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.

Hits: 220

WPCNR PARKING NEWS. From a White Plains CitizeNetReporter. May 26, 2014:

A WPCNR-er phoned in a report  at noon Monday that White Plains Parking Enforcement Officers are “swarming” Mamaroneck Avenue, Greenridge Avenue and Post Road ticketing unsuspecting motorists who are unaware that White Plains enforces metered parking on holidays including Memorial Day.

A string of approximately six cars on the metered portion of Greenridge was caught and ticketed late Monday morning while an event was going on at The Hebrew Institute.

2 Cars and and the van below were Red-Ticketed on Mamaroneck Avenue. However, walking around the complete Martine, Court and Main Street area between 12:45 and 1:15 PM. WPCNR spotted expired meters with cars parked at them which had not been ticketed, raising questions whether Parking Enforcement Officers were only blitzing during Memorial Day Parade hours Monday morning until noon.

This van parked in front of Sam Ash, got Ticketrashed.

East Post Road was worked too. There was even a “boot” applied to a car on Mamaroneck Avenue.

Sidestreets were not spared either. Though I did not see one ticket on cars parked on Mitchell Place, while American Legion Hall wss holding their veterans’ reception. Again, this raises the issue of whether Parking Enforcement was targeting visitors during parade and ceremony hours.

.

“What amount of ill will is going to be generated by this ticket blitz?” our correspondent asked, exasperated that his city was welcoming Memorial Day Parade attendees with a $20 rememberance they will always remember, and won’t come back. “I know it has to be the biggest parking ticket day of the year for the city, but is it worth it? They complain about the sales tax, and their decreasing parking ticket revenue?”

It should be pointed out that most cities and towns do not enforce street parking regulations on holidays.

Hits: 194

WPCNR SOUTHEND LIFE. By The American Grillman. Reprinted from The CitizeNetReporter Archives. July 5, 2008: 

It’s the come home day of another Memorial Day Weekend in White Plains, coming home for that Memorial Day picnic. After Monday’s Memorial Day Parade starting at 10 AM in downtown White Plains tomorrow,  it is time to usher in summer officially.

Thanks to the chimney charcoal starter and its glowing orange coals, the backyard American barbeque DNA macho in the amateur chef is once again the equal of the overpriced steak cooked indoors at any restaurant.

Steak was raised outside, it was born to be cooked outside, and the barbequed steak on orange charcoal’s glow puts the Cartier- priced steakhouse in its place!

In this griller’s opinion, ourdoor grilling proves once again to be the equal and superior to the overpriced artificial-tasting steak that sleek decor and atmosphere cannot duplicate backyard orgins. The economy may be a press secretary’s fantasy, your home price declining, your taxes going up,  but remember,  even the hobo can grill!

To do real steak right , you have to do it outside on charcoal.

The instinct of generations of the American backyard barbeque tradition passed up from  the cave, enjoyed at Valley Forge, bit into by cowboys  around chuck wagons on the prairie and up from the Southland  barbeque inbred and passed on from American father to American son – cutting across nationality and station – gives you real steak – not $100 technology  enhanced cuts. Flaming charcoal makes steak a living thing in your mouth!

I think America can pull itself out of this temporary hiccup in the American economy and “anything-but-the-issues-politics”. as long as the American grilling tradition is handed down, the pioneer “can-do” spirit lives!

Why pay $100 for a  steak dinner unless your company or your political contributor  is paying for it, when you can tap your inner griller and say I can cook steak better?  The difference is the air, the smoke, the way marinade just drips down into the coals and gets into the meat. It’s chemistry!  Fire and flame and meat become one in a mystical, before time experience.

What is it about the American Grillman that’s so special that his or hers backyard cuts beat the insider  professionals’ inflation-friendly ostentatious steaks?

It’s the unique chemistry of being American and charcoal flame.  You’re not really part of America unless you’re grillin” like an American.

And on Independence Day Weekend coming up, it’s not July 4 unless you’re grillin’.

