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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White Plains Looking South

 

Vacant former Wallachs on Mamaroneck Avenue, January 2012

 

WPCNR COMMERCIAL CORRESPONDENT. From Cushman & Wakefield. (EDITED) January  18, 2012:

The commerical real estate firm, Cushman & Wakefield, reports today that the White Plains Central Business District overall is down 48% from the downtown leased-up level of 2009. (This statistic would appear to confirm the results of an informal WPCNR photo essay of the vacant storefronts along Mamaroneck Avenue a month ago.)

Vacancy rate for Class-A space in 2011 averaged 17.1%, a slight increase from the 16.6% level in the third quarter and the 16.7% vacancy rate in 4Q-10. 

Year-to-date 2011 Class-A leasing in the White Plains downtown totaled 200,356 sf, on par with the 208,499 sf leased in 2010 but down from the 386,785 leased in 2009.

The Outside the Central Business District in White Plains has the highest vacancy rate in the county, according to Cushman & Wakefield analysis released today.

Cushman & Wakefield’s 2011 report for the Westchester County office market, indicating a slight increase in the overall Class-A vacancy rate over last quarter and a minimal increase in leasing activity. Rental rates remained virtually unchanged.  From the overall market fundamentals in 2011, C&W has made the following observations:

 

“P   Potential for a double-dip recession seems to have passed. The vacancy level remains persistently high. Historically, low interest rates have helped even poorly performing buildings continue to operate. The opportunity for tenants to trade lease term for rental concessions continues to be an attractive option for both tenants and landlords. Re-adaptive uses of office buildings (medical, residential and education) are being considered. Today’s landlords have to be extraordinaryily aggressive to attract and maintain tenants.” 

The Westchester County real estate market continued to show signs of weakness despite economic improvements. The Class-A overall vacancy rate has averaged 19.9% over the last three years, which is 38.2% higher than the healthy overall vacancy rate of 14.4% achieved in 2007. 

The White Plains Scene

The White Plains Non-CBD’s Class-A overall vacancy rate stands as the highest in the county at 23.7%. This is expected to increase even further when Starwood Hotels & Resorts adds another 380,000 square feet (sf) of available space to the market at 1111 and 1129 Westchester Avenue in 2012.

Class-A leasing activity in downtown White Plains October-November-December 2011, was a disappointing 13,225 sf, a significant decrease from last quarter’s total of 51,933 sf and 4Q-10’s total of 42,530 sf.  

 The White Plains Non-Central Business District (the donut around the downtown) recorded the highest Class-A vacancy rate in the county at 23.7%, a slight decrease over the third quarter average of 24.0%, but a good improvement over the 4Q-10’s average of 25.6%.

The County Scene

Countywide, yearly leasing activity (Class A and B combined) registered at 1.2 million square feet (msf) each in 2010 and 2011. This is slightly higher than the 1.0 msf leased in 2009, but 40% lower than 2007’s leasing activity of almost 2.0 msf.  Class-A leasing activity increased in the fourth quarter to 294,692 sf, compared with the 263,668 sf leased last quarter and the 229,449 leased in 4Q-10.  There was 943,704 sf leased throughout 2011, a slight decrease from the 1,008,087 leased in 2010, but an increase over the 883,884 sf leased in 2009. 

The largest office lease of the year was the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker’s 123,350-sf lease at 1133 Westchester Avenue in White Plains. Other significant deals in 2011 were Acorda Therapeutics’ 137,495-sf lease of office and lab space at Ardsley Park in Ardsley, and Richard Fleischman & Associates’ 34,263-sf renewal at 2 Manhattanville Road in Purchase.

Overall absorption YTD, one of the indicators used to see if the market is getting tighter or losing steam, remained negative, registering 236,423 sf of office space added to the county’s vacancy.  This was a marked improvement over 2010’s negative 526,254-sf and 2009’s negative 506,898-sf overall absorption.  Generally, the negative results in the marketplace seem to be easing.

The Rents

Direct average asking rent for Class-A office space in the county decreased more than $1.00 per square foot (psf) over last year from $31.23 psf to the current $30.17 psf. The Northern submarket’s Class-A rental rate experienced the most significant drop of 15.9% from $30.41 psf in 4Q-10 to the current $25.59 psf.  This dramatic decrease was primarily caused by the removal of the 84,000-sf 113 King Street in Armonk, which had one of the submarket’s highest direct asking rents, $35.00 psf.

