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I agree that the development of new housing on office park sites has some benefits, including better land utilization, reduced environmental impacts over construction on greenfields, enhanced 24/7 security, possible housing for office buildings workers within walking distance and improved landscaping to enhance the area. I will also ask that this suggestion be forwarded to the Greenburgh Affordable Housing Committee.
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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By Gridiron Mike. November 22, 2007: About 3,000 fans filled new Parker Stadium this morning and saw a crackling good football game on the new synthetic surface, where Rasheed Slowley and Maurice Easterling of Stepinac combined for big plays to overcome a strong challenge by the White Plains Tigers, 26-13, in the traditional Turkey Bowl rivalry
The game turned with 18 seconds to go in the first half when White Plains, receiving a punt touched it inadvertently and Stepinac recovered at the 50. Justin Caba ran the ball to the 20 on a pitch and slant to the left side. A timeout stopped the clock at 7 seconds to go. A motion penalty allowed Stepinac to start their one play for the go-ahed 6 over.
Rashaad Slowley took a deep snap in the deep backfield and tossed a floater to the right side to Maurice Easterling camped out at the 1 yard line at coffin corner. Mo got inside the Tiger defender, came back for the ball caught it at his waist and ran around the desperate defender, over the goal line to give the Crusaders a 12-7 lead. It was a huge turnaround. The mistake and a big play turned around the half, especially since White Plains had just stopped a long Crusader drive at the White Plains 10, and appeared to be ready to take a 7-6 into the half.
Rasheed Slowley, just ahead of Ryan Woodworth (65 in White), breaking a tackle at the 5, on route to an 11 yard rumble to payrug to make the score 18-7 midway in the third quarter. Mr. Slowley, a marvelous runner, scored on a 77 yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The third quarter score put the game out of reach. Slowley’s carries on this drive put momentum in the Crusaders’ favor.
In the third quarter, Stepinac on exchange of punts with the Tigers, marched the ball from the Orange and Black 50 in on the devilish, dervish, twisting, not-to-be-denied running of Mr. Slowley who ran straight ahead for 11 yards for the TD that made it 18-7. Collins completed another 25 yard TD pass to Easterling to complete the scoring for the Crusaders. Mike Howard threw two TD passes for the Tigers, one to Jim Briggs for 5 yards in the first half after an 80 yard sustained drive in the second quarter, keyed by four explosive critical pickups by fullback Maurice Thomas to take the lead 7-6. Mike threw another TD strike to Maurice Thomas for 10 yards in the final quarter to close out the scoring.
Maurice Thomas played an inspired game for the Tigers (as did they all), almost singlehandedly taking over the Tiger lead touchdown drive in the second quarter. He also made key stops in stalling the Stepinac drive at the 10 prior to the bungled punt debacle.
Maurice Thomas, behind photographer (in gray) on left sideline has just taken a 5 yard pass from Mike Howard to make the final score 26-13 in the final Stanza. Mike threw a TD pass to James Briggs in the second quarter to put the Tigers ahead 7-6.
Overlflowing stands on a perfect 65 degree Turkey Bowl Day.
The First Kickoff!
The Best Band in All the Land….White Plains High School Band plays the National Anthem with First Drum Major ever– Jason Kaplan conducting.
Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors introduces the son of Glenn Loucks, Dean Loucks, legendary quarterback and coach of the White Plains Tigers playing in the early 50s, and Tiger coach in the 1960s. Coach Loucks said he hoped all who play for White Plains will have as good an experience as he did in White Plains.
White Plains Tigers Seniors Playing their Last Game today: (L to R), Gino Gisondi, Jesus Trujillo, Christian Arrango, Mike Howard, Tom Kornblit, Savaughn Greene, Ray Mitchell, Billy Magana. They gave it all they had.
Mayor Joseph Delfino with the Most Valuable Players selected to receive the W. T. Lauer Award were Rasheed Slowley in white (No. 5) for Stepinac and Raymond Mitchell (in black) for White Plains. Mr. Lauer is inbetween Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Slowley.
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WPCNR THIS WHITE PLAINS LIFE. By John F. Bailey: 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.
Three Months Ago
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.
Dropped OFF in the heat of the summer in the midst of a teaming competitive environment, shown here with Brenda Starr helping her unpack at her dorm, in August, the ingenue is back.
