Martine Avenue collapses days after repaving for ill conceived bike lane.

Dangerous: new bike lane past Library and Public Safety building. Thursday, August 6, 2020

Plague: bicycle riding on streets? Will the Martine Avenue bicycle lane draw riders when it finally opens? Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Ignoring the obvious since 2008: REDUCE lanes and parking. Friday, January 31, 2020

As the great Yogi (Yogi Berra) would say: it's deja vu all over again.

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news12 coverage includes an interview with me.

As of 11:15 PM Aug. 10, 2020 jack hammers, etc. work into the night. A water main had been broken but repaired hours later. However, the most important thing in White Plains is to keep the traffic flowing from the houses into downtown. The objective continues to be ten minutes: house to parking space.

It looks like somebody violated the prime directive.

Aug. 11, 2020 5:15 AM

Aug. 11, 2020 6:45 AM

Aug. 11, 2020 5:30 PM.

Dangerous: new bike lane past Library and Public Safety building.

Last night the city painted new lines for turning cars and the new bike lane on Martine Avenue, the vertical street in the photo. The bike lane is to the right of the "brick" divider, which would seem to make it safe, right?

Try to follow the path from top to bottom of the photo starting at one way (What else in much of downtown White Plains?) MLK Blvd., which crosses from right to left. The two left lanes of traffic both turn left with many in the outside lane crossing diagonally through the cross walk trying to quickly get to the entry of the Galleria parking garage. Pedestrians have had to deal with this danger for years while city officials ignore messages about the danger.

Let's say the bike rider gets across that boulevard and is now at the corner of the library. Notice two sets of parking spots near the library entrance. Bike riders will be between them. Cars parked in the spaces closest to the library must cross the bike lane to both get into and out of that parking area. The entry is only a few feet from the dangerous corner.

Cars entering the underground garage between Library and Public Safety building must turn left past the cars parked in the outside area, then cross the bike lane, avoiding both riders and pedestrians coming from both directions.

Then a few feet past that is the exit from the underground garage. Those cars must avoid pedestrians and bikers and NOT turn into the bike lane by mistake but go past it and around the safety "brick" divider. If the car does not intend to turn left at the corner, it must quickly move right at least two more lanes. If the driver misses, then the car must circle the block in a manner ridiculed by Mayor Roach five years ago.

Finally, the bikers then cross four lanes of one way  "Lexington/Grove". Then what? If continuing towards the train station, nothing. The bike lane ends. If turning left, the lane continues on the right side of the street into other dangerous conditions.

What the heck were people thinking when they spent all this money, including repaving Martine Avenue for some reason, for dangerous conditions? It shows no common sense. None.

P.S. There's a similar dangerous area on the block between MLK Blvd. and Court Street, although not as bad, near the County office building. Then the dopey bike lane ends across from the smoke shop. Nice touch.

Plague: bicycle riding on streets? Will the Martine Avenue bicycle lane draw riders when it finally opens? Wednesday, May 20, 2020

What street or intersection has been improved this millenium? Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Shop Rite still lacks basic checkout functions.

- express (self is not express; today while waiting at self, all four had customers with FULL carts taking forever)

- cash only

- credit card only

Duh. The owners and managers of this Shop Rite on Main Street in White Plains, NY must be _____. Maybe if a common council member actually shopped there and expressed some interest, they'd make some minimal effort to improve. Common sense stuff gets little consideration. Maybe the owners and managers should run for office.

Plague: gatherings of ten now OK. So open the damn softball fields!

Common Council,

Come on already! Stop the usual White Plains elitist house owner dominance and show some common sense.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-20233-continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency

Executive Order 202.10, as later extended by Executive Order 202.18, Executive Order 202.29 and as extended and amended by Executive Order 202.32 ...

... modified to permit any non-essential gathering of ten or fewer individuals, for any lawful purpose or reason, provided that social distancing protocols and cleaning and disinfection protocols required by the Department of Health are adhered to.
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Plague: courts opened: tennis yes, basketball no. Thursday, May 21, 2020

Westchester County public golf courses are open, too. Golf and tennis? With what kind of club are they associated?

The baskets had been removed from the backboards to prevent basketball players from ... playing.

Tennis and basketball courts are about the same size. However, much larger is Delfino park on Lake Street with its the two softball fields. Softball activities are still banned. Who thinks two people playing catch might violate physical distancing guidelines?
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Plague: courts opened: tennis yes, basketball no.

Westchester County public golf courses are open, too. Golf and tennis? With what kind of club are they associated?

The baskets had been removed from the backboards to prevent basketball players from ... playing.