“While leasing activity has picked up, vacancy remains stubbornly high and the market has remained virtually unchanged over the last year,” said Jim Fagan, senior managing director and market leader of Cushman & Wakefield’s Fairfield and Westchester County region. “Much of the leasing in the county this year has been renewals, which demonstrates how today’s landlords are pulling out all the stops to keep their tenants in place.”

As has been traditional in Westchester County, many tenants chose to renew and stay in place rather than to relocate. In 2011, out of the 15 leases larger than 25,000 sf completed in the county, nine were renewals and six were relocations, although the square footage of tenants renewing vs. relocating was virtually the same.  The motivation in this phenomenon is the fact that tenants can generally achieve better economics with renewals and also don’t incur moving costs. The largest renewal of the year was Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s 56,126-sf renewal at 360 Hamilton Avenue in White Plains. 

Other major transactions in the fourth quarter included Blue Ridge Capital’s lease for 32,032 sf, Granite Construction’s 21,047-sf lease, and Continental Casualty Company’s 14,775-sf lease, all at 120 White Plains Road in Tarrytown; and Trade Marketing Promotional Group’s 9,625-sf lease at 711 Westchester Avenue in the White Plains Non-CBD.

“Generally, 2011 has been characterized by malaise.  This market condition is driving landlords to be more creative and aggressive in their approach to leasing,” said Mr. Fagan. “We’ve also seen a fair amount of property conversions this year, primarily from office to medical and market deals continue to favor the tenant.  As the economy continues to improve in Westchester County, however, we’re confident that the real estate market will get stronger, as well.” 

WESTCHESTER COUNTY ECONOMY

Employment in Westchester County is estimated to have increased by approximately 1,300 jobs in the fourth quarter, continuing the trend of slow, steady growth that began in early 2010. The county has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state at 6.2% as of November, down from 7.1% a year ago.  Westchester County tends to reflect conditions in the rest of the nation, and we anticipate continuing modest improvement in employment in the coming year.  

INVESTMENT SALES

There were a total of four significant investment sales transactions this year compared to only two last year and three in 2009. In terms of square feet sold, the largest sale in 2011 was Ardsley Park, a portfolio of six office and laboratory buildings in Ardsley, sold by Astellas Pharma Inc. to BioMed Realty Trust Inc. for $18 million.

“With today’s exceptionally low interest rates, we anticipate a much more active 2012 for the investment sales market,” said Mr. Fagan.  “In fact, we expect investment sales to make a much larger contribution to the overall health of the marketplace in the coming year.”

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Press Office. January 17, 2012:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today unveiled his 2012-13 Executive Budget and Reform Plan, which expands on the historic reforms enacted last year to continue building a New New York. As a result of the tough decisions and bipartisan cooperation of the past year, the State is able to close the current deficit without broad cuts, new taxes, fees or gimmicks. In addition, the Governor’s Executive Budget proposes major reforms to reduce the cost of government for taxpayers, implements accountability in our schools to put students first, and puts the State in a position to leverage billions of dollars in private sector investment to grow the economy and create jobs.

“Because of the tough choices and the historic reforms we achieved last year, we are able to propose a pro-growth budget, tackle broad fiscal reform, drive accountability in our schools to put students first, and leverage tens of billions of dollars of new investment to create jobs without significant cost to the taxpayer,” Governor Cuomo said. “Through fiscal discipline and working in partnership with the private sector, we are making New York a pro-growth State once again. This budget represents the next step in our plan to transform New York State.”

The Governor’s Executive Budget closes the current $2 billion budget deficit with no new taxes or new fees. It also proposes sweeping mandate relief and pension reform that will save taxpayers and local governments billions of dollars and launches historic education reform to put students ahead of the education bureaucracy. The Executive Budget also lays the groundwork for an innovative $25 billion economic development agenda, funded largely by leveraging billions in private sector investment rather than by taxpayer dollars.

 

The State operating budget increases by less than 2 percent while honoring the two-year commitment made in 2011-12 to increase School Aid and Medicaid funding at approximately 4%.

