in a distant second to political survival, no matter what the cost to good government and clean politics.

Mark Elliott

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Lauren Langbaum as Maria and James Mernin as Tony sing One Hand, One Heart

WPCNR STAGE DOOR. Theatrical Review by John F. Bailey. July 29, 2017:

When Northwestern student Carson Stewart  as Riff,  swaggering, cool teen with attitude leader of the upper West Side street gang, The Jets, strolled on stage at White Plains Performing Arts Center last night, snapping his fingers, the start of the jazz/ dance prologue to the opening of the Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim Broadway game changer West Side Story, the capacity opening  night audience was taken back 60 years ago with earnest acting, excellent timing, energetic choreography and evocative emotional heights acted by young people portraying young people. How unique!

Setting the time machine on the dynamal veeberfetzer and letting the time slide roll as Deejay Bob Lewis used to say on WINS 1010, 1958 was a time in NYC when teen gangs of youth without much futures due to their poverty fought each other over street territory in Brooklyn, Queens ,the East Side and the West Side. It was an era of chains, zip guns and switch-blades. They rumbled, committed petty crimes, were hassled by law enforcement and considered undesirables, particularly if you were Italian, or Puerto Rican or Black and everyone who was poor. Somehow this seems all too familiar when we think on the intolerance of latinos, Muslims,  immigrants, blacks, the poor today. Tolerance is better and worse.

WPPAC’s Stage 2 program staged its fifth annual production last night, and gives us five more productions of this West Side Story: Saturday night tonight, Sunday the 30^th, and Friday August 4, Saturday August 5, and Sunday August 6. Stage 2 brings very talented youths who are local and from around the country to its productions. Stage 2 “bridges the gap between WPPAC’s Conservatory youth theatre program and Mainstage professional theatre, giving college and local community performers over 18, non-union actors and talented rising high school juniors and seniors are part of their productions.

Tony meets Maria at a dance and is so smitten, he sings Maria  all the way home. He even follows her home and they duet on Tonight. Their chemistry continues to charm the show. This whirlwind romance between an Italian and a Puerto Rican girl plays out against a simmering gang feud.

Riff (Carson Stewart) center plotting with The Jets.

The growling animosity between the gangs Sharks (Puerto Ricans) and The Jets (Italians) bursts into a rumble at the end of Act I leaving the leaders of both gangs dead.  Riff,(Carson Stewart) captures the attitude of the typical tough guy teenager of the era, obsessed, seeing the Sharks as a threat to his neighborhood. Bernardo, Rafa Reyes is more conciliatory as the Shark leader, but reacts to the Jets’ harrassment.

The Rumble: The Sharks on the left. The Jets on the Right. Bernardo (Rafa Reyes) Leader of the Sharks confronts Riff (Carson Stewart) as the Rumble begins.

Tony former member of the Jets is attempting to break up a rumble, and in doing so is angered and avenging the stabbing of Riff by Maria’s brother, Bernardo (played with elan, menace and macho by Rafa Reyes, a graduate of AMDA New York),stabs Bernardo in retaliation.

The second act simmers and ascends in intensity and hope against hopelessness with the lovers Maria (given flight by the articulate soprano highs of Lauren Langbaum, (wait til you hear her unique “trills” on I Feel Pretty,a unique styling of this song that I feel is a creation of her own. I’ve never heard that number executed with trills on the “r’s”) and Tony (James Mernin).

Mernin and Langbaum  combine for two beautiful duets Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us) and again on One Hand, One Heart. You will yearn and hope for them and that is a good thing. They make you pine for their happiness. Mernin’s tenor blends entwining with Ms. Langbaum like two smooth silks to heart smack you with their heartbreak combined with optimism.

Alexandra Imbrosci-Viera, 2012 Graduate of White Plains High School, is the dead Shark leader Bernardo’s girl friend Anita. When Tony kills Bernardo she delivers the chilling lament  A Man Like That (Stay with Your Own Kind) Ms. Imbrosci-Viera’s mocking  contralto reveals bitterness that Maria’s love for Tony the Italian boy, has cost Anita her love. She sings A Man Like That in the Cole Porter style of Love for Sale, making lyrics  land blows to the hearts of Maria and audience alike.

Ms.  Langbaum answers Ms. Imbrosci-Viera with the hopeless but universal truth about  love, I Have a Love. Langbaum and Imbrosci-Viera comfort each other and sing it together in heartbreak touching the audience with this gem.

The second act delivers commentary on why Jets behave like Jets, when Max Temkin as A-Rab, a junior at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and Casey Dath, junior at Putnam Valley High, and several Jets deliver Brenda Starr’s (Ms. Starr was the redhead I went with to the show) favorite  West Side Story song   Gee,Officer Krupke.

The self-proclaimed delinquents point out why they act like they do “but I’m good inside.” This song is blessed comic relief with a message amidst the unbearable drama of Shark Member Chino’s hunt to kill Tony, but the song says a lot about how hopelessness and how children are treated rob them of their ability to rise above and be successful. This was a mugging, amusing sequence handled with great comic timing by Temkin and Dath.

The police lieutenant Shrank played  by John Cedric Larson, a resident of White Plains delivers smoldering lines at the gang members, disrespecting them as police did back then in the 1950s. His is a short but appropriately chilling piece of commentary, demonstrating and letting the audience feel how disrespect feels when it is done to you.