“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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WPCNR’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR Roving Photographer. November 21, 2007: The City School District dedicated the new Parker Stadium today at a Dedication Ceremony before 1,000 Highlands and Middle School Students at the brand new synthetic Field Turf stadium. After Principal of Highlands Middle School Diana Knight welcomed the students who filed into the stadium in a “practice” evacuation drill, she introduced Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors.
1,000 Students filled the Stands this afternoon for the Parker Stadium Dedication Ceremony. The stadium built on-time by Leftek Construction opened today at a Dedication and Pep Rally.
Connors was greeted by a warm roar from the students when he started by asking them “How are you doing today?” (Roar), and the popular Superintedent set the tone of the day telling them how the Board of Education and the taxpayers of the community worked to bring them the new stadium. He encouraged them to take good care of it and enjoy it. He commended Dan Woodard for being the original visionary who convinced the school board of the need for the renovation of the high school field at Loucks, which will be completed in the spring, and the school board vision in also upgrading the Parker Stadium, originally built from 1928 to 1932. He then introduced Donna McLaughlin, President of the Board of Education, and Mayor Joseph Delfino.
Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors Welcomes the Throng. Behind him is the Board of Education, Mayor Deflino and select dignataries.
Donna McLaughlin President of the Board of Education emphasized how important sports was in developing “discipline, self-sacrifice, and accountability,” and encouraged all to participate in sports.
Mayor Joseph Delfino called it “a great day,” recalling how he graduated form the Highlands School when it was the high school in White Plains. He said the students should thank the Board of Education for working so hard for the students in the district, and encouraged the students to come back and not forget the community, concluding, “Never forget the Orange and Black.” The Mayor makes his remarks as Daniel Henderson, and Corrina Colon just behind the Mayor prepare to cut the ribbon opening the new field. Diana Hyland, Principal is in the orange jacket. Suprintendent Connors is at the right.
Panarama of the stands with Dignatries.
Daniel Henderson, left, and Corrina Colon Cut the Ribbon Officially Opening the Field for the Pep Rally
View from the Stands as the teams from the White Plains Middle School are introduced. New Parker Stadium will be home to Boys Soccer, Field Hockey, Girls Soccer, 7th and 8th Grade football and Cross Country.
2007 Pep Band featured Alex Harelick, Andrew Hall, Wiliam Tunney, Shaina Brady, Jens Sannerud, Richrad Demarte, Mike Rooney, Evan Ruben, Richard Crescenza, Mike DiBenedetto, Travis Petre, Leo Contreras, Jimmy Sorrow, Meghan Barry and Matt Silver.
The White Plains Team, left to right: The Tiger Mascot (Caroline Blaney) Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors, Donna Mclaughlin, Pres. Board of Ed, Sheryl Brady, William Pollak, Peter Bassano, Rosemarie Eller, Board of Ed; Tom Roach, Councilman; Michele Schoenfeld, Clerk to the Board(orange jacket), (unidentified), Charles Norris (BOE), Dan Woodard (Brown overcoat), Debra Clay, City Department of Parks and Recreation, Arne Abramowitz, Commissioner, Parks and Recreation; Nick Panero White Plains Schools Athletic Director; Joseph Cloherty, Principal, Eastview Middle School; (Unidentified), and Ivan Toper, Principal, White Plains High School.
The project began construction July 9. Landtek replaced the old concrete grandstand of the 75 year old Parker Stadium with metal bleachers seating 1,300, though the population of Highlands just squeezed in from our observations. The firm used 75,000 feet of “Field Turf” to replace the real grass turf.
The project costing approximately $3 Million, is being paid for out of the $66.5 Million bond issue approved by the citizens of White Plains in October of 2006. The high school Loucks Field renovation, at a cost of $5.5 Million, is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2007 before the start of the Loucks Games. No one could give WPCNR an exact cost of the Parker Stadium project today.
WPCNR reports the field is very cushiony when run on in today’s damp weather. Football players WPCNR talked with after they practiced on the field last Saturday said the field has a “ring” to it when they hit the turf, but they like the fast starts and cuts they can get on the homogenous surface. They say it makes them faster runners.
