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The Old Ballgame on America’s Birthday
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The Old Ballgame:
No gloves, no steroids, no biting, flannel uniforms, no droopy pants and no tattoos. No electronic scoreboards, no out of town scoreboards, no runs just “Aces” and “Frames.”
No jingles before every at bat, no advertising bombasting you between innings, no $10 beers, no night games, just sunshine and a skyline as New York Gothams and New York Mutuals play a natural doubleheader on Governor’s Island last Saturday.
Wow was this fun and relaxing to watch. The shots went just as far almost reaching NY Harbor…the pitchers were crafty, the sweat was real. The game was so relaxing to watch. The rhythm so uninterrupted.
The two teams play by 1864 rules all summer long on the weekends. The admission is just right: Great baseball for free.
On America’s Birthday and no doubleheader in New York it is good to remember the roots of America’s Pastime.
For information on this great league, go to www.gothambbc.com
Nature’s Fireworks Celebrate the 4th
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Put a Tarp on It and Set Em Off Next Week. Did anybody think Wednesday and Thursday nights in the Michaelian Building and White Plains City Hall?
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Threatening, Grumbling Skies at 5:30 PM Wednesday, July 2. No Call from City Hall
Rain Drenching Haviland Manor at 6 P.M.
WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. July 4, 2014:
All I can say after the fiascos of two days of government-administered fireworks in active thunderstorms the last two days, is that I do not understand the thinking or lack of it displayed by our County and City Fathers.
Wednesday afternoon, with humidity massing, and weather forecasts all day predicting thunderstorms before dark, The Mayor’s Office said they would send out a media advisory as to whether the White Plains High School fireworks were “on.”
Well it started thunder-rumbling around 5 PM…and raining by 5:30. I received a phone call from a citizen at 5:40 P.M. asking me if the fireworks were “on,” considering thunder in the air and rain hitting the ground. I called the police and they said the fireworks were “on,” and there was about a “50/50” chance they would be on.
Did City Hall activate their Garbage Day Advisory Phone Call-out system to advise citizens in White Plains what to expect? No.
There were no media advisories sent to this reporter during the entire evening of White Plains fireworks.
No one was coming over to the Haviland Manor neighborhood to park and walk into the fireworks. The public was not notified the amusements were cancelled at 7 to this reporter’s knowledge. An e-mail perhaps? How inept, how lazy, how unthinking. How irresponsible!
The grounds at the high school were good and wet.
By 8 PM it was raining very hard and lightning was flashing regularly through the rain clouds and thunder was heard. No cancellation.
But at 8:30, a half-hour early, they started the display. So if you were coming out working with a 9 o’clock start, you missed it! How utterly inexplicable. Again…no media advisory.
City Hall yesterday did not respond to this reporter’s inquiry on why the fireworks were not cancelled or couldn’t be cancelled and how much it cost the city to put on the show that few saw.
More to the point, the clean up of the fireworks put police and fire and DPW personnel at risk in the lightning cleaning up the display after the show that no one saw went off.
I understand the forecast was just as bad for Thursday night, the rain date. It is being reported that the city felt they could not do it Thursday so had to do it Wednesday. So kill it. Don’t compound an error of judgment just to feel good about yourself that “we got through it.” That is Custer’s Last Stand thinking.
Just to show you leadership or what passes for it is the same every step on the political food chain, Westchester County fireworks at Kensico Dam faced a more dire forecast Thursday night,
By 8 PM it was raining cats and dogs with thunder and lightning at the dam and the hundred or more so cars that were parked, were being directed out. Not too much thinking by the county on that either. The forecast was much worse and they were parking people anyway. By 8 they were moving them out.
Well, this is so typical of government. They do not think. They react. Into the Valley of Lightning rode the six hundred.
For White Plains not to have cancelled their Wednesday display recklessly endangered their city personnel on the scene not too mention folks who came out. It is reported folks who came out were housed in the auditorium (the lightning was frequent).
This is lame. The city is guilty once more of not providing timely information to the public, blindly pursuing a course of action or a policy that is not people friendly or people-concious, or mindful of safety.
They need some kind of public relations savvy because who ever is running it now – and this goes directly to the Mayor’s Office, whoever is making decisions there is apparently overwhelmed with the responsibility with no grasp that communication is not bad, it is essential.
Now, fireworks manufacturers do have wrappings and protective packaging to protect fireworks from rain before shoot-off.