Highlights of the plan include:

• Closing the current budget gap with no new taxes, fees or gimmicks, and including zero growth in State agency spending;


• Eliminating automatic spending inflators and implementing reforms throughout the budget to ensure that spending increases for service providers reflect performance and actual cost;


• Allocating $1.3 billion in State investment designed to spur a total of $25 billion from other sources to launch and accelerate major infrastructure projects and create thousands of jobs;


• Creating a plan for the State to take over 100% of the costs of Medicaid growth that will be phased in over three years, saving local governments $1.2 billion over the next five years;


• Creating a pension reform plan that will save State taxpayers and local governments outside New York City $83 billion, and will save New York City $30 billion over the next 30 years; and


• Increasing school aid by $805 million, including $250 million linked to improved academic performance and management efficiency, and implementation of an enhanced teacher evaluation process.

Due to the structural reforms enacted in last year’s budget as well as the reforms proposed in this budget, the budget gap in 2013-14 is projected at $715 million. That is the lowest “first out-year” budget gap in two decades. The Executive Budget recommendations cut the projected four-year deficit by more than half, from $16.4 billion to $7.4 billion.

The Executive Budget includes:

• All Funds spending of $132.5 billion in the fiscal year that begins April 1, 2012, a decrease of $225 million from 2011-12. The back-to-back decline in All Funds spending represents the first time in decades that this has occurred.


• State Operating Funds spending of $88.7 billion, an increase of $1.7 billion, or 1.9 percent. State Operating Funds exclude federal funds and long-term capital spending.

Financial Plan

The financial plan outlined by the Governor is based on the principles of fiscal discipline and reality-based budgeting that do not include using new taxes, fees, or one-shot gimmicks. State agency operations growth is held flat, while local assistance programs grow by 2.6%.

Maintain fiscal discipline: The $3.5 billion budget gap identified in December is closed through $2 billion in spending reductions in the Executive Budget proposed today, and $1.5 billion in revenues from the middle-class tax reforms enacted last year that made the tax code more fair and equitable. Even with 4% increases in education and Medicaid spending, and a 2.6% increase in Aid to Localities, there will be a net reduction in All Funds spending. Zero growth in State agency spending is achieved by redesigning State agency operations to reduce duplication, redundancy and waste.

Eliminate and reform automatic growth inflators: Last year, the Governor brought reality back to the definition of “deficit” in Albany by eliminating certain automatic inflators and pegging increases in education and Medicaid spending to rational and affordable measures of growth. These actions saved New York billions of dollars and helped to stabilize the State’s finances. The 2012-13 financial plan works to further control automatic cost growth and tie growth to rational measures. For 2012-13, inflators like cost of living adjustments will be kept flat and reforms will be introduced to ensure that spending increases in future years reflect performance and actual cost.

Economic Development

The 2012-13 Executive Budget funds a comprehensive and coordinated blueprint for economic development. The plan is designed to create jobs in New York State through public-private partnerships that leverage State resources to generate billions of dollars in economic growth, improve the State’s infrastructure and support regionally-based economic strategies.

Leverage State assets to spur billions in private sector investment and create thousands of private sector jobs: The Executive Budget lays the groundwork for an innovative $25 billion economic development agenda, funded largely by leveraging billions in private sector investment rather than taxpayer dollars. The New York Works Fund and Task Force will coordinate $1.3 billion in State funding to spur up to $25 billion in investment from other sources, including private companies, the federal government, and authorities, to allow major projects to move forward that will create jobs and improve the State’s infrastructure. To accelerate select infrastructure projects with maximum economic impact, the Governor’s plan will use provisions from the Design Build legislation, which was passed in the 2011 December extraordinary session, that will allow projects to begin now and reduce costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.

A Second Round of Regional Economic Development Awards: The budget includes a new round of $200 million in competitive resources for the Governor’s Regional Economic Development Councils. Of this total amount, $130 million is capital funding included in the New York Works program and $70 million comes from Excelsior Tax Credits. The Councils have transformed the State’s economic development approach from a top-down model to a bottom-up, community-based one. The second round of awards will allow each region to continue shaping its own economic destiny.

Reimagining Government

The Executive Budget builds on Governor Cuomo’s work to reinvent state government to perform more efficiently and better protect taxpayer money. The Executive Budget provides additional funding for the work of the Regional Economic Development Councils, and advances SAGE commission proposals to reverse decades of bureaucratic growth and refocus agencies’ operations in ways that benefit service recipients and taxpayers alike. The Governor is also proposing sweeping structural reforms to relieve local governments of State mandates that drive up local costs. These reforms, which address the largest cost-drivers for local governments, will help municipal leaders meet the pressures of the prolonged economic downturn, and will help local governments meet the goals of the property tax cap.