There’s just something about the searing intensity of glowing charcoal combining mystically with the testosterone and instinctual synergy between red meat and the dedicated outdoor griller —  it beats in taste, juiciness and texture the contrived technology of the most expensive restaurant equipment.

No matter how tasty the megabuck meat is in the swank sticker shock steak palaces, there’s always that articificialness packaged taste that marks the indoor steak. The butteryness. The soft crust of the black topped surface of the indoor steak just does not have the nubile grizzled roughhewn flamed yield of the outdoor one-on-one grilled steak that fights your bicuspids every cillemeter.It is like a showgirl seen from a distance who looks older the closer you get.

Only one whose money is easily parted would pay $50 and up for a buttery indoor steak dinner when you can do it yourself in the backyard even in 20 degree weather even in the rain – the steaks done to perfection with the juices sealed  in.

The chimney starter – the secret to the hot start. No more charcoal fluid needed. Take a copy of The Journal News and scrunch up the news section or the sports section in the bottom of the Chimney Starter. (Experience shows that copies of the Journal News — any Gannett paper — burn better than the New York Times which is very slow-starting)

Pour in a helping of those ultimate black beauties, Kingsford charcoal briquettes into the chimney top. Fifteen minutes before the wife has the sides ready, take a wooden match to the aperatures in the base of the starter and light up the edges of the newsprint. Within 10-15 minutes you’ve got coals a firey orange red. You’re ready to outcook the pros.

Eat Your Heart Out, Mr. or Ms. Professional Food Designer and Celebrity Chef!  After the Griller’s wife has marinated the meat –  these Stop and Shop trimmed New York Strips sizzling in the caressing deep searing heat of glowing orange briquettes – 3 minutes a side and deft turning and surgical rareness checks – the seasoned grillista simply has a feel for the meat – passed genetically down from generations of American grillers. The combination of cauldron, flavored steel grill rods coated in the char of former grillings, and perfect licking flames create the branded grillmarks that deliver the natural taste of the backyard steak – impossible to achieve for any price in the tehnologically nuanced, high tech steam tables of today.  No one can do a great cut like you can, Mr. America!

FEEL THE BURN!

As any redblooded American Grillman will tell you when doing a steak – you can’t deliver a steak by manual or instructions. You have to feel the meat. Feel it cook. You just know its time.

Every cut is not the same. The American Grillman becomes one with the meat. With eye and knowledge of the hue of red – you just  know  by instinct when she’s done. Cooking is slowed down by moving the meats to the side off the heat to keep the American beauties warm

With the wife’s deft presentation, sweet potato fries, corn pudding, fresh beans and mushrooms without the sog of infrared glare, the Grillman’s natural art relegates the indoor steak out of the taste sweepstakes.

Gentlemen, start your grils and   fire up to get that taste of summer you cannot get in any indoor steakhouse no matter how much you pay.

And–gas grills, are you kidding me?

Only charcoal does it the American Way!

Hits: 105

WPCNR THE FEINER REPORT. From Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner. May 24, 2014:

In recent years Alan Hochberg, with the help of Steve Wittenberg and cable TV access coordinator George Malone, have been interviewing veterans of World War II and the Korean conflict who live in Greenburgh.. Close to 125 interviews have been produced –each about a half hour long.

These interviews, which will be archived at the United States Library of Congress & the Greenburgh Library, will air on  the Town’s government cable channels non stop during this Memorial Day weekend through Monday night: Cablevision Channel 76 and Verizon Channel 35.

Sadly, some of the veterans who were interviewed in recent years have passed away.  Their stories will never be forgotten by our community.  We must never forget their bravery and contributions to democracy.

The Living history initiative continues. Veterans of any war interested in having their stories told should e mail me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com. Interviews with veterans of WWII and the Korean conflict will be taped first.

