Downtown White Plains Transit District Community Open Houses in April.

I attended an hour of the Battle Hill Association meeting tonight and the Planning Commissioner mentioned something pertinent between interruptions: a meeting on April 11. So I searched and found the following information buried on the City website. I have a hunch that only the community groups mentioned are supposed to know and that they agitated for the meetings. The Planning Commissioner also mentioned that he's spoken multiple times to the CNA, the group that represents the interests of White Plains residents who live in houses.

The White Plains residents who live in live in apartments downtown continue to sleep while the house people petition the City during this planning period.

Here's the info on the two April meetings:

http://whiteplainsny.gov/index.aspx?NID=594

Community Open Houses
The City of White Plains will also hold two community open houses for residents and community groups of neighborhoods which are located either within the Downtown White Plains Transit District or which directly border it. While these meetings will be more directly focused on the needs, challenges, and opportunities that a new transit district would provide for residents and businesses in these specific close-in neighborhoods, all White Plains residents are welcome to attend.
 

Meeting	Date	Time	Location
Fisher Hill, Battle Hill, Ferris Ave Community Open House	Monday, April 11, 2016	7:00 pm – 8:30 pm	Church Street SchoolCafeteria 295 Church Street White Plains, NY 10603
Downtown and White Plains BID Community Open House	Monday, April 18, 2016	7:00 pm – 8:30 pm	New York Power AuthorityJaguar Room 123 Main Street White Plains, NY 10601

Transit District Study: when do Trancenter task force members study?

There's no indication at the website:

wptransitdistrict.com

So, who actually meets and when? One of the three quarterly open sessions took place Feb. 11 and the Trancenter task force members were not even introduced. How do we know what, if anything, is going on?

How often do they meet? Are there any work products? I'm guessing that the consulting company is doing most of the work: wsp-pb.com

White Plains residents are getting ZERO information.

Do bus terminals need to be at the train station?

The Adirondack Trailways map suggests that White Plains is between terminal locations in Nanuet and New Rochelle, then on to Queens Village with connecting service in New Rochelle to New York City, "Port Authority Bus Terminal 8th Ave. between
40th & 41st Street":

http://trailwaysny.com/index.php/route-map/

The direct route to New York City would be Newburgh to Ridgewood to New York City, completely bypassing White Plains.

So why does Adirondack Trailways need to go to the White Plains train station at all, much less drive down residential Barker Avenue rather than non-residential Hamilton Avenue? Wouldn't it be more efficient for it to have its White Plains location along 287? I'm guessing that people who get the Adirondack Trailways bus at the White Plains train station are being driven there, probably by parents, in cars. Those passengers could just as easily be dropped off on 287.

Similar questions should be asked about other bus companies. It seems intuitive that bus terminals should be located at a major train station but has that been reviewed in recent decades?

Such a review should include the Westchester County Bee Line bus system, which has its terminal on street level of that private parking garage in a desolate, wind swept area that Common Council members and Transcenter task force members would avoid. Who actually transfers between the Bee Line and Metro North? Task force members should know all this before making plans.

White Plains (Green Acres) is the place to be. Sing along.

Green Acres 
TV-G | 30min | Comedy, Family | TV Series (1965–1971)

A New York City attorney and his wife attempt to live as genteel farmers in the bizarre community of Hooterville.

Just substitute the words White Plains for Green Acres.

Adirondack Trailways roars down Barker instead of Hamilton Avenue.

The City of White Plains continues to allow big buses to come off Interstate 287 and use the residential street of Barker Avenue to reach the bus terminal near the train station rather than get them to use non-residential Hamilton Avenue.

That would be a nice first step in doing some substantive things associated with the redevelopment of the train station and surrounding area.

Link to this post sent to info@TrailwaysNY.com at 10 AM 3/28/16.

Grass and trees on center dividers on Hamilton, Main, Martine.

How about something like Park Avenue in Manhattan? Or even that really nice center divider on North Broadway between Main and Hamilton? You know, the one some people delude themselves into thinking is a park. If Central Park were surrounded by comparable lanes of traffic, they would extend to the Hudson River to the west and First Avenue to the east.



Two way mega streets: change Martine, Main, Hamilton from one way quasi interstates. Sunday, February 14, 2016

Mayor Tom Roach said as much a couple of days ago as the primary speaker at the first public meeting of the Trancenter Transit District task force, ...

Martine and Hamilton are the too many lane roads leading away from the center of downtown towards the train station. Main Street leads away from the station but narrows at the City Center causing congestion...

Parked cars provide a physical and psychological buffer between moving cars and pedestrians on sidewalks. Parallel parking should also be considered on these streets. That could be done pretty quickly. Yes, it would reduce the number of lanes but it would make WALKING on them much less pedestrian hostile.
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10 LAS VEGAS Hotels That Were IMPLODED: a planning model for White Plains.

