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 SOUTH END TIMES By John F. Bailey. December 2, 2014 UPDATED December 2, 10:20 P.M.:

The city is preparing for the resumption of the French American School of New York Special Permit Apllication and Closure of Hathaway Lane Proposal Wednesday evening at 6:00 (not 6:30 P.M., as previously reported)  in City Hall. The public is not allowed to speak. However issues and comments may still be filed up to 10 days after tomorrow’s hearing resumption. Two new elements for Common Council consideration have been submitted this week:

Monday the Gedney Association released the findings of  a fire consultant the Association engaged to evaluate the effects of the proposed Hathaway Lane closure. The closure, according to the city’s staff report released  November 21, is a prerequisite for mitigation measures that the city staff deems  essential for  the FASNY proposed campus to be built on the former grounds of the Ridgeway Country Club.

According to Fire Pro, Inc., ( described by the Gedney Association as a fire protection engineering company), upon FirePro review of the Hathaway Lane closure for possible effects on public safety,  “the FASNY proposal will present a significant adverse impact on emergency and fire safety response…”

This, in Fire Pro opinion is because of “inefficient” access to the  neighborhood north of Ridgeway:   to wit: access to Gedney Esplanade and streets northeast of the proposed campus  is only accessible via Murchison Place or Bryant Avenue by fire fighters dispatched from Fire Station 7, located at the corner of Ridgeway and North Street

FirePro reports, in their opinion, forcing the  Murchison and Bryant Avenue routes would triple response times. The report has been forwarded to the city for consideration, since closure of Hathaway effects on public safety was not raised as an issue by the city staff and consultants.

In another development,  the husband-wife team of Ron and Marie Rhodes who have been most proactive in critiqueing   city department heads’ and consultants’  analyses of the FASNY mitigation proposal , have announced by letter to the Mayor and Common Council that they have delivered pictures and commentary to Amanda M.  Switzer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Their letter to Ms. Switzer  points out in detail how the property floods during rains and directly raising concersn that the presently “mitigated” FASNY site plan could lead to significant flooding. The Army Corps of Engineers continues to deliberate as to whether the Corps has jurisdiction over the FASNY property and subsequent “go” or “no go” over the appropriateness of the planned construction in the wetlands of the property.

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WPCNR MEDIA-GO=ROUND. From County Legisalator James Maisano. December 1, 2014: 

The following is a thoughtful column from Legislator Maisano who passes this along from the Free Voter Blog

We started the Free Voter Blog because we are troubled by too many people getting their news only from sources promoting their political views – liberals only checking liberal websites and conservatives only checking conservative websites. Too many Americans are not speaking to each other about the issues of the day and are not even open to debate.

We believe this is bad for our democracy. It’s absurd to think that either the left wing or right wing is correct on every issue. That’s why the goal of the Free Voter Blog is to help stimulate a free and independent electorate. When people tell us they only vote straight Democrat or Republican, we believe this is an admission that they didn’t put much effort into following the issues and evaluating the candidates on the ballot. We can teach a four-year-old to just fill in the circles across only one party’s line on Election Day.

That’s why we found the above chart in the USA Today so interesting. It demonstrates how people are only following the news they politically agree with. The data comes from a thoughtful study conducted by the Pew Research Center, which found that, “When it comes to getting news about politics and government, liberals and conservatives inhabit different worlds.” Here’s the link to this excellent Pew Research Center study:  www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits

Therefore, the Free Voter Blog, which discusses issues in an open-minded and nonpartisan way, certainly fills an important need in our nation’s political discourse. Please join us for a more independent debate of the issues we face – everyone is invited!

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. John Bailey Interviews Jessica O’Donovan, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. (PART 1) November 27, 2014:

In response to statewide furor over the state Common Core Assessment tests for the second straight year, half of the questions with answers that appeared on the English Language Arts and Math Assessments were furnished on the State Education Department website for use by school districts and teachers in August. Students’ individual answers to each question were not furnished.