 

Healthcare Redesign: The Executive Budget calls for continued reforms to make the State’s health system perform better and cost less. By enacting the Health Exchange, 1 million uninsured New Yorkers will gain coverage. It will reduce costs to individuals who purchase coverage directly by 66% and small businesses by 22%, all financed by the federal government at no cost to New York.

Reduce burden on counties by taking over Medicaid growth costs: Medicaid growth is a major cost driver for counties. In 2006, the State capped the amount of Medicaid cost growth that counties have to pay. Currently, the cap is 3% of growth; all growth over 3% is paid by the State. To provide significant fiscal relief to counties and to New York City, the State will phase in a 100% takeover of the costs of Medicaid growth. In the 2013 fiscal year, the county cap will fall to 2% of Medicaid growth; in county fiscal year 2014, the county share will be reduced to 1%. Starting in county fiscal year 2015, the State will pay 100% of the costs of Medicaid growth. The takeover by the State of a greater share of local Medicaid expenses will save counties and New York City $1.2 billion over the next five years.

Enact pension reform: Next to Medicaid, pension costs are the most significant burden on local governments. The Governor called for a new tier in the State pension system that will save the State and local governments outside of New York City $83 billion and New York City $30 billion over the next 30 years. The new pension plan would have progressive contribution rates between 4% and 6% with shared risk/reward for employees and employers to account for market volatility. It includes a voluntary option for Defined Contribution following the TIAA-CREF model. Employees taking this Defined Contribution will vest in this system after one year. This option will be portable. No current employees will be affected by the Governor’s pension reform plan.

Aid to Local Governments: In addition to these reforms, the Executive Budget provides $715 million to local governments in unrestricted operating aid, and an additional $79 million in grants to promote greater efficiency. The budget also reforms the Early Intervention program to reduce counties’ administrative burdens and cut their costs by $99 million over five years, and reforms the Preschool special education program to reduce costs for counties outside of New York City by $150 million over five years. The Executive Budget does not include any cuts to Early Intervention or Preschool special education services.

Reforming the State’s Education System

The Executive Budget includes major reforms to the State’s public education system that are aimed at bolstering student achievement and improving efficiency for the taxpayer.

Increase in School Aid: The budget includes a total increase of $805 million in School Aid, including $250 million for performance grants linked to improved academic performance and management efficiency. High need school districts will receive 76 percent of the 2012-13 allocated increase and 69 percent of total school aid. The additional aid is linked to implementation of an enhanced teacher evaluation process.

Teacher Evaluation System: The Governor announced that the State Education Department and school employee unions will have 30 days to agree on a new effective teacher evaluation system or the Governor will propose an evaluation system in the 30 day budget amendments. Schools will be given one year to implement the system or risk forfeiting an increase in education aid in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school budgets.

Program Overview

Environment and Energy: This year’s Executive Budget maintains services at current levels for parks, environment and agricultural programs, and makes capital investments to strengthen infrastructure and improve energy management. The Executive Budget continues to support critical programs, including the Environmental Protection Fund, which will be maintained at $134 million, the same level as in 2011-12. As part of the New York Works program to accelerate capital infrastructure projects statewide, the Budget includes $102 million in new funding for DEC to advance flood control, coastal erosion and critical dam safety projects, and $94 million for the large backlog of capital rehabilitation and improvement needs in 48 State parks and historic sites as well as the ski facilities operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority.

Health Care: The Executive Budget reflects the continuation of the Medicaid spending cap enacted in 2011-12 and recommends a 4% funding increase consistent with its provisions. To achieve savings needed to address the State’s budget gap, the Budget recommends $19.2 million in reductions to public health and aging programs, including $3.5 million in savings from administrative efficiencies.

Higher Education: Consistent with the provisions in the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Program, the Executive Budget maintains General Fund operating support for SUNY and CUNY colleges at prior-year levels. The Executive Budget also accommodates authorized 2012-13 tuition increases by providing $113.2 million in additional spending authority for SUNY and $66.6 million for CUNY. The Executive Budget maintains base operating aid funding for community colleges at 2011-12 levels of $2,122 per full-time equivalent student.