Tennis and basketball courts are about the same size. However, much larger is Delfino park on Lake Street with its the two softball fields. Softball activities are still banned. Who thinks two people playing catch might violate physical distancing guidelines?

Plague: bicycle riding on streets? Will the Martine Avenue bicycle lane draw riders when it finally opens?

Shouldn't we see lots of people riding bicycles on the streets of downtown White Plains? Lots of people? Is anyone seeing that? Why aren't Common Council members riding their bicycles now on public streets during the pandemic? And the county executive? Maybe over to the County Center to view the empty pseudo hospital recently created at considerable expense.

The city is completing what appears to be an expensive bicycle lane on high speed Martine Avenue from South Lexington at the northeast corner of the public safety building, past the entry/exit to underground parking, past the expensively upgraded library grounds (still with its extra car drop off lane), across Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., past the county office building to ... Court Street. And, of course, opposite the remaining four lanes of one way traffic all the way is the ever dangerous Galleria parking garage with its multiple entrances. Yeah, can't wait to defy death by riding along that. And for what purpose? Going from where to where to do what?

There's a barrier to protect the bicycle riders, just not where vehicles cross the bike lane. That should protect them from county Bee-Line buses, which have some passengers, and Hudson Link buses, which usually (always during the pandemic) have zero passengers. Multiple lanes of cars crossing diagonally to enter the Galleria parking garage are another matter.

Let's look for Common Council members riding their bicycles on this new bicycle lane.

Shop Rite sells 15 month old Haagen-Dazs.

Shop Rite on Main Street in White Plains, NY today, May 16, 2020, had Haagen-Dazs ice cream with "best by" (euphemism for expiration date) November 2019. Yes, from LAST year. I saw three pints there today from last November.

As we've all observed, these dates are often way in the future. For this product, Shop Rite also had Haagen-Dazs pints dated March 2021. That's NEXT year.

After avoiding the Haagen-Dazs dated LAST year, I bought these three pints:

The two on the right are dated March, 2021. The pint on the left is dated March 2020. That's ONE YEAR apart. Oh, and the expiration date on the older pint is two months ago.

Now I'm a dope for not noticing, but I guess I was mostly just avoiding the 2019 Haagen-Dazs pints.

I've written about this date problem with this particular Shop Rite store previously, dating back to Friday, February 9, 2018.

ShopRite downtown up to its old tricks. Tuesday, October 15, 2019

I wrote to Shop Rite about its problems again today. Apparently Shop Rite stores are independently owned and operated, so that the parent company blows off responsibility. This is the closest I've come to direct communication with someone in authority:

ShopRiteCustomerCare@wakefern.com

wakefern.com is the domain name. shoprite.com has this at the bottom of its home page:

©2020 Wakefern Food Corp, Inc. All Rights Reserved

There are two Stop & Shop supermarkets in White Plains and a Whole Foods. None of them have anything like the problems that Shop Rite on Main Street has.

So how does this happen? My guess is that a Shop Rite buyer gets a bargain price on product that's past due or close to it. If a product is dated more than a year ahead, a product with a date only a couple of month from when you buy, is old product. Where does a buyer even find product that old? And where has the product been all this time?

So the November 2019 ice cream was probably produced in June 2018. If it had a creation date almost two years old, would you buy it? And what kind of company would put it on its shelves?

If these dates were properly regulated, they would have such a creation date, which would be much more instructive than a meaningless "best by" date.

Second call: NY: Plague: eliminate county benches used by homeless and worse at White Plains train station.

from: Ken
to: George Latimer <ce@westchestergov.com>
cc: digital@lohud.com,
letters@lohud.com,
"Thomas M. Roach" <troach@whiteplainsny.gov>
date: Apr 19, 2020, 8:56 AM
subject: White Plains, NY: Plague: eliminate county benches used by homeless and worse at White Plains train station.

To: County Executive Latimer​​

​CC: Mayor Roach​, ​LoHud​

https://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/2020/03/plague-eliminate-county-benches-used-by.html

​Come on, do it! Take one day off reading three day old stats about the plague.

They have been infested and infected for years. They serve no purpose, right beside the train station. No normal person will sit on them. The wood should be burned and blasted into outer space. There is debris and abandoned clothing. It looks like the Bronx.

I have not seen a county police officer on the county path next to the White Plains train station this year. I walk there almost every day.

Clean it up. There's no excuse for the filth and health hazard.​

Kenneth Matinale

White Plains, NY

Plague: Shop Rite on Main Street "hides" red hand baskets.

from: Ken
to: ShopRiteCustomerCare@wakefern.com
date: Apr 19, 2020, 8:37 AM
subject: Re: Ref # 1234567 - Reply from ShopRite

Judy B.,

Here's the latest. I arrived at 7:15 AM today for old folks hour. However, the entrance I used last week was closed. I knocked and was directed to the entrance that was closed last week.