JESSICA O’DONOVAN, with Jim Benerofe in October 2013

WPCNR interviewed Jessica O’Donovan,  White Plains Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, by telephone Wednesday afternoon  on her reactions and how the district is moving ahead with preparing  for the 2015 State Common Core Assessments. Here is how it went:

WPCNR: Have you made an analysis of why this test (the ELA tests and the Math), is so difficult?

O’DONOVAN:  I think we already knew the answer. Some of the question texts are incredibly hard. Well above grade level, and some of the questions are absolutely confusing, not well constructed. It’s really hard. I don’t think there are any surprises. Being able to Look at the test questions again (released on the State Education Department website) just confirmed what we already believed. The (assessment test(s) still has a long way to go before educators believe it’s a high quality, fair, accurate measure of truly what the students know.

That doesn’t mean we won’t continue to refine our practice, not just against the test, but against the (Common Core) standards. We certainly are going to look to the test to think about what we feel  is missing in our own curriculum. There’s a really heavy emphasis (in the tests) on content area reading, so there are several passages in all the grades tests that really focus on science and social studies texts, so we know we need to continue to focus on our goal of literacy across the entire curriculum, but those are things we already knew.”

WPCNR: Do you know what each individual student scored on the test questions?  Do you have individual students’ answers they chose on the assessments?

O’DONOVAN: “We can’t go back and say question 12 what did they get wrong, if that is not one of the released items. But we know their scale score.”

WPCNR: That’s what I meant, you can’t figure out what questions an individual got right and what questions they missed though they did miss a lot?”

O’DONOVAN:  We cannot go back and identify…we don’t have the (complete) test in hand. We only have certain items in hand. But according to the state, you’re not supposed to be trying to quote prepare students for the test’ you’re not supposed to be able to ‘test prep’ so they (the state) do not feel that is a flaw.  But if you look at any best practice, you’re always supposed to have the test in mind keep the final result of the test in mind and work backwards from there. That’s what caused backward design planning which has been considered best practice for decades in education.

So this (Common Core Assessment policy) kind of flips that on its head: Here are the standards, teach to the standards, teach to the standards, but everyone also knows you define the rigor of the standards in the way you assess (test) them.

So, honestly at this point our district feels we are doing a lot of great things. We do not feel the assessment tests are an accurate measure of what our students know and can do, like so many other districts. We will continue to be extremely focused at developing students’ literacy at all levels, but if we like so many other districts allow the ill-preparedness of the state the way they rolled out this entire initiative to dictate the climate of our school buildings we would be in utter chaos, and we’re not going to do that.

We know what needs to be done, we know what best practice looks like we know we need to continue moving students forward in their literacy development and that’s what we’re going to continue to do…with the tests in mind. We’re not going to ignore them. We’re just not going to allow the tests to dictate our daily moves.”

WPCNR published an in-depth analysis  in August of White Plains 3^rd to 8^th Grade 2014 Assessment results, which may be viewed here:

http://whiteplainscnr.com/wp/wp-admin/post.php?post=14839&action=edit

    This in-depth interview will be continued

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WPCNR THIS WHITE PLAINS LIFE. By John F. Bailey First published in 2007: The celebrity is coming back to town. She was  dropped off in a little college town three months ago, having landed a bit role as a freshman at a humungus  campus in the middle west.  After sending her out there by plane, and the parents driving out her stuff, hooking up her computer with the exception of the printer,  and putting her in the dorm, she was on her own. This a kid who had to rely on skating mom to line up her skating lessons, skating practices, remind her of her homework, etc. , feel her skates to make sure they were sharpened.

Well today she came back after three months away from home with an occasional text message  and an e-mail and a phone call over the last 90 days mainly over the fate of Lloyd Carr, Mike Hart and Chad Henne and Ryan Mallet.  She is now back on her first “Thanksgiving Tour.” And so far I like it.

“You can go now, ” she said, were her last words when left at her dorm in August. We wondered, would she change.

