At the Rochambeau school on Fisher Avenue there are two signs hung vertically:
NO TRUCKS
TRUCK ROUTE
-->
Trucks heading south are directed to make a right and head toward the industrial area but not continue past the school and further into the residential area.
The top sign limits trucks by weight.
So if the city can do that, why can't it direct buses away from residential Barker Avenue and onto non-residential Hamilton Avenue?
And if that doesn't do it, get creative. Maybe enforce the speed limit with a cop car or two posted with a radar gun clearly visible. Make Barker Avenue one way during hours of most use by buses, except for residents. How about a sign suggesting that they use Hamilton Avenue? Come on, come. How about a little: where's a will there's a way, instead of hey, we have no idea what to do. Our hands are tied. We give the heck up.
How about FINALLY changing the direction of all those convoluted streets in the train station area, so that the buses have a better entry/exit than Barker Avenue and Water Street? How difficult can that be? The mayor has been talking about it for almost two years. Doesn't the Traffic Department have a plan yet?
And please address the entire issue of whether White Plains benefits from all these buses going to/from the train station.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Bus categories violating downtown, in case any city officials care.
Common Council members, spend a few minutes at about 5:30 PM at the intersection of Barker Avenue and Church Street. See for yourselves. Come on. Get around downtown occasionally.
Three general groups of buses:
1. Westchester county Bee-Line: mostly empty except during rush hour; poor people going to work for rich people.
2. Private (Leros, etc.): companies providing transportation to/from the train station for employees who won't ride the Bee-Line with poor people. Because Church Street is still one way between Hamilton Avenue and Barker Avenue, the passengers from the big office building on the corner board private buses on Church Street and the bus then proceeds to Barker, then left to the train station.
3. Regional (Adirondack, Greyhound, etc.): few passengers; why do they bother with White Plains, except for passengers to transfer to the train and continue on to New York City?
Do you really think that people, even millennials, want to live at the functional equivalent of the 8th Avenue Port Authority bus terminal?
Three general groups of buses:
1. Westchester county Bee-Line: mostly empty except during rush hour; poor people going to work for rich people.
2. Private (Leros, etc.): companies providing transportation to/from the train station for employees who won't ride the Bee-Line with poor people. Because Church Street is still one way between Hamilton Avenue and Barker Avenue, the passengers from the big office building on the corner board private buses on Church Street and the bus then proceeds to Barker, then left to the train station.
3. Regional (Adirondack, Greyhound, etc.): few passengers; why do they bother with White Plains, except for passengers to transfer to the train and continue on to New York City?
Do you really think that people, even millennials, want to live at the functional equivalent of the 8th Avenue Port Authority bus terminal?
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Buried on city website: White Plains Transit District Request for Expression of Interest.
http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/bids.aspx?bidID=7
It does, of course, mentioned the resident groups of concern to Common Council members: "adjacent neighborhoods including Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, and Ferris Avenue".
Hey, how about people living on Barker Avenue, North Broadway, Lake Street, Martine Avenue, ...?
It does, of course, mentioned the resident groups of concern to Common Council members: "adjacent neighborhoods including Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, and Ferris Avenue".
Hey, how about people living on Barker Avenue, North Broadway, Lake Street, Martine Avenue, ...?
White Plains Common Council ignores downtown residents.
7:30 AM on a sleepy, foggy Sunday morning and monster buses, first Greyhound then county, are already roaring down Barker Avenue heading toward the train station. They never use non-residential Hamilton Avenue. Never.
Traffic commissioner Tom Soyk will assure you that he is powerless to do anything about this. Maybe make a meaningless, ineffectual phone call to someone at a bus company, then continue with 100% unimaginative administrative duties.
Many posts about this mess have appeared on this blog, all ignored by White Plains Common Council members, even when a link to a post has been sent to each. The same will be done with this post, both the sending and the ignoring.
Are White Plains Common Council members really that oblivious, disinterested, incompetent? If they actually wanted to see the bus mess, simply go to the intersection of Barker and Church at 5:30 PM any weekday. After ten minutes, the nature of it will become apparent.
As written previously, White Plains residents living in downtown apartments are a bizarre oddity to White Plains Common Council members, all of whom live in houses nowhere near downtown, an area that exists only for their amusement. Given all that, White Plains Common Council members are as involved and interested as one might expect: not very. How do they get away with this benign neglect?