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WPCNR PLANNING BOARD REPORT. November 21, 2007: The Planning Board pushed off all public comment on the controversial Orchard Street Bernard Place extension Tuesday evening until they had had time to review all materials submitted by the developer, Michael Neubauer. Neubauer wants the city to approve the developing of a paper street, Bernard Place, to give access to two lots he desires to build two homes. Opposition has surfaced over the possibility of the city selling a slice of choice forest adjacent the city water supply for further development, made possible by the new proposed street.
No Comment, Please. John Garment, Planning Board Chair would not allow public comment on the Bernard Place birthing process Tuesday evening, pending Planning Board review of new material submitted by the developer, which included a Full Environmental Review submitted just prior to last night’s meeting. Citizens mocked the completeness of the review citing several one-word answers which they said flew in the face of the facts on water proximity, wildlife threats and water table.
John Garment refused to accept any comments from the public until the Planning Board had had time to review the Full Environmental Review submitted Tuesday by the developer. Garment also refused to allow Nancy Wallace, a representative from the Conservation Review Board to give a verbal report to the Planning panel on the Conservation Board decision Monday evening. (They recommended against the project.)
The Perceived Threat: City Sell-off of land for development out Orchard Street way if Bernard Place is approved. The city has refused comment on if it plans to sell the property
Al Gasman opposed turning the paper street Bernard Place into concrete allowing access to the two lots, on grounds it threatened the habitat of the box turtle (which Co-President of the Council of Neighborhood Associations Suzanne Evans felt was unfounded in a letter to the CNA last week) asked if the Planning Board would relinquish lead agency status to the Common Council, Garment declined to comment.
The Planning Board will take up the matter again on December 18.
A Look into the Orchard Street tract.
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WPCNR THE HOMELESS NEWS. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. November 21, 2007: Last night the Common Council and the Mayor of White Plains refused to see a group of clergymen who were all set to open a warming shelter split among three churches in White Plains. The Mayor did not put it on the agenda, and Councilmen who apparently think “out of sight, out of mind,” to their everlasting shame, put off even hearing about the warming shelter sites until next week. Not enough time the Mayor said. The organizations on the agenda were first.
No, not enough time, to hear a plea and be humane — to be decisive!
I have never been more ashamed of my city than I was when the council and the mayor chose NOT to hear what Reverend Carter Via had to say to them last night — when they could.
So as they go to Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow, as they eat their turkey in their nice warm houses they should give a little thought to how the White Plains homeless person spends every night – in the Homeless Hotel.
The lobby is always crowded and you’ll always find some room.
It’s a real place in a wooded area somewhere in White Plains near you. I am not making this up.
It opened August 6 of this year with no grand ceremony. No County Executive, Mayor and Councilmen on hand to posture, preen and take credit. Though they all can take credit for this hotel – they are responsible for it.
It’s down on lonely street where the broken hearted stay.
It’s so lonely, you could die.
It’s got a lot of open space in its “court yard.” There is no neon sign. There is extended stay…there is indefinite stay …there are forever stays.
The developers of this hotel, Westchester County in a joint venture with the City of White Plains, didn’t need to observe the allotted parking spaces regulations. No special zoning. No tax incentives. Neighborhood associations did not object.
There is no concierge. They do not have a Guest Register. No credit cards are needed. No business conference rooms or ball rooms, though the Homeless Hotel does have “Conference Clearings.”
As a guest, the only house rules are that nobody should see you go in and leave.
The furnishings: damp meadow grass, decaying leaves, hard cold earth, slabs of rock to lean against. The furniture—fallen logs. The beds, wooden pallets.
The views are spectacular of rooftops and blue sky (on nice days) through the bower of your naturally designed tree canopy. That canopy is now becoming bare of leaves as the autumn winds and bite of winter aircondition your ground floor, with sodden dampness.
Want to feel how this suite feels to the Homeless Hotel guest? It is about sundown now as I write.
Go out in your back yard tonight with a couple of blankets and see how it feels to you. Let the bracing damp air of November refresh and invigorate you. Really try and sleep. Curl up against the side of your garage to escape tonight’s temperature in the 40s.
The room service in the morning you provide yourself.
You don’t have to leave a tip for the maid. You just leave your bedding where it is and return to it in cover of darkness and slip away with it. No need to clean the sheets. Sleeping hours are from about 11 to 3 AM because long about 3 AM, the chill of the night deepens and you have to get up and start moving before you freeze. One homeless person says, “the cold wakes you up.”