Human Services: The Executive Budget provides funding for core supportive services for needy populations, limits spending growth to address the State’s fiscal challenges, and implements measures to improve program performance. In child care, the Executive Budget increases General Fund support for child care subsidies by $93 million to offset a reduction in funding through the Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

Mental Hygiene: The Executive Budget supports significant and fundamental reforms that will strengthen the oversight of care provided to individuals in institutions and community residences. It also makes investments to improve the accountability of mental hygiene agencies, and reforms the payment process for not-for-profit providers. These proposals result in mental hygiene system funding of $8.2 billion in 2012-13, an annual spending increase of $85 million, or 1.0 percent.

Public Safety: The Executive Budget advances key initiatives to enhance public safety, including expanding the DNA database to include all crimes and improving emergency response and preparedness, while supporting recovery from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee and continuing to lower the cost of ongoing operations. The budget includes $4.6 billion to protect New York’s residents.

Revenue Actions and Tax Reform: This budget includes no new or increased taxes or fees. The Executive Budget proposes tax enforcement and loophole closing actions to ensure that all individuals pay their fair share of tax liabilities. The budget includes $1.5 billion in net revenues in 2012-13, reflecting fair tax reform enacted in December that implemented a new tax bracket for higher income earners, cut taxes for middle class New Yorkers to the lowest level in 58 years, and increased the overall fairness of the tax system.

Transportation: The Executive Budget makes strategic and accelerated investments in the State’s highway and bridge infrastructure including a new $1.16 billion in New York Works State and federal capital funds that will create jobs and improve the transportation system to support business and economic expansion. The New York Works program will accelerate capital investment, building upon core transportation funding, to provide a total DOT capital program of nearly $4.5 billion in 2012-13, including highways, bridges, rail, aviation, non-MTA transit, and DOT facilities. Funding for local highway and bridge projects under the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program is maintained at $402.8 million. The MTA’s capital program will receive $770 million in new State support over a multi-year period to help fund the MTA’s $22.2 billion 2010-14 program.

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WPCNR MILESTONES. January 16,2012 UPDATED:

Arnold Clinton, a wrestling coach and Junior Varsity coach for White Plains High School passed away unexpectedly Friday, of a sudden illness according to friends’ posts on Facebook.

Mr. Clinton was a graduate of White Plains High School in the early 1980s, and was approximately 47 years old.

According to the Facebook page, venue for the services has chanced.

Services will be held for Mr. Clinton at the Bethel Baptist Church in White Plains beginning Tuesday morning at 11 A.M. with a wake followed by the funeral service. More information as it is developed by WPCNR.

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WPCNR THE BIG EXTRA. News & Comment by John F. Bailey. January 16, 2012:  

I wrote this column in 2004. It still stands relevant today,  Even more.

Monday morning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains at 8 AM, the man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is being remembered. His birthday is today.

 I am not that familiar with Dr. King’s life, but I do know that he, like other great men of America who have their days, Dr. King’s name stands for a value that America holds dear.

George Washington stands for honesty.  

Abraham Lincoln for freedom

 

Columbus for discovery,

 

Dr. King’s name stands for Opportunity. 

 

Let me add to that fairness. Compassion. A willingness to help and recognize wrong.

What would he say if he addressed the group at the Crowne Plaza Monday?

 

About foreclosures, shamefully low passing grades on achievement tests for persons of color and who do not speak English well,

9-1/2% unemployment in a “growing” economy? Millions of youths without jobs for them, and robber baron bankers paying dividends to shareholders made possible by the taxpayers?

Leaders who would be leaders of this country standing for the death penalty; standing for no health care for the uninsured; standing for less regulation of the greediest businesses on earth — banks, finance companies, and international American corporations who ship jobs overseas and get tax brearks for it; endorsing tax cuts for millionaires while refusing to vote extension of unemployment benefits? Leaders who hire politically connected cronies to six-figure jobs.

You know what he’d say, don’t you? 