Well it got closer and closer to Thanksgiving, and we did not go out for Parents Weekend — choosing a skating competition weekend instead. So other than arranging a flight back for her Wednesday, and exchanging football chit-chat we did not talk to her much.

Then last week, things happened.

First, we were told prior to Thanksgiving,  “I don’t have to be picked up at the airport, my friend is picking me up.”

So just to make sure I called the new toast of College Town, USA, (she has made so many new friends on that metropolis of a campus), asking if her arrangements were all set for pickup today.

“Oh….ahhh dad, could you pick me up? Meghan can’t pick me up at the airport, her Dad has to have the car.”

I want you to know there was a time four months ago when, I as a parent would have pounced on this egregious lack of planning and continued the old pre-college parent -superior, daughter-irresponsible relationship.

But, no, being a rat-dog dick reporter and a “disgusting person,” I am subtle, I’m learning, devious,  I say to her, very matter-of-factly,  instead,

“No problem. I think it’s real tough driving to LaGuardia when you’re not experienced. I wouldn’t want Meghan saddled with that responsibility.”

So she says, “That’s great Dad.” (I had scored incredible points by not flying off the handle!)

Well, that felt good. So Wednesday morning the ingénue leaves her skating practice out at College Town USA and hops the shuttle to the airport. When she arrives at DTW, her flight is delayed. With my wife checking Northwest Orient (NorthWEST ORIENT AIRRRRRRRRRRRRRLINES, remember that commercial) every hour on the half hour, and ascertaining IF campus queen got on the shuttle to Detroit, was on the shuttle, has a credit card and knows how to pay, (she has missed this micromanaging),  we determine her flight is delayed until 1:40 PM.  Campus queen checks in from the waiting lounge by cellphone advising she is awaiting her plane.

But never fear the HOV lane in the sky is easing air traffic congestion all over America. Her Flight gets new equipment (which in airline-speak, means “plane”).

This enables me to go over and watch the Parker Stadium Ceremony. At the ceremony, Skating Mom calls and says Big Ten Princess has gotten on the plane. So I leave Parker Stadium at 1:30, and divert  to LaGuardia figuring the plane gets there from Detroit around about 3 PM.

But, oy! The anxiety of traffic reports, “reports” of airport delays was not to be believed. Though traffic was bumper to bumper northbound on the Hutch — it was wideopen southbound to the bridges, something you would not know from the traffic reports.

Then there’s the anxiety of weather reports! Bad weather in the midwest! FOG. Low ceilings! It is paralyzing.

But to listen to the radio traffic reports (“2 hour delays getting to the airports.” “Flights delayed.” ) without real specific information, I might add.   You listen to traffic reports today you’d never go anywhere.

You could not determine from the Radio 880 reports whether the Whitestone Bridge or Throgs Neck Bridge were backed up into the Bronx, for example, the traffic reports were somewhat useless and all they did do was create anxiety.

So I decide to divert to the Throgs Neck Bridge off the Hutchinson River Parkway southbound. I spend 10 minutes at the Throgs Neck, even in the cash lane, and I cross over realizing I could not get on the Cross Island westbound, so instead I shot down the wide open Clearview Expressway to the Long Island Expressway westbound to the Grand Central Parkway (Exit 22A) and I am parked at LaGuardia at 2:30 PM. One hour to LGA from White Plains despite the traffic reports on Getaway Day.

Meanwhile, communicating by cellphone with Orchestrating Mom, I am informed the Ice Princess is in the air, and I in turn inform Orchestrating Mom (who is cooking Thanksgiving dinner — we should have ordered Stu Leonard’s but she is a traditionalist), I have arrived and am waiting in the Delta Terminal.

Scanning the Boards at LGA Delta Terminal. You’re lucky if you can find your flight.

I mean LaGuardia is such a shabby airport on the arrivals level. No lounges, no seats, and very few boards telling you what’s coming in. Even the $5 Starbucks is lukewarm. I mean compared to Detroit this airport LGA is like a 30s airport which it is.

How did I ever manage to fly home from college without a cellphone? It is a miracle.