So you go to a warm place. A transit center. If it’s raining, an overhang, and stay there until dawn until public buildings and malls open, where you can spend your day if you do not have a day job.
If it’s really cold, go to the hospital emergency room and complain of frostbite, cough, etc. At least you can warm up for several hours while you wait to be seen.
You are always cold. It stays with you so you are always huddled up. In summer when it is sultry, you wear a jacket. (Ever wonder why you see persons dressed in overcoats in the heat of a summer day, that may be one of the reasons.)
Your mattress can be rags and old blankets. Or you can find a wooden pallet, to keep you off the ground. Or a trench dug out military style. It is a little like returning to your grave each night.
You are living the cowboy-under-the-stars life, but no campfires someone might see you.
You always dress in layers. You try and do laundry.
Your suite is a clearing in woods or copses of trees, close to the neighborhoods and the downtown. You huddle together, talk, smoke, drink in outdoor hospitality suites you share with only the lonely.
There are no marquees at Homeless Hotel.
You have to know your way into Homeless Hotel.
The rooms cost you nothing except pain — the pain of the creeping seductive, spreading cold that gets inside of you, gnaws on you like a big New York City rat.
The cold weakens your immune system, gives you a perpetual cold, and other things, chills, nervousness, fear. The cold makes you unable to think and speak straight some nights.
There is collateral damage.
The cold of winter, the heat of summer from what I have observed of the way the homeless act freezes your soul and warps your reason, makes you so bitter you do not know what you want. You turn away help and lash out at those who would reach out to you like a teenager.
But unlike the teenager you do not have a future. Your future was decided by your past. Which everybody holds against you. As soon as you make progress, you slide back to your past.
You harbor a deep contempt for the officials at the Department of Social Services so they tell me who would take away your Social Security Income stipend in exchange for helping you – and they show you hoops to jump through and tell you places to go then do not provide you with transportation. Your government leaders describe you as criminals, sex offenders, psychotics, junkies, you are the lepers of today.
It makes you ornery.
Homeless perception makes you say crazy things even to people who try and help. You beg for jobs and when you are not given them, the shell within you hardens and the irrationality and sense of injustice within you deepens.
As an old blues song says, “Been down so long it looks like up to me.”
You make a living by collecting deposit cans and cashing them for refunds as one person does. And who knows what other ways these poor souls make money to live? Were a minority or a majority of persons staying at 85 Court Street employed? Unemployed? No one knows.
The county has not to date released any profiles of that drop-in population. WPCNR placed a call to the county to see if they have analyzed any of their records kept on who stayed at the drop-in and what those records revealed. Donna Green of the Department of Communications told WPCNR , “No, we did not keep those records.” There are no records!
What a missed opportunity! The county had 50 people a night going through that shelter and they did not keep the demographics? And the idea was when the shelter opened at 85 Court, the county and Volunteers of America would keep track of who these people were. Apparently not.
No public official really cares what the homeless are like or who they are or whether they live or die or work – except perhaps if they can make money off of them.
Food: This is not pretty what I am about to write. At Homeless Hotel there is the popular Dumpster Buffet with servings daily. The occasional discarded supermarket meat (after it has expired), a dead bird which you cook. Cheap donuts.
The indifference.
In the White Plains donut, there is the cake of White Plains (the suburban neighborhoods circling the downtown center, the hole) and then there is the Homeless Hotel –a Hooverville out of the 1930s.
The price of help for a homeless person has to pay is their freedom.
The county plan is: you accept our help or else no drop in shelter. To get our help and stay in our shelter in Valhalla or elsewhere around the county, we take your check and give you an allowance. Homeless I have talked to object to the attitudes of DSS workers towards them, the condescension, particularly, and locally alleged roughness by shelter attendants. The homeless also do not like giving up their SSI payments.
The only thing you have as a so-called “hardcore homeless person” is your pride – your stubbornness –your humanity if it can be called that.
I talked to one homeless person who attended the Downtown Residents Association recently. He said he had been cut off from a fortune in his family, and that was why he continued to be homeless. Asked by a council candidate and myself why he would not take a menial job, he said he would not do that kind of work.
As my father once said, you have to make yourself happy. Are these persons happy living in Homeless Hotel?
Well, a source told me felony convictions are a definite impediment for an undomiciled person to connect with a future in employment.