1. At large voting. White Plains Common Council members are elected city wide, not by geographic area. They pretend to represent all residents but only care about their immediate neighbors and the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA). The CNA seems like a company organized union, one that makes it easier for the company to control the workers. The CNA never holds any meetings in downtown White Plains. Never.
2. Those of us who live in downtown White Plains apartments are dumb and lazy. It's embarrassing to admit this but it's obviously true. We have enough people to easily overcome reason number one but don't do anything. It's pretty sad.
So the buses roll into downtown. Has any city official explained how this benefits White Plains generally and downtown residents, who get the brunt of the traffic, danger, noise, pollution, congestion, specifically? The buses also park wherever they please and never get a ticket for that or for speeding. Never.
Traffic commissioner Tom Soyk will assure you that he is powerless to do anything about this. Maybe make a meaningless, ineffectual phone call to someone at a bus company, then continue with 100% unimaginative administrative duties.
Many posts about this mess have appeared on this blog, all ignored by White Plains Common Council members, even when a link to a post has been sent to each. The same will be done with this post, both the sending and the ignoring.
Are White Plains Common Council members really that oblivious, disinterested, incompetent? If they actually wanted to see the bus mess, simply go to the intersection of Barker and Church at 5:30 PM any weekday. After ten minutes, the nature of it will become apparent.
As written previously, White Plains residents living in downtown apartments are a bizarre oddity to White Plains Common Council members, all of whom live in houses nowhere near downtown, an area that exists only for their amusement. Given all that, White Plains Common Council members are as involved and interested as one might expect: not very. How do they get away with this benign neglect?
1. At large voting. White Plains Common Council members are elected city wide, not by geographic area. They pretend to represent all residents but only care about their immediate neighbors and the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA). The CNA seems like a company organized union, one that makes it easier for the company to control the workers. The CNA never holds any meetings in downtown White Plains. Never.
2. Those of us who live in downtown White Plains apartments are dumb and lazy. It's embarrassing to admit this but it's obviously true. We have enough people to easily overcome reason number one but don't do anything. It's pretty sad.
So the buses roll into downtown. Has any city official explained how this benefits White Plains generally and downtown residents, who get the brunt of the traffic, danger, noise, pollution, congestion, specifically? The buses also park wherever they please and never get a ticket for that or for speeding. Never.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Progressive: is that what White Plains needs to be? That's what Milagros Lecuona thinks.
Seven. That's the number of times Common Council member and candidate for mayor in 2017 Milagros Lecuona uses the word progressive in a short email message soliciting funds for her campaign.
It suggests too much of a tactical approach to a campaign in this city of only 50,000 when the most fundamental issue, as always, is that Common Council members are selected at large and not by geographic districts. This odd form of representation exaggerates a natural tendency for people who live in downtown apartments to be less involved in municipal government and the more entrenched residents in houses away from downtown dominate policy and procedure to their quite different interests.
Candidate Lecuona seems to want to replace one mayor who does not live downtown in an apartment with another, perhaps relying on her gender and ability to speak Spanish to suggest more of a difference with Mayor Tom Roach than actually exists.
It suggests too much of a tactical approach to a campaign in this city of only 50,000 when the most fundamental issue, as always, is that Common Council members are selected at large and not by geographic districts. This odd form of representation exaggerates a natural tendency for people who live in downtown apartments to be less involved in municipal government and the more entrenched residents in houses away from downtown dominate policy and procedure to their quite different interests.
Candidate Lecuona seems to want to replace one mayor who does not live downtown in an apartment with another, perhaps relying on her gender and ability to speak Spanish to suggest more of a difference with Mayor Tom Roach than actually exists.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
French school, German school, Railside: who cares? Fix downtown.
March 31 Common Council member Milagros Lecuona sent a message announcing that she is asking for contributions to challenge incumbent Mayor Tom Roach in a September primary. At this point it's not at all clear what would be different by a change from one local member of the Democratic party to another.
ALL CC members live in houses and do not really understand downtown. The real solution is district voting but we in the apartments must force that change and it won't happen until thousands more apartments are created occupied by younger people, which will take forever because the City of White Plains loves to jerk developers around.
So instead, the CC is again consumed with stuff that impacts their base constituents, people living in houses outside downtown. Current example:
http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/civicalerts.aspx?AID=466
Posted on: March 31, 2017
French school. German school. Railside. What the heck does any of this got to do with 95% of White Plains residents? What?