How about a giant fireworks staging tent over the assembled ordinance? My grill stays dry, why can’t the same tarp/tent contraption extend over the fireworks?
Why didn’t the county and the city call their shows off, run them either next week, or Friday, Saturday or Sunday? Oh, I guess they did not want to pay overtime or miss their 4th of July plans.
So if the fireworks display is only acceptable during the week before July 4, why do them at all? Why pay $25,000 or more for a show that few people see?
However – I do have a suggestion for the relentlessly innovative administration in White Plains:
Move the site downtown to the now dry (forever) Renaissance Square Fountain, badly needing $125,000 of repairs and dry as Death Valley.
The city shoots off fireworks down there for the New Year’s Eve Celebration in White Plains.
If you shot off the July Independence Day fireworks in Renaissance Fountain at Main and Mamaroneck—if it rained or lightninged the populace could just duck into the restaurants and bars.
The city could make a fortune in parking tickets – and since we already know we can do fireworks in the downtown without burning down the city–we do it every December 31 thanks to the relentlessly innovative Mayor Joseph Delfino, that would be the solution.
I can already see the dollar signs lighting up in the Mayor’s eyes at this suggestion.
Just a reporter, trying to help.
The city and county were lucky last night no one was struck by lightning at these dual fiascos of feckless management.
Fireworks Blast Off Early into the Rain at 8:30 Celebrating Independence Day. God’s Fireworks Upstage the Show.
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View from Bryant Avenue, 8 PM this evening. No crowds were visiting the amusements, right center of picture. and no crowd was on the spectator hill. Frequent lightning and moderate rain was the weather.
As rain grew heavier, then lightened up fireworks were started at 8:30 P.M.
WPCNR CITY SCENE. July 2, 2014:
With cloud-to-cloud lightning and moderate rain coming down at 8:15 P.M. (light rain and grumbling thunder had growled and prowled across the skies since 5:30 P.M. )the White Plains fireworks were ignited at 8:30 P.M. a half-hour earlier than scheduled before a sparse crowd that had parked cars in the lot above the softball field, if they were spectators.
No spectators were on the swale of the hill sloping down from the White Plains High School Natatorium (where the big crowds for this event usually gather), and there was no overflow of parking in the Haviland Manor neighborhood, adjacent the high school. No crowds were at the vendors and games exhibits on the athletic fields. There was no music. This was the first time this reporter can remember the fireworks going off in such unstable weather conditions.
Police had been fielding calls all evening asking if the fireworks were on.
They were and they went on.
With worse conditions forecast for tomorrow evening the city was in a difficult situation to decide whether or not to use the rain date tomorrow.
The Lady of Liberty Weeps for the America of Hate
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WPCNR NEWS AND COMMENT. By John F. Bailey, The White Plains CitizeNetReporter .July 2, 2014:
Good morning, Americans!
The news this morning is showing me ugly pictures of the America today.
Pictures of the townspeople of Murrieta, California blocking a convoy of children from coming to their town, apparently urged to roadblock it by the town’s mayor, made me shake my head in shame and sorrow at the hate that grows like a field of ugly weeds across the once great land.
Since when is America afraid of children? Since when does America hate children? When are we going to stop chasing down border busters and, instead, change the dynamic: welcome them with buses to facilities and give them what they come to us because we America are their last hope?
I hated when the Coast turned back the boatpeople years ago. I hated it when Haitians were denied coming to the U.S. I hate even more the inhospitability of creating an American wall around America.
America today as we approach its “Birthday”– July 4, 1776 — when signers of the original Declaration of Indendence signed that document in Philadelphia, knowing full well if British authorities found them they could face death for treason against the crown — too many of us have forgotten the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..”
The men who signed their names to this document had parents who had come to the new world because their parents had come to escape repression in England. That’s why they wrote that sentence. And, yes, I know they had slaves, exploited the slave trade, and the native Americans. That does not take away from the truth of the words in that sentence I just quoted. The operative word is “all.”
With this sentence they were declaring that in their new country there would not be the oppression of the past.
Sadly, the beauty of this second sentence is lost on the America of Hate today. Each day you see, scorn for the plight of children running across our borders from persons who should know better; fingerpointing at persons who are in this country illegally because they came from where they had nothing, because they speak a different language and try to understand ours, and at the same time exploitation of illegals and legal persons too in our restaurants, our businesses, our stores who hire them off the books and make fortunes on their backs, giving no health benefits, a legal worker is entitled to receive.