It is not just the homeless who are afflicted with the felony stigma. Gangmembers and youths once convicted of felonies seem to only be able to get work convincing other youth not to join gangs, precisely because of their convictions, according to speakers at the Westchester District Attorney’s conference on gangs. It’s much easier not to hire a person with a felony conviction than to hire them. Even unskilled job openings will not hire felony convictions.
The irony of companies not hiring persons convicted of felonies is that illegal immigrants (10% of whom have been found to be former criminals according the Department of Homeland Security statistics) are hired by corporations in the food service and cheap labor businesses, no questions asked.
The exception to this is the local day labor pool – taken advantage by many of the Hispanic homeless of which there are considerable according to our sources. A source told me that homeless who speak Spanish often get rooms through bodegas that advertise for rooms in their windows. However that source also said when he has tried calling the same room, and he does not speak Spanish, he is told no room is available.
There is a large Hispanic homeless contingent that stays together somewhere in White Plains out in the open spaces.
Reverend Carter Via and Rabbi Lester Bronstein recently have pushed for a warming shelter, at least with cots, saying the County Executive’s plan for warming shelters was inhumane.
Right now three downtown churches have committed to opening their doors as a warming shelter on a rotating basis with 19 cots.
Reverend Carter Via, whom I interviewed on this had this blunt observation:
“It’s a mess, it’s complicated, I don’t think anybody on the county or the city level really wants to own this thing. Both parties (county and the city) said they would allow something to happen if it was approved by or driven by the other party, so it’s almost as if what they agreed to allow something as long as the mess isn’t in their hands.”
Our leaders are simply playing politics.
Yet those warming center proposals still have to happen, and when? The city has to whisk through a special permit to open such warming centers. Or how about a PILOT (Permit In Lieu of Tenderness) Will the council come back after Thanksgiving and do it?
It’s not going to happen before Thanksgiving.
Now not every homeless person wants a warming center or will go to one, I am told. Some who are homeless, say it (the warming center) is just politics and they would not stay there.
There will be no shortage of warming shelters after the first homeless person is found frozen to death.
Then the politicians will do something. Because they can get good publicity out of it and, we can salute our compassionate leadership for their responding to the problem a little late – as they always do.
But if there is not any warming center, whether anyone will use it or wants to use it is a moot point.
There is another argument I have heard from homeless sources who are against the warming shelter: we need jobs, we need provisions, not just a warming shelter, they say.
What do they need and want? Why don’t they work there are plenty of jobs people ask me?
What they need is for all of us to forgive them…
…forgive them for making our lives uncomfortable for their presence
…forgive them for smelling
…forgive them for making a mistake years ago that they have never stopped paying for making
…forgive them for wanting control over their lives
…forgive them for their pride
…forgive them for not being grateful to us that we want to help them so much
… forgive them for not being perfect enough for us to employ them
…forgive them for drinking, smoking, shooting up, or whatever bad habit they use to take their minds off the hopelessness of the day and the despair of the black night, and the sameness of tomorrow.
…forgive them for making us feel guilty.
…forgive them for looking…well, homeless.
…forgive them for not having money.
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WPCNR Common Council Chronicle Examiner. November 20, 2007 UPDATED 12:40 PM UPDATED 12 AM EST November 21, 2007: Mayor Joseph Delfino received a request from the clergy of White Plains this morning, to take up the matter of establishing a warming shelter for the homeless on the streets of White Plains at three local churches and declined to put the matter on tonight’s Common Council agenda. The Mayor told WPCNR he didn’t realize the Clergy were ready to meet with them, and said a meeting for the clergy to relate their plan for housing homeless in a warming shelter had been tentatively set for Wednesday, November 28.
Rita Malmud, the Common Council President, could not be reached for comment this afternoon to see whether she was in agreement with this delay. Ms. Malmud this evening told WPCNR that no clergy involved with the warming shelter proposal had contacted her about putting the meeting on tonight’s agenda (indicating she would have considered it if they had). Councilmen Glen Hockley and Thomas Roach said they would have been willing to hear the issue. But neither explained why they had not brought it up (since any councilperson can request an item to be put on the agenda).