Ignored by the City of White Plains are the HUGE regional buses that roar down North Broadway, then onto Barker Avenue barreling towards the Transmania bus depot at the train station. Apparently, the residents along those streets are not in an "environmentally sensitive site as defined by Chapter 3-5 of the White Plains Municipal Code". The number of residents living along the bus routes probably far exceeds the number impacted by French school, German school, Railside combined.
Where are the priorities?
ALL CC members live in houses and do not really understand downtown. The real solution is district voting but we in the apartments must force that change and it won't happen until thousands more apartments are created occupied by younger people, which will take forever because the City of White Plains loves to jerk developers around.
So instead, the CC is again consumed with stuff that impacts their base constituents, people living in houses outside downtown. Current example:
http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/civicalerts.aspx?AID=466
Posted on: March 31, 2017
French American School of New York (FASNY) Public Hearing April 5, 2017
Public hearings in relation to 1) the application submitted by the French American School of New York (FASNY) for a Special Permit for a "private secondary school" at 336 Ridgeway, an environmentally sensitive site as defined by Chapter 3-5 of the White Plains Municipal Code ...
___________________Public hearings in relation to 1) the application submitted by the French American School of New York (FASNY) for a Special Permit for a "private secondary school" at 336 Ridgeway, an environmentally sensitive site as defined by Chapter 3-5 of the White Plains Municipal Code ...
French school. German school. Railside. What the heck does any of this got to do with 95% of White Plains residents? What?
Ignored by the City of White Plains are the HUGE regional buses that roar down North Broadway, then onto Barker Avenue barreling towards the Transmania bus depot at the train station. Apparently, the residents along those streets are not in an "environmentally sensitive site as defined by Chapter 3-5 of the White Plains Municipal Code". The number of residents living along the bus routes probably far exceeds the number impacted by French school, German school, Railside combined.
Where are the priorities?
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
White Plains should create a tech startup and education presence.
How about White Plains getting a piece of this?
Roosevelt Island: New York City's Next Startup Hub?
BY ROB MARVIN OCTOBER 20, 2016 PC Magazine
Set to open its first phase in 2017, the state-of-the-art Cornell Tech campus is a fusion of academia and business for a program already churning out Silicon Alley tech startups.
__________________________
Oh, and get control of all those ridiculous buses in downtown.
Roosevelt Island: New York City's Next Startup Hub?
BY ROB MARVIN OCTOBER 20, 2016 PC Magazine
Set to open its first phase in 2017, the state-of-the-art Cornell Tech campus is a fusion of academia and business for a program already churning out Silicon Alley tech startups.
__________________________
Oh, and get control of all those ridiculous buses in downtown.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Washington could have won the Battle of White Plains if more roads had been two way.
George Washington was born February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
http://www.whiteplainshistory.org/flyers/2017/Washington's%20B'day%202017_pdf.pdf
White Plains Historical Society invites you to celebrate the birth of George Washington ... Sunday February 26, 2017, 1:00PM - 3:00PM ... 60 Park Avenue, White Plains.
________________________
OK, the date is close enough. Remember, White Plains never celebrates St. Patrick's day on St. Patrick's day: March 11, 2017.
Despite mayoral mocking, the one way mega streets in White Plains remain so. That's because their two wayness precedes modern urban renewal but traces to pre-revolutionary times. Had Washington been able to maneuver around town in his Studebaker, the British in their silly red coats would never have defeated him. But Washington, who never told a lie, observed the traffic laws.
Those attending the birthday festivities at Purdy House (Washington's headquarters) will no doubt travel from their houses, no wimpy apartment dwellers they, without use of their ubiquitous cars, on Bee-Line county buses to the Transmania 8th Avenue like bus depot or, maybe, hail a taxi. Oh, wait. Has ride hailing been legalized?
Once atop the hill, they will observe the construction of the new 550 unit rental building on Water Street to the south. The project should be completed after a mere decade of jerking around over stuff like parking spaces and, of course, the obligatory municipal shakedown of affordable housing (no houses, just apartments), which provides the shaker downers with moral superiority.
During the construction, 200 surface parking spaces were temporarily displaced. The Common Council members obeyed their Hill Associations and forced the developer to pay for adding 200 visitor parking spaces to the ones provided for the renting millennials, who will not even own cars. So what have the people who demanded those 200 parking spaces been doing with their cars for the last year? And why couldn't they simply continue doing it?