There is GNN…”The Ghoul News Networks” who cover every revenge shooting we average two a week in America lately and spend days titillating us with televising the grief of those whose loved ones died–a practice which unfortunately is not good for the mental health of persons who are troubled who I firmly believe are inspired by the media exploitation of mass shootings (because its easy). Coverage of shootings glorify them and is piously defended by the media quest to know why they happen. News reporters, look at your tapes! You’ll see why violence is in vogue! You promote it–inadvertently. They even reported a knife-wielder threatening the TV show, Good Morning America today. I’d beef up security on Jimmy Fallon soon after that stupidity of reporting the incident. Their argument is always, “It’s news!” But it’s not–it’s sensationalism to get viewers.
There is the “Never Do Anything” Congress in Washington who listen to their lobbyists and donors and do not do what should be done– pass an immigration law which should not kick persons out in any way — but get them into the workforces legally so they can pay taxes, receive benefits from employers. Do they do that…..Nooooooooooo–because that would cost big businesses too much money and end the bonanza of an expolited workforce. Our leaders buy into the “penance period,” of witholding voting, citizenship until illegals do their time leave and come back. That is a stupid fantasy promoted by the white supremacist capitalists in power in this country that have with their greed wrecked our economy…Supermacists clinging to their power by “buying” the weakest people in America — elected officials. They influence our feckless elected officials with money and sophist arguments to make the illegals have to wait for citizenship.
It reaches right down to the roots…right here. This cowtowing by government to the realty and businesses at the suffering of those who work the hardest, know two languages while most of us only know one.
Locally, we are very good at keeping illegal residents packed into two-family homes, exploited in shabby conditions in Battle Hill in White Plains, in the Fisher Hill Neighborhood and elsewhere. Contributions to political parties are carefully designed to assure the overcrowded conditions in sweltering rooms make the tenements of the lower East Side of the 19th century look spacious. Where are the sweeps by the City of White Plains to get rid of these people traps? Why do organizations designed to help newcomers who speak Spanish promote residences that are overcrowded (I have seen copies of the lists). The lists are available for the city to go to every place and inspect them. They don’t. And just once, I’d like the Common Council to hold a conference on cleaning up illegal housing in White Plains. They never have in the 15 years I’ve run this website. How do they sleep at night?
What do they and Westchester County and New York State do? Lots of tax breaks for businesses to come in and establish businesses in our cities. For which the taxpayer pays.
However, America does care if white persons anywhere in the world are victimized. We definitely champion them. But we do not get upset at the continuing violence in Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan — Ukraine.
When American businesses shirk taxes by shipping jobs overseas, we have abetted this, contributing to the drain of manufacturing jobs.
When banks screw up and lose $6 Billion, just lose it, without explanation. Nothing is done to them.
When businesses want to break the law, they do so, and admit no wrongdoing when lightly slapped on the wrists.
I was in a hospital Monday to be there for a person undergoing a procedure. The nurses were of all races. All spoke English. The anesthesiologist was Indian. The surgeon was Indian. They dealt with their patients deftly, with compassion and understanding.
I want to assure the people of Muretta, California that the children will not hurt you. They will not take your taxes. But you unfortunately have failed to do what Americans used to do: put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
The scene in Murrieta only lacked one thing: the water hoses and the police dogs and the police with clubs stopping the citizens of Murrieta from hurling stones and rocking the buses.
The government was wrong in letting them turn away the convoy, and diverting to San Diego. The Murrieta Mayor should not have incited his town against the border children. He just took a politically advantageous stance to assure his pathetic reelection.
When elected officials do not stand up for what is right, when they espouse hate against children, as officials in the south did in the early 1960s during the freedom rides, the people have to wonder, how would this person treat me?
The failure of great big American business to rebuild Detroit, New Orleans, and right here in Staten Island and the south shore of Long Island speak volumes for how the government really feels, how patriotic businesses really are…let alone American business leaders.
Not only is this now an America of Hate, it is an America of Insecurity, no confidence, and dedicated to its own pleasure.
Banquier Francaise est charge’ pour Fraude. BNP Paribas a été condamné à une amende de $8.9 Billion
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WPCNR FBI WIRE. From the Federal Bureau of Investigation. July 2, 2014:
France’s largest bank—and the fourth largest financial institution in the world—has admitted to large-scale, systematic exploitation of the American financial system on behalf of countries facing U.S. economic sanctions (such as Sudan, Iran, and Cuba) and has agreed to pay record penalties of nearly $9 billion.
