Email sent to Common Council and Traffic Department, which insists that it is innovative, and inferring that White Plains is not pedestrian hostile ... in the extreme:
https://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/338/Traffic
from: Kenneth Matinale
to: Tom Soyk <tsoyk@whiteplainsny.gov>,
commoncouncil@whiteplainsny.gov
date: Dec 24, 2021, 10:22 AM
subject: Gedney Park Drive.
It parallels Mamaroneck Avenue to the east between Heatherbloom and Ridgeway. But it's split in the middle: one way going north and one way south. Cars can only enter from the middle. Obviously, this is to limit and discourage through traffic, especially last night to get an up close view of the Christmas lights on the houses.
This is in stark contrast with Barker Avenue, which has zero houses but several apartment buildings, including two for seniors. For years HUGE regional buses have been driving down Barker Avenue to the area near the train station despite messages from me asking that this be changed. At the very least these useless buses with few if any passengers should be routed down completely NON residential Hamilton Avenue.
Traffic on Barker will become unmanageable in 2023 when that new huge and inappropriately ugly parking garage on Barker becomes operational for the new twin residential rental buildings at the corners of North Broadway and Barker and Hamilton.
The Common Council should walk over there sometime.
Kenneth Matinale
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New parking garage will tower over Barker Avenue co-op building. Tuesday, December 14, 2021
That blank facade of the garage facing the street has a sort of Darth Vader look, don't you think? It's much more Darth Vaderish at night in the dark.
That's planning? Who approved that? It's only a couple of blocks from city hall. Did any of them ever walk over and check it out? ...
Oh, and the traffic ... it may become so great that the mega buses (with few, if any, passengers) that thunder down residential Barker Avenue towards the bus gathering area, will decide on their own to do something that White Plains city government has declined to have the buses do: switch to non residential Hamilton Avenue.
Message sent to Common Council members and the Planning department.
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buses and trucks allowed along streets with apartment buildings Tuesday, March 1, 2016
NO TRUCKS sign on Fisher Avenue, so how about a NO BUSES sign on Barker Avenue? Wednesday, June 21, 2017
NO Trucks sign across street from main post office. So, why not a NO BUSES sign on Barker Avenue? Friday, July 21, 2017
Emergency vehicles change traffic lights but not in White Plains. Sunday, October 21, 2018
Bus mania is to get train station money as hub for east-west Lower Hudson Transit Link? Tuesday, April 16, 2019
New York "state's designation of White Plains as the hub for the east-west Lower Hudson Transit Link"...
Mayor Thomas Roach and others have delusions of grandeur dancing in their heads. As documented here, the Hudson Link buses have had almost ZERO passengers. It's been a local, state, federal government boondoggle. The number of cars has not decreased as the number of buses continues to dangerously increase, all at the loss of quality of life for downtown residents. The mayor and almost all Common Council members for the last half century live in house neighborhoods outside downtown. They are elected at large, not by geographic district. The current bad policy is just the most recent because of that basic disconnect...
Most of the train station work is neglected routine maintenance for more than three decades following bad original design. And apparently much of that is due to the city selling out and letting downtown become a giant bus terminal. Of course, none of this impacts any of the Common Council house neighborhoods.
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