White Plains is a one horse town. Always was, always will be. Just look to George Washington's experience here.
http://www.whiteplainshistory.org/flyers/2017/Washington's%20B'day%202017_pdf.pdf
White Plains Historical Society invites you to celebrate the birth of George Washington ... Sunday February 26, 2017, 1:00PM - 3:00PM ... 60 Park Avenue, White Plains.
________________________
OK, the date is close enough. Remember, White Plains never celebrates St. Patrick's day on St. Patrick's day: March 11, 2017.
Despite mayoral mocking, the one way mega streets in White Plains remain so. That's because their two wayness precedes modern urban renewal but traces to pre-revolutionary times. Had Washington been able to maneuver around town in his Studebaker, the British in their silly red coats would never have defeated him. But Washington, who never told a lie, observed the traffic laws.
Those attending the birthday festivities at Purdy House (Washington's headquarters) will no doubt travel from their houses, no wimpy apartment dwellers they, without use of their ubiquitous cars, on Bee-Line county buses to the Transmania 8th Avenue like bus depot or, maybe, hail a taxi. Oh, wait. Has ride hailing been legalized?
Once atop the hill, they will observe the construction of the new 550 unit rental building on Water Street to the south. The project should be completed after a mere decade of jerking around over stuff like parking spaces and, of course, the obligatory municipal shakedown of affordable housing (no houses, just apartments), which provides the shaker downers with moral superiority.
During the construction, 200 surface parking spaces were temporarily displaced. The Common Council members obeyed their Hill Associations and forced the developer to pay for adding 200 visitor parking spaces to the ones provided for the renting millennials, who will not even own cars. So what have the people who demanded those 200 parking spaces been doing with their cars for the last year? And why couldn't they simply continue doing it?
White Plains is a one horse town. Always was, always will be. Just look to George Washington's experience here.
Monday, February 6, 2017
Milagros Lecuona challenges Mayor Tom Roach.
White Plains Democrat to challenge incumbent mayor
from: Ken
to: Milagros Lecuona,
Christopher J. Eberhart , ceberhart@lohud.com Published 8:23 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2017 Updated 2:08 p.m. ET Feb. 1, 2017
from: Ken
to: Milagros Lecuona
"Thomas M. Roach"
date: Sun, Feb 5, 2017 at 6:19 PMsubject: White Plains Democrat to challenge incumbent mayor
It's good to have two strong candidates. I think you both have worked hard and smart. Unfortunately, there is little to show, especially in downtown where I live. If anything, the quality of life has gotten worse, especially with all that ridiculous BUS traffic.
I hope that specific goals will be set, which means things that can be measured and attained. That LCOR project (on Bank Street) took 8 years to start. Wasn't approval for 60 South Broadway done in the summer of 2015? The mall's been emptied out with no development in sight.
That's been a trademark of White Plains, going back at least to the silly hole in the ground created by the demolition of the train station (in the 1970s), best known for the police arresting "perverts" in the men's room. Trees started growing there before, finally, the twin towers, now known as 15 Bank Street, went up.
White Plains needs to do better. A lot better. Don't promise what you cannot deliver. Good luck to you both.
date: Sun, Feb 5, 2017 at 6:19 PMsubject: White Plains Democrat to challenge incumbent mayor
It's good to have two strong candidates. I think you both have worked hard and smart. Unfortunately, there is little to show, especially in downtown where I live. If anything, the quality of life has gotten worse, especially with all that ridiculous BUS traffic.
I hope that specific goals will be set, which means things that can be measured and attained. That LCOR project (on Bank Street) took 8 years to start. Wasn't approval for 60 South Broadway done in the summer of 2015? The mall's been emptied out with no development in sight.
That's been a trademark of White Plains, going back at least to the silly hole in the ground created by the demolition of the train station (in the 1970s), best known for the police arresting "perverts" in the men's room. Trees started growing there before, finally, the twin towers, now known as 15 Bank Street, went up.
White Plains needs to do better. A lot better. Don't promise what you cannot deliver. Good luck to you both.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Adirondack Trailways buses continue to ROAR down Barker Avenue rather than Hamilton.
To: Common Council members
Why is it good for White Plains to have these huge regional buses go into downtown?
Why let them move on residential streets rather than restrict them to Hamilton Avenue from North Broadway to the train station?
Why is it good for White Plains to have these huge regional buses go into downtown?
Why let them move on residential streets rather than restrict them to Hamilton Avenue from North Broadway to the train station?
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