BNP Paribas (BNPP), a global financial institution headquartered in Paris, has admitted its role in violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act by processing billions of dollars of transactions through the U.S. financial system on behalf of entities subject to U.S. economic sanctions.
“BNP Paribas went to elaborate lengths to conceal prohibited transactions, cover its tracks, and deceive U.S. authorities,” noted Attorney General Eric Holder during a press conference yesterday at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. “These actions represent a serious breach of U.S. law.”
According to documents released yesterday, from 2004 until 2012, BNPP illegally moved more than $8.8 billion through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned entities and used a variety of schemes to conceal the true nature of the transactions from U.S. regulators.
For example, BNPP routed illegal payments through third-party financial institutions to conceal the involvement of the sanctioned entities as well as BNPP’s role in the transactions. In addition, the bank instructed other financial institutions not to mention the names of sanctioned entities in payments sent through the U.S. and removed references to those entities from payment messages, thereby enabling the funds to pass through the U.S. financial system undetected.
“The significant financial penalties imposed on BNP Paribas send a powerful deterrent message to any company that places its profits ahead of its adherence to the law,” said FBI Director James Comey. “We will continue to work closely with our federal and state partners to ensure compliance with U.S. banking laws to promote integrity across financial institutions and to safeguard our national security.”
During the course of the more than four-year investigation, FBI agents from our New York Division and criminal investigators from the Internal Revenue Service reviewed scores of financial documents and e-mails to unravel the illicit activity and made numerous trips overseas to interview people with knowledge of the transactions.
The majority of illegal payments were made on behalf of sanctioned entities in Sudan, which was subject to U.S. embargo based on the Sudanese government’s role in facilitating terrorism and committing human rights abuses. BNPP processed approximately $6.4 billion through the U.S. on behalf of Sudanese sanctioned entities between 2006 and 2007, including approximately $4 billion on behalf of a financial institution owned by the government of Sudan, even as internal e-mails showed BNPP employees expressing concern about the bank’s role assisting the Sudanese government.
In March 2007, a senior compliance officer at BNPP wrote to other high-level BNPP employees reminding them that certain Sudanese banks BNPP was dealing with “play a pivotal part in the support of the Sudanese government which … has hosted Osama Bin Laden and refuses the United Nations intervention in Darfur.”
The case against BNPP “should send a strong message to any institution anywhere in the world that does business in the United States,” Attorney General Holder said. “Illegal conduct will simply not be tolerated.”
White Plains Pools — Kittrell and Gardella — Open
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City of White Plains Pools Officially Open for the Season!
White Plains residents are invited to splash and swim the summer away at the Gardella and Kitrell Park Pools. Both pools are open daily from noon to 6:30 p.m. Late nights will be held at each pool once a week: Kittrell Park Pool will be open until 7:30 p.m. every Wednesday and Gardella Park Pool will be open until 7:30 p.m. every Thursday. Gardella Pool is located on Ferris Avenue and Kitrell Pool is located on Fisher Avenue.
A White Plains Recreation I.D. card is required for admittance to both pools. The swim season will end on Sunday, August 31, 2014. Recreation I.D. cards may be obtained at the Recreation & Parks Department, located at 85 Gedney Way. For additional information about the City’s pool facilities or Recreation I.D. cards, please call the Recreation Office at 914.422.1336.
Michael Keating’s Role in Shaping the Politics of the White Plains of Today by White Plains Historian
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WPCNR IT HAPPENED IN OLD WHITE PLAINS. An excerpt from the White Plains Historical Society publication, IT HAPPENED IN OLD WHITE PLAINS by Renoda Hoffman. Published with permission of the Society:
Editor’s Note: Former Councilman and Mayor Michael J. Keating who died Sunday, figured prominently in a tumultuous period in White Plains history. As White Plains historian, Renoda Hoffman recounts in the White Plains Historical Society book, It Happened in Old White Plains: Here is her account of Mr. Keating’s role in the events of the mid-1970s that changed White Plains politics in her book:
Carl J. Delfino became the city’s eleventh mayor when he took office on New Year’s Day in 1974. Hospitalized for a Toer infection five days later, he suffered a stroke on January 18th and did not return to his home until March where he remained incommunicado.
