Sidewalk snow removal in White Plains: inadequate as usual.

Why bother?  Why do I even bother to write about this again when it's obvious that nothing will improve?  Why not?  Why let the bums (euphemism for city officials) off the hook?  Why let them pretend that nothing is wrong.  If at least one person points out a problem then those responsible in White Plains city government cannot pretend that they did not know.  The link for this post will be sent to the mayor White Plains.

I did a search of my posts on "new york hospital" and found the three hits below.  As you can see the two leading sidewalk snow removal offenders have been and with the snow storm of Sunday Dec. 26, 2010 continue to be:

1. New York hospital (Bloomingdale Lane and Bryant Ave.)

2. City of White Plains (Mamaroneck Ave and Bryant Ave.) - you know, that secret park the city owns.

In addition there are the usual and continuing offenders: owners of  empty lots, including: SE corner of Barker Ave. and Church St. and those along the south side of Maple Ave. between Mamaroneck Ave. and Bloomingdale Lane

White Plains, NY: Snow on Sidewalks

Dec 21, 2008

Comments intended to improve the quality of life in the city of White Plains in Westchester county New York. ... I think WP keeps the park land a secret so that the city can attempt to shake down the hospital for more land in exchange for allowing thehospital to develop other parts of its property but that's just a guess. 1. Why does the City of White Plains not at least clear the sidewalk adjacent to its own land? That's pretty basic stuff. Does the city issue summonses ...

http://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/

Roads cleared, sidewalks not.

Jan 20, 2009

Meanwhile, the sidewalk of the New York Hospital grounds along Bloomingdale RD and Bryant Ave. was cleared this morning but the worker left a half inch of snow. Compare that to the stretch of Bloomingdale RD sidewalk cleared by the ...

http://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/

Parks, soccer fields and common sense.

May 29, 2008

Consider this the next time you try to negotiate to obtain property from New York hospital. Soccer fields do not make a park. 2. WP already has park land at the southeast corner of Mamaroneck and Bryant Avenues. ...

http://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/

Snow removal: inadequate even before winter actually begins.

The City of White Plains is up to its old tricks: prizing the movement of cars over the safe movement of pedestrians.

I walk to Whole Foods along Maple Avenue between Mamaroneck Avenue and Bloomingdale Lane.  The usual scoff law properties were allowed by the City of White Plains to leave dangerous snow/ice on the public sidewalks after the recent snowfall.  Maple Avenue was, of course, cleared of snow for the movement of cars.

The City of White Plains has been notified about this for years and has failed to remedy the situation.  Anyone who is injured can easily bolster a law suit against the City of White Plains by referencing these public notifications on this blog, all of which have been sent to the city and its officials via e-mail.

City of White Plains, do the right thing.  And failing that, do the practical thing.  Stop waisting taxpayer dollars by exposing residents to dangerous conditions that could cost them dearly in law suits that could easily have been avoided.

Note: Link for this post sent to the mayor's office through his web form and to the CC members by individual e-mail IDs.

Yippie! The City of While Plains did NOT buy a country club during a "national debt crisis"!

In an e-mail message from CNA (Council of Neighborhood Associations):

The French-American School of New York (FASNY), which currently has 825 students attending its preschool in Scarsdale, lower school in Larchmont and upper School in Mamaroneck, has contracted to buy the Ridgeway Country Club for $11 million.

Great.  As long as the City of While Plains didn't buy it.  That would have been an inexcusable capitulation to the house owners who live near thecountry club.

The French-American School has "preschool in Scarsdale, lower school in Larchmont and upper School in Mamaroneck".  That sort of makes my point that this entire issue was another canard to provide city wide resources for the benefit of the While Plains house owners who live in almost Scarsdale and almost Harrison.

The While Plains Common Council lucked out and was precluded from taking sides in the social divide that is the main problem in the governing of the City of While Plains: downtown apartment dwellers v. suburban house owners who have dominated the Common Council for decades to the extreme detriment of downtown residents.