I looked for the red hand baskets that were usually just outside this entrance but there were none. I entered and no shoppers were using them. I searched and finally asked and was directed to the entrance. Nope, I hadn't overlooked them. I don't know why but I walked down the hall opposite from the one I used to get to the entrance. There was a long line of non old folks waiting to get in. About half way down towards the elevators there were red hand baskets ... behind the people waiting. I had to violate social distancing to get past non old folks waiting to get in to get a red hand basket.

What the heck? That store always, ALWAYS, has at least one stupid thing like that. ALWAYS. Who decided to put the red hand baskets down the hall behind the non old folks waiting to get in? How much common sense would it take to make a better decision?

There were other problems, of course, but that wasted the most of my time today at Shop Rite in White Plains, NY.

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Plague: ShopRite on Main Street ignores health suggestions about coronavirus COVID-19.

It's not like ShopRite was not aware of the plague (coronavirus COVID-19). ShopRite recently established a policy of no returns ... to protect everyone. Like other stores, it set early shopping only for customers older than 60 but it doesn't enforce, not even letting oldies cut to the head of the checkout lines during that time.

ShopRite on Main Street worst run store in Westchester County, NY. Saturday, March 21, 2020

Sent 3/21/20 to ShopRite Customer Care Team:

ShopRite
13 City Place
White Plains, NY, 10601
Phone Number: (914) 539-4500

Worst run store in Westchester County, NY. Two fundamental suggestions that pretty much every other store has had for decades:

1. Express checkout. You have self checkout but no limit on items as in "ten or fewer".
2. Credit card only combined with number one above.

Your self checkout is ALWAYS a crowded mess with people with shopping carts loaded and then weighing and finally paying with cash. Of course, you have the worst point of sales contraptions, too.

I'll post this on my blog.

ShopRite downtown up to its old tricks. Tuesday, October 15, 2019
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Plague: simple practical suggestion to local officials about long checkout lines at food store. Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Obviously, this ShopRite has not done anything to improve and it's especially bad considering the dumb and lazy policy of not expediting checkout exacerbates spread of the current plague through unnecessary and easily preventable social contact.

Local elected officials are copied in case they want to exert some practical influence.
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I'm older than 60. I went into ShopRite on Main Street in White Plains, NY this morning about 7:00 AM when only old people are supposed to shop. At checkout I went to the self checkout area.

Two of the four point of sale contraptions were not working. This is not unusual. Three people were ahead of me, only one over 60. One younger customer left while checking out to get another item. The two store employees there didn't notice because they were trying to fix a broken contraption but to no avail.

All three people had problems with their contraptions that required interrupting the two fixing employees. When I finally started the process I had to get assistance three times, all because the contraptions suck and should have upgraded long ago.

Also slowing things as usual was that ShopRite on Main Street, despite multiple suggestions and against common business practices in its industry, still has not implemented two very simple things:
1. "ten or fewer" items to be checked out.
2. Credit card only.

I'll send the link for this post to ShopRiteCustomerCare@wakefern.com

But I won't bother with city and county elected people, who have no interest in this either, probably because none of them shop there. It's downtown. But note that ShopRite is owned by something called Wakefern:

https://www2.wakefern.com/

CONTACT
5000 Riverside Dr.
Keasbey, NJ 08832
(908) 527-3300
____________

No email or anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakefern_Food_Corporation

Type	Retailers' cooperative. Private
Founded	1946 (74 years ago) in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Headquarters	Keasbey, New Jersey ,  U.S.
Key people	Joseph S. Colalillo (Chairman & CEO) Joseph Sheridan (President & COO) Douglas Wille (CFO)
Services	computer services insurance advertising marketing merchandising procurement
Revenue	US$16.6 billion (FY2019)[1]
Members	51[2]
Number of employees	70,000+
Divisions	ShopRite Price Rite Marketplace The Fresh Grocer Dearborn Market Gourmet Garage
Website	www2.wakefern.com

____________________

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-colalillo-24575214/

Joe Colalillo
president at shop rite

Experience
Company NameWakefern Food Corp.
Dates Employed 1983 – Present
Employment Duration 37 yrs

Also Viewed

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  Cheryl Brady 3rd degree connection 3rd

  Chief Executive Officer
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  Cheryl Williams out of network 3rd+

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  Pat Finn out of network 3rd+

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• 

  Chris Lane 3rd degree connection 3rd

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• 

  Natalie Menza 3rd degree connection 3rd

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• 

  richard tully out of network 3rd+

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  George Horan out of network 3rd+

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  Chuck Guffy 3rd degree connection 3rd

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