Galleria plan: street life or life threatening?

Can Downtown White Plains Save the Galleria Mall?

by Duke Ratliff March 18, 2021 westchestermagazine.com/

Referring to “the great wall of the Galleria,” Roach says the rehabilitation of the downtown area including and surrounding the mall was one of his first goals as mayor.

“That section of the city is devoid of street level services, and it is cold and antiseptic,” Roach says. “I think we’re going to turn it into something that’s alive with street life, like what you see on Mamaroneck Avenue.”

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Earth to mayor. Earth to mayor. Come in, mayor. Mamaroneck Avenue has two lanes of traffic, in each direction, moving slowly, in part, because of parallel parking on each side. Main Street along the north "street life" side of the Galleria mall is FOUR lanes in one direction going pretty fast and made more interstate like by all the HUGE busses, most with few passengers, some (think Hudson Link) with ZERO passengers. Oh, and there's no parallel parking; it would slow the speeders. 

There's also the pedestrian death defying two lanes (sometimes three) turning left into the crosswalk onto MLK Blvd in the middle of the Galleria. Some of those turning cars must quickly move three lanes to the right to make a right turn onto Hamilton Avenue, one of too many such dangerous downtown intersections to which city planners and officials have become numb and disinterested.

Yeah, who wouldn't want that kind of street life?

Controlled demolition of the Galleria advocated for years here. Now city considering it. Thursday, March 11, 2021

Next for Galleria: hole in ground or abandoned building? Sunday, March 14, 2021

Next for Galleria: hole in ground or abandoned building?

Controlled demolition of the Galleria advocated for years here. Now city considering it. Thursday, March 11, 2021

... could involve demolishing part or all of the structure, according to White Plains Mayor Tom Roach...

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The late, not so great, train station (at the location of 15 Bank Street twin rental towers) was eventually demolished and replaced with a big hole in the ground for parts of three decades: late 1970s, 1980s, early 1990s. At least one small tree grew there.

It's heir is the giant hole in the ground at Maple Avenue, a block up from Bloomingdale Lane. It's been that way about three years.

A current abandoned site is the mini mall, which still contains the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Partial demolition of the Galleria seems unlikely. Wipe out the entire mall and the attached municipal garage and start over. Unfortunately, quick development in White Plains is the exception, so new and improved use of the Galleria location is years, hopefully not decades, away.

How many years has work been going on to refurbish the train station?

Controlled demolition of the Galleria advocated for years here. Now city considering it.

BREAKING NEWS: White Plains Galleria may soon be making way for major development project By Peter Katz - March 10, 2021  westfaironline.com

Plans are being created to redevelop the Galleria shopping mall in downtown White Plains into a massive mixed-use project that could involve demolishing part or all of the structure, according to White Plains Mayor Tom Roach...

The mayor revealed that the city had been involved in “serious” ongoing talks regarding redevelopment of the mall site. He said that as owner of the municipal garage adjacent to the mall, the city has a distinct interest in the property.

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The following posts were sent to White Plains decision makers, mostly elected officials, and to the lame local media. All were too unimaginative and timid to act or investigate until now the plague has forced the closing of Macy's and Sears, the two anchor stores of the Galleria mall, and something had to be done. The city should have been out in front but lagged way back.

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. 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.

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10 LAS VEGAS Hotels That Were IMPLODED: a planning model for White Plains. Thursday, March 17, 2016

Watch the video:

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12 parks? Name 'em. Wednesday, May 25, 2016

New York City also includes small strips of land in its count of "parks" but it also has large botanical gardens in Brooklyn and the Bronx and, of course, Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

A central park is exactly what White Plains lacks. It should have been created at the site of the unsightly Galleria indoor shopping mall between Main Street and Martine Avenue. Evacuation and controlled demolition are the only real solution to that mess.

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Open space on Galleria parking garage roof could be a park. Saturday, February 17, 2018

With a little imagination, not even a lot. Photo below taken Saturday Feb. 17, 2018 at 2:30 PM. In other words in the middle of the afternoon on a cold overcast winter day: perfect for shopping. And even then the garage roof of the Galleria indoor mall has no cars, ZERO. Could that space be put to good use?

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Questions for tonight's candidates debate for Common Council. Monday, June 17, 2019

At the library, tonight 7-9 PM. Hey, what else is the library good for? ...

Would you support controlled demolition of the Galleria and its garage for the purpose of creating a central park?

Note: my question was not asked by the League of Women Voters.

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Galleria: put it out of its misery. Tuesday, March 10, 2020
...
Would you support controlled demolition of the Galleria and its garage for the purpose of creating a central park? ...

My question was not asked. Too bad. White Plains is a one horse town. Always was. Always will be.

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Galleria garage roof: they don't even bother to remove snow because nobody parks there! Make it a park! Saturday, December 19, 2020

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