White Plains, NY is considering acquiring a country club ... during a "national debt crisis".

Mounting Debts by States Stoke Fears of Crisis
By MICHAEL COOPER and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Published: December 05, 2010

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=709396&f=19

But the finances of some state and local governments are so distressed that some analysts say they are reminded of the run-up to the subprime mortgage meltdown or of the debt crisis hitting nations in Europe.


Analysts fear that at some point - no one knows when - investors could balk at lending to the weakest states, setting off a crisis that could spread to the stronger ones, much as the turmoil in Europe has spread from country to country.

So how come White Plains, NY is considering acquiring a country club?

Real Estate Property Taxes

http://cwp.munisselfservice.com/citizens/RealEstate/Default.aspx?mode=new

Use to search.

"Envisioning a More Walkable White Plains" - wptimes.com

http://wptimes.com/local_news.php?viewspecific=1&storyid=2958

A friend sent the link to me with this comment:


"Did you see this article in the latest W.P. Times?   Got some of your ideas in it."

Here is my response:

Wasn't a raised pedestrian walkway in the original design 30 years ago?

I'm desperately trying to "visualize automobile traffic diverted from Mamaroneck Avenue".  Can't do it.  The committee they set up 10-15 years ago suggested angle parking on Mamaroneck Avenue but WP couldn't even do that.

Try something.  Try anything.

As I state in my blog, WP looks like its design decisions are made by people who do not live here (downtown).

Ridgeway Country Club: the new Railside canard.

House owners in the suburbs of White Plains are at it again.  As with the Railside issue, of which 99% of White Plains residents remain oblivious, the almost in Scarsdale and/or Harrison crowd want ALL White Plains residents to pay for something that can benefit only the house owners who live nearby.

If the house owners succeed, them shame on the majority of us who live in apartments downtown.

NO, the City of White Plains should NOT buy the Ridgeway Country Club!

http://www.ridgewaycc.com/

White Plains house owners, just secede and become part of Scarsdale.

I just received an e-mail message stating:

There will be a meeting of the White Plains Sustainability & Environmental Enhancement Committee (SEEC)  tonight, September 29 from 7:30 - 9:00pm at the White Plains Education House, 5 Homeside Lane

That's a location closer to Scarsdale than White Plains city hall.  It also requires that people drive.

Odd, considering the nature of the meeting.  Wouldn't people who are comfortable with this location be more comfortable if their houses were actually in Scarsdale and not in White Plains?

House owners, just secede and become part of Scarsdale.

An appeal to New York state to provide public safety in White Plains.

Sent to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (you know, the guy running for governor):

Form submitted on August 9, 2010 7:38:25 PM EDT

Personal Information:

     Kenneth Matinale

Comments:

http://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/2010/06/white-plains-needs-pedestrian.html

The city of White Plains, NY has a consistent pattern of refusing to enforce its own traffic and safely rules and laws.  This has been true for multiple administrations.

At what point can New York state step in and protect the citizens of White Plains?

We downtowners are dumb and/or lazy.

We must be.  Why else would the majority of White Plains residents living in downtown apartments let the minority living in the suburban houses set policy for our style of living?

The essence of White Plains is its downtown.  The suburbs could easily be part of adjacent municipalities.  Downtown could not.  Part of the problem is the aberrant form of government that is White Plains: the evil at large system of selecting Common Council members.  If White Plains had district based voting, you know, like the county, state and good old USA, most of the current CC members could not be members because they would be in the same districts.

However, the majority could still take over and elect its own to set policy and run White Plains.  Why don't we?  Some of us don't get it.  The rest are too lazy.  Shame on us.

That's why downtown White Plains looks like it is run by people who don't live here.  They don't.

White Plains Clean and Green event, July 17, 2010

To: WP CC
CC: Rob, Wp Times
BCC: others

Message sent to organizers:

Solar-powered rockers: does that mean that if it's a cloudy day we will not have to listen to them?

Are the organizers getting to WP without burning anything?  I understand that the lead person lives in Irvington.