Hey, Trancenter task Force members, there are plenty of ugly buildings and parking garages in White Plains that could use a good demolition, including the City Center, which is being remodeled into the latest and greatest conventional wisdom design. Common Council members mocking its Mamaroneck Avenue entrance should consider that it was Common Council members twenty years ago who insisted on that entrance to placate small business owners. It didn't work and now they're going in the opposite direction, complete with valet parking to further insulate house owners from downtown. Watch the video:

In Las Vegas they demolish useless structures: Galleria, Library.  Monday, March 14, 2016

Instead of moaning about the Galleria, remove it. Central Park should have been put there.

The library takes up valuable space and has long since outlived its usefulness.
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Train station clock is an embarrassment.

The four sided analog clock seldom has all sides showing the same time. Now in addition to that, they are varying versions of one hour behind since we set the rest of the clocks in White Plains ahead at 2:00 AM Sunday, three days ago.

MTA guy on the task force, come on, be embarrassed enough to actually do something. People have been passing through White Plains on the trains for decades thinking that people who live here are low class. That entire train station and the surrounding area are an embarrassing mess. Now that attention has been brought to it by the creation of the task force, action must be taken and soon. Very soon.

Diagonal parking: try something, pretty much anything.

A friend sent a 1945 photo of diagonal parking on Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains. Click this link to view it and many other old photos of White Plains:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankc54/9695130997/in/album-72157627704995113/

That's how it is today in the village of Mamaroneck. But the City of White Plains long ago chose to switch to parallel parking so that it could squeeze in extra lanes.

Every other decade or so, the topic surfaces only to die like any idea about/for White Plains. Hence, the slow drift into compromise and mediocrity. Maybe the new task force meeting in secret will shock us with a transformational reinvention but that's highly unlikely, as time passes without any hint of even simple easy stuff like freeing the taxi cabs to allow them to provide rides to hailing pedestrians, you know, like the grownups do in the big city.

Or converting the many interstate highway like speedways back into local streets, with traffic going in both directions.

Can't the mayor or at least the Common Council just do that type of stuff without getting approval from the county, state, and intergalactic tribunals?

In Las Vegas they demolish useless structures: Galleria, Library.

Instead of moaning about the Galleria, remove it. Central Park should have been put there.

The library takes up valuable space and has long since outlived its usefulness. The City could derive lots of money from selling that land, including the desolate concrete area between it and the public safety building, you know, the one that is unmarked and has an entrance more secret than that to the Batcave.

Common Council continues hypocrisy of affordable housing (apartments).

The Common Council members discussed affordable housing during last night's public meeting. Their hypocrisy is so embedded that they're not even embarrassed by their comments.

Listen for yourself:

http://whiteplainsny.swagit.com/play/03072016-1160

Item 18

Resolution of the Common Council of the City of White Plains approving the application submitted on behalf of Norden Lofts, LLC (“Applicant”), for Special Permit/Site Plan Approval in connection with the proposed multi-family adaptive reuse and redevelopment of the existing six (6) story, 48,000 square foot industrial building located at 121 Westmoreland Avenue (Section 130.25, Block, 3 Lot 1) IN THE li-m Light Industrial Mixed Use Zoning District and payment by the applicant of fee-in-lieu in the amount of $176,500 to be used exclusively for park, playground and other recreational purposes, including the acquisition of real property, to mitigate the recreational impact of the new multi-family project, in accordance with General City Law Section 27-A.
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Note also the obligatory municipal shakedown of the developer.

CC members are concerned about too much, too little, too affordable, too close to their HOUSES and/or the HOUSES of their constituents. Blah, blah, blah.

Who pays for affordable housing? Wednesday, February 3, 2016

First of all, it's affordable apartments. There may be a few condos, probably adjacent to the interstate highway, but no houses. White Plains decision makers live in houses and are immune to any impact of "affordable housing"...

House owners do not have 10% of the houses on their block occupied by "affordable housing" people. Nor are they paying more in property taxes to make up for "affordable housing" people paying less...

The "market rate" renters in the other 90% of apartments are making up the difference. Do White Plains decision makers know? Do they ask?
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buses and trucks allowed along streets with apartment buildings

from:		Ken
to:		Tom Soyk
cc:		ccwpny@googlegroups.com
date:		Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 5:35 PM

To: Traffic commissioner

Near the Rochambeau school there's a sign forbidding trucks from driving among the houses. How come buses and trucks are allowed along streets with apartment buildings like Barker Avenue but not along streets with houses?
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Note: three major roads have few if any residential buildings but buses and trucks are not forced to use the non residential parts.

Hamilton Avenue: no residential buildings
Main Street: only Trump and Ritz west of 22
Martine Avenue: only the Seasons west of Mamaroneck Avenue