Alexandra Imbroscio-Viera as Anita, (third from left, center in red), and Jenna San Antonio (in black) cavort, singing America

I have to comment on Ms. Alexandra Imbroscio-Viera’s performing of America with her Latino girl friends. She plays off beautifully with the droll and deadpan Jenna San Antonio  as Rosalia who misses Puerto Rico. Ms. San Antonio sings the straight lines to Anita like this “When I go back to San Juan, they will stand up and cheer.” To which Imbroscio-Viera sings. “They can’t they’re all here.” San Antonio also executes great acrobatic moves dancing in this number

Ms. Imbroscio-Vera has the most difficult acting sequence in the play. The Jets, guarding Tony, mock taunt and attack her, prompting her to betray Tony creating his doom. The attack and Ms. Imbroscio-Vera’sproud reaction to of petulance, desire to get even with the Jets) demonstrates how even a person seeking to do good like Anita can be turned away from her better nature by desire for vengeance. Her shocking betrayal drives Tony into searching for Chino who is out to get him.

The finale of WSS is uplifting and features a shocking moment as well as Tony’s death. Ms.  Langbaum’s Maria grows as a character when confronted with Tony’s fate, seeming to walk taller, stand straighter, become stronger as both gangs carry Tony away.

Walking with quiet dignity, refusing to take revenge. Langbaum acts through body language.

The brilliantly staged lingering procession Director Joseph Walsh  has crafted to send  theatre goers out into the night gives a message we can all use today: disdaining revenge, forgiving, and refusing to blame others not like us for our plight must be fought. The procession is very moving. It portrays the end of a life and the emptiness of that end with tenderness, regret, and catharsis.

The use of the set that transforms a street lot into a balcony, a bedroom, a dress shop, a corner soda fountain with deftly fluent and efficient speed was designed by Scott Aronow.

The orchestra really played Mr. Bernstein’s syncopated score jazz/dance score elegantly. Lauren Jenkins violin poignantly lifting the ballads, reed players Josh Plotner, David Asand Matt Huntington so much in sync and character with their actors and actresses. Solid work by Conductor Jacob Carll. I noticed no override! Excelsior!

West Side Story plays two more days this weekend and three days next week. The box office may be reached at 914-328-1600 or the website, wppac.com.

Joseph Walsh, the director talks about his production on this week’s White Plains Television People to Be Heard Saturday night at 7 on Altice Cablevision channel 76 and countywide on Verizon Fios Channel 45. You may also see the interview anytime on Youtube at 

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THE BIG THREE OF WHITE PLAINS WEEK

JOHN BAILEY, JIM BENEROFE AND PETER KATZ

16TH YEAR WESTCHESTER’S MOST INTUITIVE, INTELLIGENT RELEVANT, ACCURATE  NEWS PROGRAM

WORLDWIDE NOW ON YOUTUBE AND WHITE PLAINS WEEK DOT COM

d

ON

THE AIRPORT MASTER PLAN HEARING HUB BUB VIDEO FIREWORKS

THE HIDDEN WESTCHESTER COUNTY HUNGRY

Senator Latimer Opens His Headquarters

PLUS THE WHITE PLAINS SALES TAX SLUMP CONTINUES

FASNY GETS ITS AERATORS BACK ON OLD LAKE AT OLD RIDGEWAY COUNTRY CLUB

PLUS SHOOTING MOVIES IN WHITE PLAINS NEW YORK USA

AND PETS–LOTS OF THEM

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A TOUGH, SNARLING CROWD AT “THE LITTLE THEATER” AT THE COUNTY CENTER THURSDAY NIGHT AWAITED THE START OF THE HEARING ON THE MASTER PLAN FOR THE WESTCHESTER COUNTY AIRPORT. THEY DID NOT LIKE IT.

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. July 27, 2017:

“Fraud!” they shouted more than once.

“Disingenuous!”

“LaGuardia North!”

“A threat to health, our drinking water, and children”

Angry words came from speaker after speaker in commenting on the Final Westchester County Master Plan five years in the preparation that was summarized for the first half hour of the hearing.

The summarization was cut short after one audience member said, “Do we have to listen to this?” and got into an unauthorized discussion with the Westchester County Transportation Commissioner  Vincent Kopicki (back to camera in above photo.The Commissioner calmed down the situation and the representative presenting the details hopscotched his copy and quickly summed it up. Then the fireworks began.

The Plan was introduced by the President of the firm preparing the plan, and he said the Plan does not call for any expansion of flights or expansion of the airport. The plan was summarized in this chart:

Speaker after speaker alleged the preparers used erroneous air traffic numbers, and obfuscated what the plan could allow for expansion of activity, while saying they are not expanding the curfew or amount of the air traffic.

Speaker after speaker pointed that shrinking runway 29/11 width, expanding taxiways, adding two parking garages and new commercial  hangars for corporate aircraft would create massive expansion of activity within the confines of the present airport footprint which many speakers said would despite what the plan says,greatly increase pollution and air traffic.

Within an hour of mocking, disdainful comments not one speaker supported the plan. A recurring complaint was the county never asked the community for their views on the future of the airport while the consultant prepared it. It is now up to the County legislators to approve or reject the plan, or require revisions. 29/11

The plan was prepared as a formality County Executive Robert P. Astorino said, according to one speaker, as required by the FAA, that would just lie on a shelf.