It looks like the usual WP mess of an event with some kiddie environmental stuff.  You need to insist that people get there without driving.  You need to call out the city for allowing the development of thousands of new housing units in downtown with only 14 pathetic "affordable" units crammed beside the interstate highway with any hint of "green" elements.

____________________________

WP is Motown, the most pedestrian hostile place I know.  Every issue is impacted by the city government's reverence for cars.  It is Dodge city.  Drivers get away with infractions ALL day long.  There is minimal enforcement of traffic laws.  If CC members walked around downtown occasionally, they might know this.  Instead they stay in their suburban enclaves and visit citizen groups that represent those enclaves.  Let's save tax money and just have the Scarsdale government make decisions for WP.  They have as much vested interest.

Property Tax Perspective.

I received this message:

Your attitude towards the sections of White Plains that pay the lions share of the taxes that support the downtown infrastructure in nothing short of abysmal. The whole blog reeks of misplaced resentment. I might have been sympathetic until I read the bulk of your posts - by the time I was done the steam was coming out of my ears. My taxes have tripled thanks to all the downtown development and you guys want MORE. Pay for it yourselves and carry your own water for a change. The downtown is a huge drain on the suburban end financially. 
___________________________________________________

Response:

I checked the city web site tax records and found two people with the last name Hicks.  One lives in a house.  The other in a two bed, two bath condo.  Their taxes (school, city, county):

house: $7,680.36

apartment: $6,684.54

Only $1,000 more for an entire house.  With private outdoor space.  Probably a private garage.

On my physical block there are about 300 apartment homes.  How much is spent by the city to maintain, let's say, the public streets?  We'll call them four blocks, even though two are short.

How many blocks of houses would comprise 300 houses and what is the cost to the city? That money is not reflected in individual property tax.

In my complex of 282 homes, there are 70 children, including toddlers.  How many children would live in 282 houses and what's the school tax distribution per adult?

Oh, and my individual apartment has meters for water, which I pay as an individual.

Finally, whatever subsidies were given by the city were given to the developers, not to apartment residents.

The house owners who think that their taxes are too high should simply move to Scarsdale.

In which of the CNA groups does the resentful house owner live?  How many homes are represented by that entity?  How many people?

White Plains needs a Pedestrian Commissioner.

It's obvious that neither the Traffic nor Public Safety Commissioners give a damn how pedestrian hostile White Plains becomes, so how about a Pedestrian Commissioner, someone who represents the interests of pedestrians?

The WP Police do not enforce traffic laws, except for an occasional speed trap near a school, such as the private high school on Mamaroneck Avenue, protecting 14-18 year-olds from strolling across four lanes of traffic.  Oh, and of course, parking violations.  Have you ever seen a summons issued for:

- car across stop line
- car in cross walk
- car not making full stop
- car making illegal right on red
- car running red light
- car failing to yield to pedestrian in cross walk
- cars nudging pedestrians in cross walk out of the way?

The Traffic Commissioner has established non-intuitive rules such as cars being allowed to turn from other than the immediate lane, such as Main Street turning right onto Lexington Avenue where cars from the TWO right lanes may turn.  The Public Safety Commissioner allows cars to get away with this trick even where it is not permitted, such as Main Street turning left onto Grove Street where cars in the second lane from the left lane have routinely made illegal turn for YEARS!

Saturday afternoon at about 4PM I tried to walk across Hamilton Avenue at Church Street from the northwest corner to the southwest corner.  Couldn't do it.  A long line of cars in the left turn lane failed to yield.  Worse, and what prevented me from attempting to wade into the oncoming traffic, was another line of cars turning illegally from the middle go straight only lane.  When the light changed again I crossed and looked to see if the Traffic Commissioner had made yet another dangerous intersection even more dangerous in the never ending effort to move cars through WP.  Nope.  The cars simply did it anyway.  Why?  Because the Public Safety Commissioner does not enforce the laws and because neither the mayor nor the common council members do anything to make WP less pedestrian hostile.