When I think of Dr. King, I think of the Selma marches, I think of Birmingham, I think of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he lead the African-American community in demonstrations asking for the right of equal opportunity in America: a seat on a bus wherever they chose; a restaurant or hotel of their choice; the right to apply for a job without being turned down because you were black. Blatant in-your-face-discrimination was publicized by Dr. King and America was shown it was not right. It took fearlessness to do that. Who today has that fearlessness that Dr. King and his followers showed all of America?  “Leaders” so critical of teachers and education, that they want to help by cutting education aid and expenditures, while at the same time giving giveaways to business. And business leaders so greedy they ask for refunds on their taxes so they can make even more profit.

Where are the black leaders of today who will stand up and point these outrages out?

Dr. King would.

Today, subtle discrimination denying equal opportunity, denying education, exploiting the poor, foreclosing instead of adjusting,  and guaranteeing less opportunity are the evils that Dr. King, had he lived,  would be attacking today. 

 

When I write those sentences I just wrote, it seems incomprehensible to me that someone would deny another person that.

 

When you think about it, it is an awful situation to think about. In the 44 years since Dr. King was murdered, the nation has come a long way in breaking down the visible barriers of racism based on creed and the color of one’s skin.

 

Today, though, the language one speaks and where you are from are the prejudices practiced today.

 

But the hate and prejudice are out there–espoused daily on talk shows–and anti-race rhetoric being defended?  It confounds me. The rhetoric I have heard from both parties the last six months has turned my stomach.

 

The education establishment continues to favor the English-speaking, the wealthied, and the well-situated. The other  night in White Plains the big concern of one parent was that dual language courses might be considered to be eliminated in the middle school to save the district money.

 

The White Plains district is 57% Hispanic students. You need more dual language instruction, not less. You need young enthusiastic, bilingual teachers to step in now, as many as possible. Instead, the brain dead tax cap law that the numbers-challenged New York State legislature put in place is going to force cuts like you will not comprehend and it will come at the expense of the younger teachers.

 

Dr. King would point his finger at every person in that room tomorrow and say they should be ashamed for sacrificing the futures of those who have no futures unless we help them.

 

And you know what? That’s who they do not want to help. 

 

We had a County Executive stand up last Thursday morning and say we had to drop the mandates for pre-school education. Cut state mandates for health care. Cut pensions. The same County Executive who never met a political operative who wasn’t  a great addition to the county payroll. (And you know who you are.)

 

Today the barriers to Equal Opportunity are not subtle any more. 

 

The hate of the poor, the non-English speaking is now fashionable and draws cheers in nationally televised debates.

 

Last  fall we learned just how badly education in New York has overstated education achievement with blacks, Hispanics and whites all being equally unprepared with the exception of the students whose parents are deeply involved with their children.

 

Barriers still exist: in the classroom. There is reluctance to deliver quality education to the black and Hispanic populations in America today, just as there was eleven years ago,

 

The only reason there is a concentrated effort to do so are the state achievement tests which show the shame of our education programs for minorities. New York admitted its scores on achievement tests the last 10 years were curved way low — meaning that strides in closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities were not strides at all

 

What would Dr. Martin Luther King say about that education disgrace if he were speaking at the Crowne Plaza Monday morning?

 

Plenty.

 

The horror is that locally many school districts (with the exception of Port Chester) knew the curve was low. They knew it.

 

Efforts to address the achievement gap were overblown. They lied to thousands of concerned minority parents. They would say they did want to alarm them. But they were simply lying. Telling us they were doing a good job when they were doing a lousy job.

 

I wrote about this for the last six years, but no other media did,

 

The press ignored the low standards for passing grades. They did not even bother finding out what they were.

 

 On the other hand, there is the perception elsewhere that because your name and skin color are different, you automatically need help and are slow-tracked into remedial classes; the inclusion of the slower (read minority) children in one corner of a classroom so you can deal with the “problem children”

 

 

In the last ten years the products of this subtle but unequal educational opportunity have been well documented and given a name: The Achievement Gap. Well we now know the acheivement gap is now an achievement abyss. 

 

The educational establishment invests millions in studies to find solutions to it and they have learned a lot about it. It takes more School District heads to stand up and say like Dr. King, “we simply are not going to educate half the population any more.”  

 

The lagging of minority youth is blamed on the home and family breakdown. Well then you have to bring more attention to the family unit and those youngsters’ home environment, putting the education in there. It’s expensive but if you want to solve the Achievement Gap you have to do that.  

 

The argument that you have to speak English in the schools and learn through English is  racial superiority.