Hits: 123

THE NEWS POSSE

HERDING THE DARK CLOUDS OUT OF THE SKY 

KEEPING THE HEAVENS BLUE

Tex Ritter

Gene Autry

Hopalong Cassidy

PETER KATZ JOHN BAILEY JIM BENEROFE

MAKE SENSE OUT OF  NONSENSE

ON

THE CITY BUDGET

THE 2% SOLUTION

THE SCHOOL BUDGET

THE 3% TURNOUT

NADINE HUNT-ROBINSON SURVES A CHALLENGE FOR RUNNING FOR THE COMMON COUNCIL

THE FOLLY OF THE CITY POLICE OVERTIME POLICY.

AND

MORE

ON THE NET AT

www.whiteplainsweek.com

(Copy this URL and paste in your browser and download the dynamite, baby.)

Hits: 125

WPCNR BACKROOM BULLETIN. By John F. Bailey. May 22, 2014:

Democratic City District leaders are scheduled to hold a vote tonight to decide on whether  Nadine Hunt-Robinson, the interim appointee to the White Plains Common Council selected by Mayor Thomas Roach and the other six Common Council members,  or Tom Caruso, a Democratic Party District Leader, should be nominated to run in a Special Election this fall to fill out the balance of former Councilman Benjamin Boykin’s  term on the Council expiring at the close of 2015.

Caruso has surfaced as a rival candidate after District Leaders have become upset about how Nadine Hunt-Robinson was chosen to serve on the Council until a special election can be held.

A number of district leaders are annoyed  Hunt-Robinson was suggested by the White Plains Ministry Fellowship  Council as a replacement for Mr. Boykin, apparenlty it seems to continue the Council with a councilperson who represents the Black community. Mr. Boykin who held the seat is Black.  Some district leaders have referred to Mr. Boykin’s former seat as “The Black Seat.”

WPCNR has been told that the nominating committee was not consulted on possibilities on Ms. Hunt-Robinson’s appointment, but this is denied in a letter received by District Leaders this week from Mayor Thomas Roach and 4 other councilpersons.

Some district leaders are, WPCNR is told,  troubled that Ms. Hunt-Robinson is not a registered Democrat, but instead a member of the Independence Party, and has not yet changed her party affiliation, but may be in the process of doing so.

This week a letter was mailed to District Leaders, signed by Mayor Tom Roach, Council President John Martin, Councilman John Kirkpatrick, Councilman Dennis Krolian and Councilwoman Beth Smayda, defending Ms. Hunt-Robinson’s appointment, and asking for District Leaders’ support for Ms. Hunt-Robinson in the election tonight it reads:

May 16, 2015

Dear District Leader:

As you know the White Plains Democratic City Committee(WPDCC)   will be voting this Thursday night (tonight) for its candidate to run in the November 2014 election to fill the remainder of Ben Boykin’s Common Council term. We are reaching out to you to let you know of our support for Councilwoman Nadine Hunt-Robinson and make sure you are aware of the following:

• After considering numerous candidates, the Common Council voted unanimously to appoint Nadine to the White Plains Common Council at its February 3, 2014 meeting, in accordance with the City Charter.
• After interviewing several candidates, the Nominating Committee recommended Nadine to represent the Party for the unexpired term of Hon. Benjamin Boykin in the Common Council of White Plains.
• Nadine has already been working hard as a Councilwoman, chairing the City’s Youth Board, attending City Planning Board, Zoning, Budget & Management Advisory and other Committee meetings, participating in events throughout the City, and preparing extensively for each of the City’s Common Council meetings and work sessions.

Please join us in supporting Nadine on Thursday night at the WPPDCC meeting. If you have any questions or are unable to attend and you can provide a proxy, please contact any one of us.

With much gratitude for all you do to keep our party strong and vibrant and our city moving forward.

Yours truly,

Tom Roach, Mayor of White Plains

John Martin, Council President, White Plains Common Council

John Kirkpatrick, White Plains Common Council Member

Dennis Krolian, White Plains Common Council Member

Beth Smayda, White Plains Common Council Member