Council President Harry Gordon, who had been acting Mayor, resigned on May 3rd, reducing the Common Council to four members, two Republicans and two Democrats. This was followed by so much debating and in-fighting that no agreement on either an acting or interim mayor could be reached.
On May 22, 1974, a State Supreme Court justice ruled that Democrat Michael J. Keating should, as senior councilman, perform as acting Mayor. This settled only one problem.
A Special Election held in July put two more Democrats on the Counil. Mary Ann Keenan and Wirth Koenig joined fellow Democrats Keating and Alfred Del Vecchio in opposition to Republicans Michael M. Coffey and William Rose, Jr.
On July 18th, Mayor (Carl) Delfino’s resignation was submitted, but nine days before the resignation was to become effective, Delfino died, aged 53. His loss was a shock to the entire community.
On August 14th ,1974, the Democratic Party nominated Keating as their candidate to run for mayor in November. But agreement on who should assume the duties of interim mayor for the next five months could not be reached. Names were presented to the council and rejected by tie vote.
To break the deadlock, the name of Richard Maass was presented to the council. Maass was a well-known Democrat respected by bnoth parties and well qualified, although he had never held elective office.
Unexpectedly, Councilman Rose switched his vote to break the tie and the city had its twelfth mayor. On August 20th, 1974. Maass, a 56-year-old investment and real estate broker, became the first Democrat to serve as mayor since Ffarrington Thompson’s term ended in 1921.
Four months of bitter political fighting was over.
In the November special election, 36-year-old Michael Keating, an attorney, Philadelphia-born and resident of White Plains for 13 years, was elected mayor. On January 1st, 1975, he was sworn in to complete Delfino’s unexpired term.
In the fall of 1975, (the Mayor’s term then being just two years an election was held for the next two year Mayor), Councilman Alfred Del Vecchio, 52-year-old professional engineer, professor of mechanical engineering at Manhattan College, and Democrat-turned-Republican defeated Keating by a slim margin.
Two years later in 1977, Del Veccho became the city’s first four-year mayor upon passage of a local law amending the city charter. He was re-elected to four-year terms in 1981 and 1985.
Editor’s note: In 1993, with Mayor Del Vecchio seeking a sixth term , Mr. Keating and Michael Coffey would challenge Mr. Del Vecchio in a Republican Primary in October. Mr. Coffey won and secured the Republican nomination. against Democrat Sy Schulman. Mr. Del Vecchio was nominated to run on the Conservative line. In the three man race, Mr. Del Vecchio and Mr. Coffey split the Republican vote and Mr. Schulman won ending Mr. Del Vecchio’s 18 years as Mayor of White Plains. Ms. Hoffman’s book and other exclusive publications and historical items may be purchased at the White Plains Historical Society Gift shop, at http://www.whiteplainshistory.org/giftshop.html
Michael Keating: Former Councilman and Mayor, Dies.
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WPCNR MILESTONES. From McMahon, Lyon & Hartnett Funeral Home. July 1, 2014:
Michael Keating, the former Councilman and Mayor of White Plains, passed away on June 29, 2014 at the age of 75.
He was born in Philadelphia, PA to the late Mary (Jordan) & Patrick Keating on May 31, 1939. Michael married his wife, Rebecca, in Santa Barbara, CA on June 26, 1965. Together they have 2 children: Mary Brooks Keating & James O’Malley Keating, both of White Plains. Also surviving is a grandchild Nico Talia Keating and 2 sisters; Corinne Keating Devereux & Jane Keating Ryan.
Michael was a graduate of Power Memorial Academy in NYC , Villanova & NYU Law School. He was a self-employed attorney. He served on the White Plains Common Council from 1970-1973. He was elected President of the Common Council in 1974 and was appointed Acting Mayor later that year when his predecessor, Carl Delfino, died in office. He was elected to the mayoralty in 1975 serving a one-year term.
As a Councilman, Michael was instrumental in preventing the erection of a huge elevated feeder route into White Plains that would have blighted both the shopping district and certain residential areas of the city (Battle Hill).
As Mayor, he was responsible for major decisions concerning the development of the extensive urban renewal area in downtown White Plains. Those decisions transformed the city into the dynamic urban center that it is today.
Visitation will be Wednesday 2-4 & 7-9PM at McMahon Funeral Home 491 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, New York.
. Mass of Christian burial will be Thursday 10 AM at Mt Carmel Church with interment to follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Red Cloud Indian School, 100 Mission Drive, Pine Ridge, S.D. 57770 in Michael’s name.