 

Of course you have to learn to speak English, but really, Bilingual education is how we English-speakers learn another language. Port Chester achieved this — and WPCNR pointed this out to the White Plains School Board years ago. Why is this new? 

 

It may be too late for Jessica O’Donovan, the White Plains Assistant Superintendent for Academic Affairs, previously the academic genius who brought Port Chester’s hispanic population scores up significantly, to do the same for White Plains, But at least the new Superintendt Dr. Clouet knows we have to do it.

 

 Now Jessica  O’Donovan  is bringing the techniques she pioneered in Port Chester to White Plains.

 

Finally, the White Plains School District under new Superintendent, Dr. Christopher Clouet is addressing the minority/language instruction failure in White Plains. But how they will deal with the tax cap budget sabotage this year is beyond me.

It is time to stop the subtle prejudice that we do not want non-English speaking children in our towns and schools because they are too hard to educate and will cost us money to do that. They are children, you simply cannot throw them away because they do not speak English.

 

This discrimination Dr. Martin Luther King would find hard to take. Ears would be ringing Monday morning.

 

He would bristle at lowering standards for minorities, because he would see right through that argument, saying: 

 

“When are you going to raise the standards for my people? Because you don’t have to work any harder at educating them, if you do not raise your expectations for them.”

 

I think Dr. King would look around today and appreciate how Blacks and Whites, Hispanics and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Muslims and  other races mingle together in today’s America,

 

But, if he was alive today he would never let the Republican candidates and the Democratic leadership in Washington get away with the prejudiced stereotyping of the hungry, the poor, America’s illegal residents that I have heard the last six months.

 

I think he’d observe we are all becoming more appreciative and respectful of each other– again with concern about the confrontation rhetoric.

 

But, I do not think he would like today’s buzz word :”diversity” and our smugness about our diversity.

 

He would say that’s nice, but let’s keep our eye on the prize, to borrow the wonderful motto of the White Plains Department of Public Safety, let us treat all with integrity, professionalism, respect, and to that add opportunity.

 

Now, let’s think how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would handle the present illegal housing situation in White Plains.

 

I believe Dr. Martin Luther King would take organizations in this town that circulate lists of rooming houses (without inspecting them for overcrowding), and call them out, if he were in White Plains today.

 

He’d stand up there tomorrow morning and read list of homes and distribute it personally to the Mayor and say — clean up this disgrace.

 

He would march through the homes where the overcrowding is and be arrested with plenty of cameras showing the disgrace of the housing the Uriah Heeps of this town have created.

 

Dr. King was not  only politically incorrect, but  politically uncooperative.

 

He’d  bring the unsafely housed with him to breakfast Monday morning and introduce them all around to the rich and the powerful and the well-connected and show them the people whom they are treating like cruel political pawns by our leaders on the county and the city level – all over this county — just so political contributers are protected.

 

Maybe he’d bring some Latin Kings and Bloods with him too. That would be interesting.

 

He’d read off the certiorari refunds given back corporations that do quite well and filed for them anyway.

 

He’d ask the illegally housed  to tell their stories at his breakfast. He’d prey for compassion from us the wealthy, the powerful and the “decent,”  and the respectable to have compassion for the weak, the misdirected, the addicted and disturbed, and the mortgage-ravaged.

 

He’d bring the foreclosees and those forced out of their homes and those whose mortgages were turned down,  and  ask those bankers, brokers, and realtors  in the audience  on  the dais and at the tables — how could you not help them out?

 

He’d ask every banker there to pledge how many mortgages they’d make in the next month, and the next month and so on.

 

He’d ask White Plains leaders to accept the responsibility of leadership and by reaching out personally to the homeless, the illegally housed, the unemployed youth  to provide them meals and, perhaps jobs during the day, to welcome them in to White Plains somehow. To help them make a new start in White Plains in a firehouse, a church, or a vacant hospital. To challenge businesses to weave these persons into the fabric of the downtown, instead of telling them they are not welcome.

 

He’d challenge us  to step up our humanity,  as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did when no one else would 60 years ago.

 

He’d shame  the two governments, county and city, for not treating the immigrants, the foreclosees, the homeless, the union members  with simple human respect and adhering to the constitution, which prohibits you from being jailed for no reason – a policy incredulously being pushed by politicians who should read the constitution just once to reset their minds.