So the Flying Wolverinette calls me from the plane, informing me she has landed.

I tell her I’m wearing the Michigan hat.

She crackles from the aircraft: “You would be.”

So I wait at the escalators by the Northwest baggage claim. Each time a pair of blue jeans, boots or tights appears from the feet up to the waist I think it is the Ice Queen arriving…instead it turns out to be a woman in her 40s, 50s and up – way too old and too made up to be wearing that kind of bottom. Very disconcerting and funny and bizarre effect.

So finally she comes off the escalator and actually looks glad to see me.

And she is perfect!

I snap her picture she hugs me. I hug her.

I say, “I missed you.”

She says, “I missed you, too.”

I said, “You really did a great job these last 90 days.”

“Thanks Dad,” she says.

She is not the same, but I like what I see. Her nails are done better. She looks more confident. I love confidence in a woman.

So she tells me how she can hardly wait to drive a stick shift again. How nervous she is when driving with others at the wheel. How she doesn’t want to discuss the State game.

We have this incredible amusing ride back up to Westchester County.

A guy tailgates me on the Whitestone, one inch from my bumper and when I pull out to wheel over to the Whitestone…he yells “Learn how to drive.” She thinks this is hilarious, “You always told me to ignore those kind of people.”

Then – she lists all the things she has to do in the next two days before she goes back to College Town, USA. Tells me about the fraternity parties before the football games.  I think she is having way too much fun for $40Gs a year and up This is some camp. Though the grades are good.

She says she is going to play knockout late in White Plains tonight, a kind of dodgeball in the dark. I point out that she shouldn’t do that, what if she twists an ankle and can’t skate? She laughs.

I asked, “you missed that didn’t you?” (meaning my Dad advisories.)

“Noooooo, “ she says. “I haven’t heard that in three months.”

She has done a good job.

And you know what, she has.

And I have learned to text message. And I didn’t miss her as much as I thought I would.

Just watching television of a football game with 100,000 people in the stadium, thinking that she might be on camera some time during a game, I did not miss her much, did I?

We have grown closer together, since we’ve been apart.

It’s great to see the little sailboat negotiating the tricky headwinds of life herself, hoisting the sails on her own, and when she gets blown over, righting the hull herself.

I could never have done what she has done the last three months in College Town USA.

I loved picking her up at the airport.

I loved the way she looked at me when she saw me.

I like the way she’s changed.

And that’s a good thing.

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JIM BENEROFE INTERVIEWS  WHITE PLAINS MIKE GRAESSLE, RIGHT ON PEOPLE TO BE HEARD

PEOPLE TO BE HEARD

WESTCHESTER’S MOST RELEVANT TALK SHOW

“WHERE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY HAVE THEIR SAY”

YOU’VE GOT

MIKE GRAESSLE

“MR. REAL ESTATE”

OF RAND REALTY

ON

THE WHITE PLAINS HOUSING  MARKET

REALTY REALITY

THE CO-OP BOOM

THE CONDO DECLINE

WILL WHITE PLAINS RENTAL INVENTORY FILL UP?

WHAT IMPROVEMENTS PAY OFF IN SELLING A HOUSE IN WHITE PLAINS

AND WHICH DON’T

ARE PROPERTY TAXES KILLING THE RETIREE?

A FRANK DISCUSSION  ON THE FRAGILE REALTY RECOVERY

CITY OF WHITE PLAINS EXECUTIVE OFFICER FOR YEARS, PLANNING COMMISSI0NER FOR 4 YEARS, CITY MANAGER OF PORT CHESTER NOW “MR. REAL ESTATE” 

 INTERVIEWED BY JOHN BAILEY AND JIM BENEROFE ON PEOPLE TO BE HEARD THIS EVENING

SEE THE INTERVIEW TONIGHT 8 P.M. COUNTY WIDE

ON VERIZON FIOS CHANNEL 45 AND WHITE PLAINS CABLEVISION CHANNEL 76

OR DOWNLOAD IT NOW AT

www.whiteplainsweek.com