White Plains Hospital Center presented lavish plans for a $50 Million and Up remodeling which would build a new 3-story entrance on Maple Avenue, a six-story patient care wing over the present entrance on Davis Avenue and a covered bridge leading from the Parking Garage on Longview top of picture to a new hospital entrance on Post Road. (Details below)
Melissa Lopez, spokesperson for the Mayor issued this statement explaining the delay:
The clergy is not meeting with the City at tonight’s work session. The Mayor’s Office is trying to schedule the meeting for next week. We have to find a date that works for all the parties involved. Please note that the responsibility of this issue does not solely lie on the city. It is a County issue. We are trying to find the best suitable date to meet with the clergy and the Common Council. This way we can listen to their proposal and answer their questions as it pertains to the city
However, questions on the legality of the warming shelter in relation to city zoning laws were discussed in October at a meeting held precisely because the clergy wanted to know what they could do under city zoning to establish such a shelter. At that time the Mayor said to come back with a proposal and the council would consider it under the condition that a special permit would have to be issued and it could not be located in the outer residential neighborhoods.
The question of the establishment of a Warming Shelter for the homeless is was held back by the Mayor to discuss and act on the following agenda items:
1.) the holding of a public hearing on the new local law on acceptance of flood plain maps and storm water runoff standards in order to expedite White Plains residents’ access to flood insurance.
After the hearing in which Paula Piekos showed innumerable pictures of what she described as city condoning of storm water runoff at various construction sites around town, and Dan Siedel and Carey Gouldner congratulated the Mayor on the fast action in moving up the public hearing, the council voted to enact the local laws coming into compliance with Federal Emergency Management Administration flood plain rules. Dan Spencer o fthe legal department then took the notice and paperwork to a local Federal Express office to send the notice of passage to the Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany to start the ball rolling to get White Plains residents eligible to renew and purchase flood insurance
2.) Discussion and possible passing of a home rule resolution requesting a 1/2% increase in the White Plains sales tax by the state legislature (delayed three months by the Common Council, over the election campaign;
In this matter, there was no discussion. Rita Malmud untabled this issue, and then asked to retable the the matter until December 3. WPCNR asked the Mayor why the sales issue was tabled for the third month in a row, the Mayor said he was in “negotiations” presumably with Assemblyman Adam Bradley whom the Mayor wants to sponsor the sales tax increase in Albany. But this could not be immediately confirmed, we will check with Assemblyman Bradley Wednesday.
Ironically, there would have been plenty of time to hear what the White Plains clergy had to present on the warming shelter issue had they been put on the agenda.
3.) Approval of a contract for the city’s state lobbyist.
This was tabled until December 3.
4.) Setting public hearings for The Porter House and The Braxen Fox on requests to obtain a cabaret license.
This was done.
5.) Discussion of Avalon Bay proposal to add 14 units to their apartment complex.
This portion of the agenda was conducted in work session chambers. Avalon Bay said they were seeking to add 14 more units to the apartment complex since acquiring the Peter Zheng property at 21 Barker. They would add a patio and barbecue area on the Zheng property. A one-bedroom unit would be made “affordable housing” out of the additional 14 units.
New barbecue and patio area is located above swimming pool at lower right of the site schematic.
6.) Setting a hearing date for renewal of The Chatter’s Lounge liquor license was also executed.
7.) a presentation for expansion plans for White Plains Hospital Center.
The White Plains Hospital Center presented a preliminary design, not yet approved by their hospital board, which would establish a new front entrance to the hospital on Maple Avenue; creating the new entrance by demolishing Winslow Hall. They will add six floors on the Davis Avenue side, increase critical care units by four (while consolidating them into one space). An enclosed bridge will be built from the new parking garage being built at Maple and Longview Avenue. The project is expected to cost more than$50 Million and the money is planed to be raised via fund-raising according to Jon Schandler, the hosptial CEO who made the presentation.
The number of beds in the hospital (277) will not be increased, because, Mr. Schandler said, the trend is towards short hospital stays and to return patients to their homes for recovery as soon as possible and that trend, he said was accelerating.
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WPCNR PASSAGES. November 19, 2007 UPDATED 1:21 PM November 20, 2007: Joe Davidson, former White Plains Commissioner of Parks and Recreation passed away Sunday evening. Mr. Davidson was brought in as Commissioner by Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio in 1979, and was responsible for upgrading the city recreation offerings.He created the Noon Day Concerts, the Pops in the Park program, and worked with the community to bring Little League Baseball to White Plains. He also worked with the Little League to structure the deal where White Plains built Gedney Field, among other accomplishments. Davidson was best known for being Commissioner of Parks for New York City under the John Lindsay Administration in the early 1970s.