 

He’d ask White Plains to rise up and forgive the persons with the prison records who have done their time, and find jobs for them and through forgiveness, and respect for them,  Melt away the English-challenged persons’ suspicions and resentments, 

 

And about our gangs:

 

Dr. Martin Luther King would go out to the streets of White Plains, Greenburgh,  Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Port Chester, New Rochelle, Peekskill – the cities where gang activity has been reported – and  speak to them about where they are going. It is difficult to say Dr. King would say to the gang members of our area.

 

But he would be in their faces.

 

But, I assure you he’d be in their midst confronting this problem and admitting it exists.

 

As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Monday. Ask ourselves what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would think of the way we have treated the less fortunate?  What he would think about how we have “reached out?”

 

Would he approve of the way we are working with our youth, our Hispanic population, about how dollars are being used to make unsafe housing safe and why it cannot be policed better, about how dollars are being spent in school districts whether on educating people or creating buildings or stadiums; how dollars are being spent by organizations supposedly helping the afflicted, and how they are really doing, and what are they doing with the dollars.

 

He’d excoriate the variable and below prime mortages now being foreclosed as a new form of financial redlining invented by the financial establishment to exploit. He’d ridicule the efforts of the government to “save” gazillion-dollar financial institutions while allowing homeowners to lose their houses.

 

He’d shame the banks now refusing to give mortgages to many. He’d point out the hypocrisy of holding students to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, while giving away money to Wall Street, the banks, and oil companies.

 

He’d save particular scorn for the bloated banks paying dividends to shareholders while foreclosing on persons who have lost their jobs. Where is the outcry of leaders of any stripe today on THAT outrage?

 

Would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. approve?

  

He’d remind us that Jesus Christ chose to minister to the “hardcore” of his time. He went into their midst. He  healed them and made them fishers of men.

 

The way to honor Dr. King Monday is to honor the afflicted, help the troubled with dignity, not humiliate them, not shun them, not “throw them out.”

 

The way Dr. King would view our world today? He’d observe that “we need work.”

That the lynchings and the shutting of school doors are gone, but the attitudes remain.

He’d point that out with his long finger pointing right at us.

He’d say, “I still have a dream.”

He’d be pointing his finger at the double-standard of justice for the minority youth and the wealthy that exists today.

He’d be calling upon all to keep our eyes on the prize and not on the power, the prestige, and the people who would steer us away from what needs to be done.

We need to make the comfortable uncomfortable, and comfort the afflicted.

 

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WPCNR BLACK COFFEE. News & Comment Special to WPCNR from Westchester County Roving Corrrespondent Nancy King. January 12, 2012: 

Citing an impending shoulder replacement scheduled for sometime during the 2012 legislative session, Senator Suzi Oppenheimer (D) from the 37^th legislative district, declared today that she will not be seeking re-election in 2013. 

Suzi Oppenheimer. 2007

Oppenheimer’s district includes the municipalities of Mamaroneck, Rye, New Rochelle, White Plains, Scarsdale, New Castle, North Castle and Harrison. Senator Oppenheimer disclosed today that she will be undergoing major shoulder surgery in the near future.  She has stated that the extensive rehabilitation that will follow this surgery would preclude her from running.  Although it is unclear when this surgery is to take place, it is believed that it will be occurring sometime soon.

Senator  Oppenheimer was elected to the state senate in 1984 after serving four terms as the Mayor of Mamaroneck.  Her arrival in Albany came at a time when there were few women in office.  During her tenure, we have seen more women who have not only run for elected office but who have been elected and serve.   In those 28 years that Oppenheimer served, she sponsored more bills than any other Democratic Senator and worked on implementing 300 laws that are currently on the books.

In 2009, Senator Oppenheimer became the first woman to chair the Senate Standing Committee after serving on that committee for 24 years. While Senator Oppenheimer was always a voice for  issues that concerned women, children and families, her passion was in the delivery of services that enhanced the educational experience of the students in the communities she served.   Last year she was responsible for bringing 700 million dollars to state schools in Federal funding under President Obama’s Race to the Top educational initiative.

Scarsdale businessman and Republican Bob Cohen, who ran against Oppenheimer last year, and who came within 700 votes of defeating her announced today that he will be running for the seat again.  His Democratic challenger will be Assemblyman George Latimer.  Latimer has served in the  Assembly since 2004 and currently resides in Rye City.