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.