Visitation for Mr. Davidson will be from 3 to 5 PM and 7 to 9 PM Tuesday at McMahon, Lyon & Hartnett Funeral Home. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Wednesday at 11 A.M. at Our Lady of Sorrows in White Plains.
Commissioner Davidson is pictured at far right, top row in this commemoration photo of White Plains only District Little League 20 Championship Team. Mayor Joseph Delfino is at far left. The Coaches pictured at top were Adam Corcoran, Nick Baccero and Rich Massaroni.
Joe Davidson throwing out the First Pitch at Opening of Gedney Field in April, 2002 which he helped make possible. Photos, WPCNR News Archive
CHANGING OF THE GUARD 2002: Rich Massaroni, WPLL President with retiring Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Joe Davidson prior to throwing out the first pitch. Davidson, in his short talk to the crowd, remembered when there was no little league when he became commissioner in 1979, and how the program had grown to include both boys and girls in his tenure.
In a family-placed obituary today, Mr. Davidson was lauded for many pioneering achievements while New York City Comissioner of Recreation and Parks, and his tenure with the city, including design and construction of the U.S. Tennis Association complex in Queens, the expansion of the New York City Marathon to all five boroughs of New York City, and establishment of the first playground for the disabled in Queens. Working with David Corcoran in the the mid-90s, Mr. Davidson combined the recreation department and Little League programs into one program which grew baseball and softball to the point where over 1,100 White Plains children play Little League Baseball today.
David Corcoran, President of the White Plains Little League at the time of the Recreation Department-Little League merger said, “He was an all-around good guy.”
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WPCNR THE HOMELESS NEWS. By John Bailey. November 19, 2007 Updated 5:53 PM: Reverend Carter Via of the Presbyterian Church of White Plains announced today three White Plains churches located around the central city core have firmly committed to offer their facilities for a warming shelter for individual homeless persons. Reverend Via said Grace Community Church would staff the shelter and provide security, and also be responsible for the transportation of homeless seeking overnight shelter over the winter nights. The plan depends on Common Council approval for a Special Permit to run the shelter legally. The forecast for this evening is a cold and damp 35 degrees.
The shelter will offer only 19 beds (cots). Via speculated that Grace Community Church may transport the overflow seeking shelter to Yonkers or another location. Asked by WPCNR if the other two churches could not house overflow clients, Via agreed of the sense of that but that logistics would have to be worked out, whether all three churches would be “on call” nightly or not. The churches, he said at this time would host the shelter for two-week periods, with the site rotating to another church, then the third church, and then going back to the first church.
Homeless would gather at a central collection point in the downtown, Via, again speculated, since the sites are on the periphery of the city with only one church walkable from the downtown.
Reverend Via said the shelter was limited to 19 cots because of state laws calling for state oversite of shelters housing more than 19 cots.
The Reverend said one church had approved the shelter Saturday, and he heard positively from the other two locations in the last 48 hours.
Reverend Via said as soon as the White Plains city government approved the plan which now is definite on locations and how the clients would be handled, he said that funding for the program would come from County Executive Andrew Spano, who in meetings between Rabbit Lester Bronstein and Mr. Spano, had said he was willing to fund a warming shelter in White Plains as long as the city approved of the location (in White Plains).
Reverend Via was seeking to set up a meeting with the Mayor, and the Common Council, he hoped for Tuesday evening. The Council meets on the Capital Projects Budget tomorrow afternoon, followed by a Special Meeting at 6. The agenda has just been released to the media, and the shelter proposal is not on it at this hour.
Since the 85 Court Street Drop-In Shelter was closed by Westchester County August 5, the homeless single persons who refused to join the Department of Social Services program and observe its rules, have been spending their nights in wooded locations around the city exposed to the elements.
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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Assemblyman Adam T. Braley (89th A.D.) November 19, 2007: Assemblyman Adam Bradley (D-White Plains) announced that the
The “Contract for Excellence” between the state and school districts means schools receive significant funding, but with the requirement of academic progress, as determined by existing benchmarks, to use proven strategies to improve the standards and success of our schools.
“The ‘Contract for Excellence’ program will improve student achievement through accountability,” Bradley said. “Our schools need more resources coupled with reform to help them succeed. This initiative is a step towards ensuring even more academic opportunities for